Hands-On Science

We just started using Apologia's Elementary Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day.  One of the activities is to make an ocean box.  You line a box with blue paper, and as you study a sea creature, you make it out of clay or whatever you want, and then add it to your box in the position it would go in the sea.  That would be in the Sunlit Zone, the Twilight Zone or the Midnight Zone.  I'm using this with three kids and the thought of three boxes floating around our house just totally irritated me.  I hate clutter, and yes, I would have considered those boxes clutter, rather than a teaching tool.  That's me....big clutter freak!  I'm sure I've mentioned on this blog before that I LOVE to throw things away.  ;-)

Anyway.....We actually only have Ben with us for this study for a short time.  Soon he will be off on his own, doing his own science studies.  Kinda sad for me.  He's 13 and in 8th grade now.  I figured it's time to cut the apron strings and send him off on his own history and science studies.  It's been a wonderful time schooling the oldest three together in history and science.  It's hard to believe that they're all growing up....

Back to the boxes.....my idea was to line our hallway wall with blue paper and let all three add their animals to that.  When I mentioned what I was going to do, Ben immediately wanted to take over the project.  I was good with that and I'm so glad he did it!  I would have just put blue paper up on the wall and been done with it, but he went a lot farther and made an island, the continental shelf, the sunlit zone, the continental slope, the twilight zone, the continental rise, the midnight zone AND of course, the abyssal plain.  It is so neat!  Here you can see his work.  He's so kewl.  ;-)  You can see two little angler fish down in the midnight zone.  And up top, courtesy of Finding Nemo, the E.A.C., dude.