Ocean Animals Research Project

This week our focus in science is completing our Ocean Animals Research Project. For the last eight to ten weeks we have been studying the Oceans, pollution, the water cycle, and the many creatures that live in the Ocean. Now we are putting all that we have learned together and creating our own research books! We have the book blanks, we have the paint, crayons, markers, and researched information. Now to put it all together!



We are going to begin by painting a few of the pages in our book with a basic watercolor ocean scene background, much like ones the kids made in art displaying the continental slope, continental shelf, ect, which they will label. Since paint takes a while to dry, we will only paint a few select pages/animals/scenes and the rest will be illustrated in various mediums of crayons, colored pencils, markers, stickers, and cut-out pictures or stenciled items.  Google images, here we come! (We already returned the library books used for our research)

 For ease of reading, the kids will type up their information. So, instead of spending computer time solely on Time4Learning doing supplemental school activities in every subject, they will be typing up the information from their research for each animal. We haven't practiced proper finger placement or typing technique so I'm curious to see how this goes.

After typing up their information, the kids will need to organize their 'books' complete with a Table of Contents and prepare to put them together. We won't actually glue anything into their books just yet!

Finally done typing and ready to move on

Gluing our information into books

The last step of the process will be illustrations, though the kids will illustrate as we glue their typed research on the individual pages, the format and layout will be part of organizing their books.  Illustrating will take some time, because at least two pages will be painted and need some time to dry, and the other pages will be the kids' renditions of the individual animals they have researched.  I'm excited to see their finished products! They have been working  hard on various parts of this project for the last eight to ten weeks.

Finally, creating their cover art will be the last step after gluing their typed information and illustrating their books. Voila! The first official science research project is complete! They did an AMAZING job!