Who doesn’t love the beach, and this time of year who isn’t already dreaming about summer days? So, why not turn that into an opportunity for learning?
Recently, 5th-grade teacher Jen Pillman reached out on social media asking teachers for “beach-themed” ideas. Through direct messaging, Jen shared she uses THEME DAYS as rewards in her classroom and has had great success with this, creating experiences such as CAMPING DAY, DETECTIVE DAY, and 1,000th DAY. The kids love them and they don’t realize how much they are actually learning.
Planning around a theme, whether for a day or a month, can be a fun way to introduce all kinds of novel content and connections.
Design a theme day or a mini-unit.
Here are some interdisciplinary activities you could easily weave into your plans. NOTE: If this is an end-of-year fun day, be sure to check out the decor ideas here. You could have students bring umbrellas and towels for silent reading time and display this 8-hour ocean video on your screen. If it’s a party, consider serving something like these cupcakes shown (I made a simpler version of these for my son’s 5th-grade EOY party).
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30 MINUTES or LESS
- Shore to Have a Good Time (logic puzzle with an elimination grid)
- virtual dives (see video below). These dives allow students to experience 360-degree video. This site has all kinds of resources for educators- ready-to-use lesson plans, presentation slides, and more.
- National Aquarium Virtual Tour– students get a 360-degree 3-D view of the entire aquarium. They might enjoy just exploring and watching some of the videos at various exhibits. Even more fun, have them write a few “scavenger hunt” questions for others to find by virtually touring the aquarium. This site live-streams much of the aquatic life and there are many, many stories of videos to explore.
- Coastal Erosion – Lighthouse Lab Video – A challenge is presented in this 5-minute video, but even if students just watch the video, they will get an idea of the causes of coastal erosion. The first 8 minutes of this video present the problems and solutions for coastal erosion as well, and the coastal erosion model shown is helpful in reinforcing the concepts. Also linked below: coastal erosion video and news clip -under IMPACT theme).
- Build a Sand Castle that Can Support a Brick (Science Buddies) – this would be a great follow-up to the coastal erosion videos since it is a hands-on demonstration of making sand less likely to collapse and wear away.
SAMPLE VIRTUAL DIVE
45 – 90 MINUTES
- Make motion sand
- Shore to Sea virtual scavenger hunt
- Beach-Themed Art: Tissue Paper Collage Beach Scene – have students make this an end-of-year memory art piece by incorporating into the collage a favorite book they’re reading, a close friend, pet, game, music, etc.
- Census of Sea Life Simulation– use coins and paint to “tag” sea creatures and learn about how scientists estimate the number of marine animals out there. Beach Statistics could become math graphics or problems.
- Beach-Themed Writing – So many possibilities! Sea creatures with multiple perspectives, poetry reimagined (found poems, maybe?), etc. Here are some additional writing prompts.
MORE THAN 90 MINUTES
Deep Dive into Oceanography – This would be a great place to start if you’re working on developing a mini-unit. It introduces the subdisciplines and helps define topics for further study such as biomimicry and modern marine research.
Dive and Discover Expeditions to the Sea Floor – includes a special section for students where they can even take a personality test to see which deep sea creature they are most like.
The beach is a great place to open up a world of topics and ideas for study and connections to the universal themes of IMPACT, MYSTERY, and SYSTEMS are endless. (If you are new to this site, I’ve shared all about using these universal themes here).
- IMPACT – coastal erosion and development along coasts (this is very much in the news in some parts of the world) / offshore wind farms (also very much in the news) / coral reef conservation / marine animal management (see photo and caption below and this example).
- MYSTERIES / UNANSWERED QUESTIONS– the twilight zone / marine-inspired innovation (biomimicry)
- SYSTEMS – tidal movements / ocean ecosystems (and coral reefs) / water, rock, and carbon cycles
Pictured here: Taylor Halliday’s students were so impacted by what they learned about sea turtles, they decided to do something about it. Read more.
Learning can often lead to participating in bettering the community.
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