Night of the Moonjellies {FI♥AR}

October 3rd - 7th & 10th - 14th

"Mark spends a busy, noisy day helping out at Gram's seaside hot dog stand. After the last customer is served and the grill is scrubbed to a silvery shine, Mark sails off with Gram for a promised surprise -- and finds a nighttime sea full of shimmering moonjellies." ~ from the front cover
I thought it was neat that Five in a Row brought this book back into print. Still, I had a hard time getting into it. . . until I read the lesson on contrast from the book. Then, I understood what makes this book  special.  So, we rowed it. . . but I "censored" it so that we could enjoy it. (We eat a clean diet, so we don't consider lobster to be "food," nor fit for consumption. So, where it reads "lobster rolls" I just read "rolls.") We had two short weeks in a row, so this was spread out over both weeks.

Social Studies: Life Near the Sea, Responsibility, Geography ~ New England

Story Disks

We colored the New England states on a map and did the "Responsible" and "Life Near the Sea" mini books from Homeschool Share {pic below in the lap journal}.

Language Arts: Contrast, Punctuation ~ Italics, First Person Point of View

We did the lessons from the manual and some extra worksheets from an Evan Moor Grammar book on the use of I and Me.

Science: Moon Jellyfish, Aquatic Biome {Oceans}, Tide Pools, Sea Shells

What is a Moonjelly? {from the author}

Mark Shasha, the author of Night of the Moonjellies, named the moonjellies in this story for their blue-green flashes of light, which looked to him like moonlight reflecting on and passing through the seawater.  Really, the "Moonjelly" is actually a "comb jelly," which is not the same as a moon jellyfish.  I was disappointed in this fact until I read the manual and learned that we would be studying moon jellyfish after all. 

Since the boy finds a comb jelly washed up on the beach, I focused on an ocean theme with an emphasis on tidal seas and coasts.  We watched The Blue Planet: Seas of Life ~ Tidal Seas/Coasts and made a "Tide Pool Diorama" ~ a project from a book I found at the library called Outstanding Oceans.

Tide Pool Diorama



We also did a lesson from Awesome Ocean Science on how the ocean shapes the beaches of the world.
The ocean reshapes a steep beach by washing it away. On a flat beach the sand builds up instead of being washed away. 

Sea Shell Observation




These are some of my favorite photos ~ little hands at work. 



We learned facts about various jellyfish (which, by the way, are called sea jellies now instead of jellyfish - because jellies are not fish) and Malachi colored 4 types of jellies. 

Coloring Sea Jellies

Math and Extra Fun: Ocean Math

Eliana did the Under the Girly Sea Preschool Pack ~ I love it when I can pull in a preschool pack during a row ~ our rows seem more geared towards Malachi (1st grade) so they are a fun way to include her.

Sea Creature Graphing {Eliana rolled until they all "won." She is so not competitive like my boys!}


I didn't photograph all her activities, but she did most of the pack. 

Art: Medium ~ Pastels, Light and Dark, Warm Palette, Sea Jelly Crafts

I think this was the funnest part of our row ~ arts and crafts!

The book was illustrated in pastel chalks, so I exposed Malachi to this new medium. (Eliana was probably off playing somewhere and this was one of those moments where I grab a kid and say,"Let's do an activity!" We haven't been following a schedule or even a consistent pattern for our school activities. . . Boaz is too needy right now - he's been running a fever, teething and more and there is just so much else going on right now.  I do what I can. . . but I cannot do it ALL! Someday, I will write a post on this. . . but just so you know ~ I don't do it all and I can't! ETA: now working on that post!)

Chalk Pastel Lesson
The following lesson was inspired from the manual - I tied it in with a lesson from our Evan Moor Art Book on Warm and Cool Colors.
Warm & Cool Palette 
We learned what colors are warm and cool - that warm colors give you a feeling a warmth and cool colors give you a feeling of coolness. Then I had the kids match up colored paper strips and decide if they were warm or cool. Then we compared and contrasted the cool colors in Own Moon with the cool and warm colors in Night of the Moonjellies and Who Owns the Sun? It was neat to be able to tie in books that we have already rowed.  We also did the lesson from the manual on warm colors.

Then we did a "Warm It Up - Cool it Down" painting activity from the same book. 

Warm It Up -- Cool It Down
We started with one color and then added a warm color to warm it up and a cool color to cool it down. This was a great way to learn the warm and cool colors and the effect of changing the palette - a fun lesson too!

I LOVED this next lesson - at least I fell in love with the concept from the jellyfish art video from Deep Space Sparkle. This is a 4th grade Jellyfish Art Lesson, but I wanted to give it a try anyways. I'm glad I did, but it was a little hard.
Sea Jelly Watercolor
Paint puddles of jellies, then tap, tap, tap, then splitter, splatter bubbles and air.


Jellyfish Craft

I'm not usually a "crafty" person {I like to be able to store their "art" FLAT and in a binder for space sakes} but I adored the jellyfish craft below and I had so much fun helping Mali and Elli with their jellies. . . that I'm WANTING to do more crafts! I have several crafts planned for our next row. =)
Silly Girl in her "Jelly Hat" : )



Jellies hanging in the bedroom window. 

Recipe: Burgers, Hot dogs and Onion Rings with Homemade Fry Sauce. 

Mar-Gra's was a busy seaside diner from 1956 to 1971 and was famous for it's great hamburgers and foot-long hot dogs. Gram also serves Mark up some onion rings.
Burgers with lettuce, tomato, pickle, ketchup, mustard and mayo.
We used to have an Arctic Circle here that was famous for it's fry sauce - so we (ahem, I) decided that we needed to make homemade fry sauce for our onion rings. 

Side of onion rings with fry sauce. 
The recipe includes: pickles chopped fine or blended and mayonaise and ketchup mixed together. I mix equal parts of mayo and ketchup and add the pickles until it is just the right amount of tart (maybe 4 pickles to 2 cups sauce - I never measure!). I chopped the pickles and had Malachi mix the sauce. 

Beach Sand "Pails"

I really wanted to make our special dessert in a real sand pail ~ but all the summer toys are gone and I could not find a new one {and wasn't about to dig one out of the sandbox!}

Beach Sand "Pails" with Chocolate Sea Shells

I found the chocolate sea shells at wally world in the fine chocolate section - mmm, they were good. I could have eaten the box myself. =) (The sand cake is a "dirt cake" with graham crackers for the "sand.")

Lap Journal:


Memory Making Fun: 

Comb jellies are bioluminescent and 95% water, so this was a fun, easy and frugal way to make some jellies to play with! 


I put a glow bracelet in a small plastic bag, put some water in it, and tied it tight. Then I put it inside a larger plastic bag with some more water and tied the second bag tight. 


Then we put them in the water to float in the bathroom sink "sea!" (I have a night light on and held my shutter open long enough to take this pic in the dimly lit bathroom.)

Then I sent the kids to bed and Jordan and I had fun making glowing swirls in the dark. :D 


The orange one on the right is Eliana walking down the hall holding her glow bracelet. :D

Night of the Moonjellies is a Five in a Row selection from Volume 1.

Delightful Links:

Homeschool Share Resources
Letter J {is for Jellyfish} Printables
Under the Sea {Girly} Printables
Egg Carton Jellyfish
Jellyfish Craft