October Zoo Class : Oceanography

This month we have been studing "Oceanography" at our homeschool zoo class... 

Week 1: We watched a movie on undersea exploration and discussed how we know more about outer space than we actually do about the ocean depths... We had homework in which the kidlets had to learn the layers of the ocean floor ... and then we colored the earth and labeled the oceans...  

Week 2 : We discussed "WAVES"... the types, the causes, and the moons pull on the earth... We made a mobile at home to represent the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon and relationship of rotation to low and high tides...

 Week 3 : We discussed the Invertebrates and Vertebrates found in the ocean... The kids had hands on with a preserved baby shark, a shark jaw / mouth, a tusk from a walrus, and the shell from a sea turtle...The was review over the previous 2 weeks lessons and then more discussion on Endo / Ectothermic sea creatures...

 Week 4 : Today was the final class in Oceanography... and Mr. Chad discussed different types of fish and the purpose of the their body parts... like spots / changing colors for camoflauge, gille for breathing, dorsal fins for balance, tail fins for speed, pectoral fins for steering, the need for "cleanser" fish, and a review of the past 3 weeks... Including finding the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Artic, and Southern Antartic oceans on a huge ball that looked just like the earth from space, a little tricky since none of the continients were labeled and there was cloud cover on it also... But all of  the kids did fine and it amazes me how much they actually learn without even trying...