Creating an Ocean Display

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Creating an Ocean Display

• By Candace McMahon

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• Subject Area Science/Art
• Grade Level 2

Materials Index cards, marker, student handout
including a diagram of ocean depths, student
assignment worksheet, Ocean Journals, writing
utensil, watercolor paints, paintbrushes, picture
book The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by
Joanna Cole
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Standards

• MST Standard 4 Science. Students will
  understand and apply scientific concepts,
  principles, and theories pertaining to the
  physical setting and living environment and
  recognize the historical development of ideas in
  science. The Arts Standard 1 Creating,
  Performing, and Participating in the Arts.
  Students will actively engage in the processes
  that constitute creation and performance in the
  arts and participate in various roles in the arts

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Objective's

• 1.) Given appropriate instruction, the student
  will label the depths of the ocean with 90-100
  accuracy.
• 2.) Given appropriate instruction the student
  will name at least one fish that lives at a
  specific depth.

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Anticipatory Set

• Ask students to describe some of the things they
  think they would see in the ocean. What animals
  and plants might they find there? What would it
  be like to dive into the ocean? Discuss their
  ideas as a class. Tell students that today we
  will be exploring the ocean floor on a magic
  school bus
• Input Read the story, The Magic School Bus on
  the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole. Follow with
  discussion

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Model

• Refer to the bulletin board that you covered with
  paper. Draw the cut-away view of the ocean floor
  as follows (Check for understanding as you
  draw).
• Place a brown marker about two-thirds of the way
  up on the left-hand side of the display.
• Draw a horizontal line beginning at this point.
  Slope line down slightly. This will serve as the
  shoreline and continental shelf (where the ocean
  floor is closest to the shoreline).
• After drawing your shelf, sharply dip your marker
  down so the resulting line is practically
  vertical. This line will represent an ocean
  slope.
• Then, as your slope line dips below the display's
  halfway point, flatten your line out horizontally
  to form a level ocean plain (the widest, flattest
  part of the ocean floor).

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Model cont.

• Continue the plain line for a foot or two across
  the display, then angle your marker up sharply to
  draw a steep, craggy mountain peak called a
  mid-ocean ridge.
• Draw the mid-ocean ridge so it peaks above the
  plain line and below the continental shelf. Then
  pull your marker line down at a sharp angle to
  form the other steep side of the mountain.
• At the foot of the mountain, draw a sharp, narrow
  valley, called an ocean trench.
• Finish your ocean floor by moving your line up
  to create another slope and another continental
  shelf on the other side of the display.
• Use a blue marker to draw the waterline from
  shore to shore. (Your mid-ocean ridge should not
  extend above your water line.)

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Check for Understanding

• Make sure to ask the students as you are drawing
  which depth they think you are at, and as you
  draw the mid-ocean ridge and the trench, ask
  students what it is that you are drawing. Check
  student assignment worksheets and Ocean Journals
  once all activities are completed.

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Guided Practice

• Help students attach the index card labels to the
  display. Have students finish the ocean display
  they will use watercolors to paint the ocean
  floor brown and the water blue. Students may
  also glue fiberfill cloud wisps in the sky above
  the ocean and draw tiny sailboats on the water's
  surface. As students are making the display, ask
  them what kinds of fish they might find at those
  depths.

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Closure

• Whole class discussion and entries into Ocean
  Journals students will write about what they
  learned and will list at least one fish and what
  depth of the ocean you can find this fish they
  will list more if possible.

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Independent Practice

• Student worksheet on ocean depths matching, and
  labeling an ocean diagram Entry in Ocean Journal