We're Heading to the Ocean

We have recently started a study on the ocean in conjunction with a trip to a local aquarium. The idea for this inquiry into ocean animals was sparked by some conversations with the students about animals they liked. There were a lot of sharks and dolphins mentioned, so I started adding some ocean animals into the water table, and put shells out for students to look closely at.

We then created our Wonder Wall:

The students had some really great questions about the animals and I really see how their thinking has deepened over the course of the last 6 months.

We started collecting information to answer some of these questions, and I really wanted to look outside of "just" books for information. I found a set of animated videos on Youtube called "I'm an Animal" and they give a quick synopsis of an animal. The jellyfish one today was a hit! We came up with a lot of information from a 2 minute video.