04 Apr Five in a Row: Night of the Moonjellies, Part 4

Today we are finishing up our Five in a Row study of Night of the Moonjellies with a focus on jellyfish.  Much of the information suggested in the Five in a Row workbook was above Clark and Luci’s heads, so we kept it simple.  I would like to return to some subjects later on, when there is time and interest, such as the concept of owning a small business.

How to Create a Simple Aquatic Biome

Since the children’s focus was definitively on jellyfish and other aquatic animals, I decided to pursue this subject with them and create a simple aquatic biome out of a cardboard box.  This is my kind of craft:  simple and cheap!  I cut off the flaps with a knife then cut a small slit in what will become the top of the biome.

Clark and I then painted the entire inside of the box blue, representing the water.  I included a few white paint details, making waves.  I printed out a couple of pages for the kids to color from FirstPalette.com – one of coral and another of sea animals.  We then cut them out and glued the coral and some of the animals into our biome.  Together, we glued the rest of the animals and onto popsicle sticks.  We finished off the biome with some stickers and sea shells from the dollar store.

We had lots of fun putting on “puppet shows,” which usually involved a jellyfish stinging and immobilizing a fish.  Clark often incorporated his new knowledge of jellyfish into the stories.

Clark and Luci so enjoyed this, that several times I found them simply laying in front of our creation.  When I’d ask them what they were doing, they’d reply:  “Just looking.”

As part of this unit study, we created our first lapbook.  We made it all at the end, so it was a way to review all of the material that we had covered.  I was amazed at Clark’s retention.  He remembered pretty much everything we had talked about.

That’s the end of our Five in a Row: Night of the Moonjellies row! We took it super slow and loved every minute of it! Which book should we read next?

Don’t miss the rest of our Five in a Row: Night of the Moonjellies study! Here’s Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.