Shark Study Journal
I am combining all of our "shark week" posts so that they are in order for the boys and I to look back on. Things got a bit crazy this summer, so I was not able to be as well thought-out as I had hoped. Still, we had a great time and having the posts in order for us to see is nice. :) Plus, my sister is planning a shark study so having the posts in order might help her with a jumping off point t0o! You might also notice the date on this post is out of whack- I am predating this post as it is so long- I am going to tuck in way back at the beginning of my blog. :)
Our Shark Study Journal
Shark Week in Progress
Day 1:
About Sharks
Things We Know: (I don't guarantee these are facts- just things the boys believe they know)
*Bullshark can go in fresh water & salt water
*Great Whites are blamed for bullshark attacks
*Sharks prefer to attack from below
*Sharks don't want to hurt you
*One type of shark is a "Whale Shark"
*Great Whites can be 25 ft. long
*Sharks have gills
*A Whale Shark is the biggest fish
*Sharks fins are up and down
*Tiger Sharks Eat turtles
*Sharks like warm water
Things We Want to Learn:
*the size of a Bullshark compared to Great White
*what shark can jump 20 ft. (read about it somewhere but can't remember)
*where do they live (habitat)
*what do they eat
*Whale vs. Shark (who wins?)
Day 2
We started the day with some really fun youtube videos. Our favorites were:
The Mechanism GC of a Goblin Shark
Surprising Jump by a Shark
Researched "Swell Sharks" and "Spiny Dogfish Shark" to find out their scientific name, diet, habitat, and what might threaten their species.
Completed shark vocabulary book from Homeschool Share:
Learned a bit about some shark reseachers/photographers- Rodney Fox (credited with the "shark cage") and Valerie and Ron Taylor (credited with the chain-mail diving suit). You can find some cool videos on youtube if you search their names. We first read about them in the DK Reader Shark Attack!.
At the younger two boys' request, I printed up these coloring pages (there are three shark pages) from National Geographic. We are going to laminate them for our "what we are learning about" board.
We did the "Quiz Your Noodle" sharks quiz.
Round 1 the boys scored 7 out of 10. The boys missed that it is the liver (not the spleen) that helps keep a shark afloat, that the shark can have thousands of teeth in its lifetime (not hundreds) and that less than 10 people are killed a year by sharks (not 100). I let them have a redo and they scored 100%. The most surprising fact that they got correct- a hammerhead's "head" is used to pin its prey (stingrays) to the seafloor.
Additional Resources:
I picked up this unit study at currclick for $2.50. I like it because the lessons lend themselves to the older grades. I wanted to sure and extend this study so that it is fun and educational for my 7 year old, 9 year old and my 12 year old.
Day 3
More Shark Fun
Back to the videos- Monterey Bay Aquarium has a nice video of a senior aquarist explaining the feeding process for the Seven Gill, Spiny Dogfish, and Leopard sharks in one of the tanks. (we saw them feed the Seven Gill!)
The younger boys (James 7 and Mark 9) are also super in to the coloring page thing and asked me to find more pages to color. They had specific species in mind, so when I came up blank (James' sad reply to a few I found online was "those only look like cartoons"), I called a local toy store to see if they had the Sharks of the World coloring book---they did and the boys are off to make their own book. :)
Today was also our "fill-in shark anatomy" booklet.
We stopped by the library to pick up the rest of the books we ordered, including the Magic School Bus chapter book recommended by April (thank you!:)).
The boys also read to me from one of the leveled readers that we have about sharks.
Day 4
Started with another video- Cousin, CK, recommended one on Whale Sharks. This two minute long video is amazing. Lots of good info. Thank you for the recommendation CK!
On to review- shark vocabulary and shark anatomy
And--- coloring pages. James got to color his Goblin Shark page and Mark finished his Leopard Shark page.
The boys are also browsing the pile (enormous pile!) of books we brought home from the library and watching the DK Eyewitness DVD on sharks.
Summer studies are a bit more haphazard. I don't usually want to nix a direction that the boys want to go in because I have something "planned". This really is suppose to be for fun.
*A side note. We are reading over and over again that shark attacks are rare. You have a better chance of being struck by lighting and dying than dying from a shark attack. Using logic here, my son pointed out that perhaps that is true in Kansas, but CA might be a different story. Hmmm. Something to think about.
Tomorrow!! We are going to see some sharks up close and in person! :) The boys are so excited!! :)
Day 5
We saw sharks!
Day 6
More Sharks!
We are still at it! It has been an up and down summer. Grandpa D., who was also our next door neighbor (my father-in-law), passed away just a few weeks ago. Shark fun was put on the back burner, of course. We did do our aquarium field trip with cousins who had come from out of town at the time.
*
I told the boys that we needed to wind this whole shark thing up, and both of the younger ones strongly objected!! They think it is just fine if shark week lasts all summer long. :)
So, we are going to keep moving forward. Along with working on some of our lapbook components (above) we also did this online quiz (the boys love doing these) by How Stuff Works. They scored 9 out of 10. They missed this question- How many pounds per square inch can a shark generate with its teeth? (40,000 pounds)
This could turn out to be the longest unit study ever. ;)
***I did not delete the these posts in their orginal format- just saved them to draft. I received several very kind comments and did not have the heart to delete them! :)
Video Summary List:
Goblin Shark
Jumping Shark
Shark Feeding at Aquarium
Whale Shark
Our Shark Study Journal
Shark Week in Progress
Day 1:
About Sharks
Things We Know: (I don't guarantee these are facts- just things the boys believe they know)
*Bullshark can go in fresh water & salt water
*Great Whites are blamed for bullshark attacks
*Sharks prefer to attack from below
*Sharks don't want to hurt you
*One type of shark is a "Whale Shark"
*Great Whites can be 25 ft. long
*Sharks have gills
*A Whale Shark is the biggest fish
*Sharks fins are up and down
*Tiger Sharks Eat turtles
*Sharks like warm water
Things We Want to Learn:
*the size of a Bullshark compared to Great White
*what shark can jump 20 ft. (read about it somewhere but can't remember)
*where do they live (habitat)
*what do they eat
*Whale vs. Shark (who wins?)
Day 2
We started the day with some really fun youtube videos. Our favorites were:
The Mechanism GC of a Goblin Shark
Surprising Jump by a Shark
Researched "Swell Sharks" and "Spiny Dogfish Shark" to find out their scientific name, diet, habitat, and what might threaten their species.
Completed shark vocabulary book from Homeschool Share:
Learned a bit about some shark reseachers/photographers- Rodney Fox (credited with the "shark cage") and Valerie and Ron Taylor (credited with the chain-mail diving suit). You can find some cool videos on youtube if you search their names. We first read about them in the DK Reader Shark Attack!.At the younger two boys' request, I printed up these coloring pages (there are three shark pages) from National Geographic. We are going to laminate them for our "what we are learning about" board.
We did the "Quiz Your Noodle" sharks quiz.
Round 1 the boys scored 7 out of 10. The boys missed that it is the liver (not the spleen) that helps keep a shark afloat, that the shark can have thousands of teeth in its lifetime (not hundreds) and that less than 10 people are killed a year by sharks (not 100). I let them have a redo and they scored 100%. The most surprising fact that they got correct- a hammerhead's "head" is used to pin its prey (stingrays) to the seafloor.
Additional Resources:
I picked up this unit study at currclick for $2.50. I like it because the lessons lend themselves to the older grades. I wanted to sure and extend this study so that it is fun and educational for my 7 year old, 9 year old and my 12 year old.
Day 3
More Shark Fun
Back to the videos- Monterey Bay Aquarium has a nice video of a senior aquarist explaining the feeding process for the Seven Gill, Spiny Dogfish, and Leopard sharks in one of the tanks. (we saw them feed the Seven Gill!)
The younger boys (James 7 and Mark 9) are also super in to the coloring page thing and asked me to find more pages to color. They had specific species in mind, so when I came up blank (James' sad reply to a few I found online was "those only look like cartoons"), I called a local toy store to see if they had the Sharks of the World coloring book---they did and the boys are off to make their own book. :)
Today was also our "fill-in shark anatomy" booklet.
We stopped by the library to pick up the rest of the books we ordered, including the Magic School Bus chapter book recommended by April (thank you!:)).
The boys also read to me from one of the leveled readers that we have about sharks.
Day 4
Started with another video- Cousin, CK, recommended one on Whale Sharks. This two minute long video is amazing. Lots of good info. Thank you for the recommendation CK!
On to review- shark vocabulary and shark anatomy
And--- coloring pages. James got to color his Goblin Shark page and Mark finished his Leopard Shark page.
The boys are also browsing the pile (enormous pile!) of books we brought home from the library and watching the DK Eyewitness DVD on sharks.
Summer studies are a bit more haphazard. I don't usually want to nix a direction that the boys want to go in because I have something "planned". This really is suppose to be for fun.
*A side note. We are reading over and over again that shark attacks are rare. You have a better chance of being struck by lighting and dying than dying from a shark attack. Using logic here, my son pointed out that perhaps that is true in Kansas, but CA might be a different story. Hmmm. Something to think about.
Tomorrow!! We are going to see some sharks up close and in person! :) The boys are so excited!! :)
Day 5
We saw sharks!
Day 6
More Sharks!
We are still at it! It has been an up and down summer. Grandpa D., who was also our next door neighbor (my father-in-law), passed away just a few weeks ago. Shark fun was put on the back burner, of course. We did do our aquarium field trip with cousins who had come from out of town at the time.
*
I told the boys that we needed to wind this whole shark thing up, and both of the younger ones strongly objected!! They think it is just fine if shark week lasts all summer long. :)
So, we are going to keep moving forward. Along with working on some of our lapbook components (above) we also did this online quiz (the boys love doing these) by How Stuff Works. They scored 9 out of 10. They missed this question- How many pounds per square inch can a shark generate with its teeth? (40,000 pounds)
This could turn out to be the longest unit study ever. ;)
***I did not delete the these posts in their orginal format- just saved them to draft. I received several very kind comments and did not have the heart to delete them! :)
Video Summary List:
Goblin Shark
Jumping Shark
Shark Feeding at Aquarium
Whale Shark
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