Ocean Unit Freebies

If you are planning a trip to the beach this summer, you might be interested in some of these freebies I made for the kids when we did our ocean unit.  I hope someone finds these helpful!

Below are some of the ocean invertebrate cards  that I made when we were studying the ocean. Remember, crustaceans, arachnids and insects are all part of the arthropod group (look at this chart to see what I mean).  This is not a complete list of invertebrate groups, just some of the ones we studied last fall.

Ocean Animal Math Game for Preschoolers:

• Print out and cut out all of the ocean animal cards. You probably need two copies.
• Create a spinner out of the odd, even, less, more circle.
• Print out and cut out the game board (ocean scene).
• Take a wooden cube and put numbers on each side — for example the numbers 10 through 15. I usually have two dice and each player chooses one. One die has low numbers (1-6) and the other has higher numbers.

Another game you could play (ages 2-4):  Print out the ocean animals page, but don’t cut it up. Each player takes a turn rolling the die and covers up that number of ocean animals. The first person to cover all his/her animals wins the game.

See my post about this game and more information here: Ocean Animals Math Game for Preschoolers.

Ocean Animals and their Groups: This is similar to the Animals and their Groups sort cards I shared last week, but is just with ocean animals.

We did an activity about the ocean zones where we talked about which ocean creatures lived at the various ocean depths. Visit that post here: the Ocean Zones.

You might also be interested in some of the activities we did when we studied whales: Icebergs, Blubber Experiment, Buoyancy and More

One of the books we used for this unit was Awesome Ocean Science!: Investigating the Secrets of the Underwater World (affiliate link) by Cindy Littlefield.

Another book full of ideas for learning about the ocean is: The Ocean Book: Aquarium and Seaside Activities and Ideas for All Ages (affiliate link)

Other Ocean Activities we did for this unit:

• School of Fish Activity
• Layers of the Ocean: Ocean Zones
• Ocean Unit Freebies
• Ocean Animals and Their Groups

Seashore Life Don’t miss our pictures from the Atlantic Ocean with everything from crabs and sea anemones to sea cucumber and skate… pictures from the beach, not from the aquarium!!

If you have older kids, you might be interested in our 65+ page Ocean Unit Packet

The kids learned about

• Marine Habitats
• Water Form Words (bay, estuary, lagoon, fjord, etc.)
• Features of the Ocean Floor (trench, seamount, guyot, etc.)
• Ocean Navigation (early navigation with astrolabes & the constellations, modern SONAR)
• Salinity
• Ocean Currents (Surface & Deep Sea Currents)
• Ocean Life:
  • Special Body Features
  • Fish Body Shape and Movement
  • Biological Interactions: Mutualism and Commensalism in the Ocean
  • Deep Sea Life – Bioluminescence, Anglerfish

Ocean Unit Resources: For this unit, we are using a number of books from the library, but the main spine for our unit is our large 100+ page Ocean Packet which will be available at some point soon. It is well over 100+ pages at this point and keeps growing as I add in this-and-that! It covers marine habitats, ocean zones, ocean features, tides and other topics.  ~Liesl

Be sure to see the related posts:

• Montessori Cards: Vertebrates and Invertebrates – Free Printable
• Animals and Their Groups
• Animals and their Characteristics
• Animals Around the World – Montessori 3-Part Cards
• Animal Portfolio Project (for ages 8-10 or so)
• Free Montessori World Pin Map

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.

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Have a great day! ~Liesl and the Kids