Introduction to Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day

This week we opened our new science book Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. From the author's website, "Apologia’s newest elementary science book will take you and your family on an exploration into the wonders of this day. You’ll begin with a big splash from the whales and dolphins, then spy on seals and meet manatees before swimming with the sea turtles, snakes and salamanders, peeking in on the primeval plesiosaurus and its pals. Following your frolic with fish and sharks, you’ll uncover the world of crabby crustaceans, sea snails, clams and their soft bodied friends: the octopus, squid and nautilus. You'll consort with corals and find flowers that devour plankton. You'll see stars and feathers that walk, leap and roll, and will discover dollars that disappear in the sand and sponges that really do clean." "From the microscopic to the miraculous, no stone is left unturned in your student's passage through the waters of the world. Various ocean creatures will come to life as your student creates replicas of the animals studied and places them in his own Ocean Box – a miniature hand-crafted aquarium. As always, each lesson ends with an experiment or project reinforcing the scientific method and the concepts studied. Among other experiments and projects, your student will try on blubber, investigate a shark’s ability to sense electrical currents, explore how a whale can hear sound waves on the other side of the world, and learn through experimentation which creatures make the best fossils. No matter how near or far you live from the ocean, you and your students will wonder at God’s hand in the creation of the amazing aquatic animals He formed and fashioned on the fifth day. So, slip on your scuba gear and come explore with us!" As an introduction to our study, we watched Blue Planet Seas of Life: Ocean World and Frozen Seas, Open Ocean and The Deep, Seasonal Seas and Coral Seas, and Tidal Seas and Coasts. This 4 part series is a breathtaking exploration of the world’s oceans! I downloaded the notebook pages, printed them and got them ready for our notebooks. Then the boys designed the cover page of their notebook.
They used Draw Write Now Book 6: Animals & Habitats - On Land, Ponds & Rivers & Oceans to illustrate their covers (see carosel at bottom of page). Then I headed over to the Apologia Elementary Yahoo Group to print out a schedule: Zoology 2 26-Week Schedule
We will do two weeks of lessons in one week. We typically take one day to read and do the "What do you remember" questions (where the kids narrate back to me what they have learned) and the "Try This" activities. Then we take a day to notebook and do the experiments. Sometimes, we do a whole lesson in one day. The boys are excited to get started (they saw the ocean box project in the first lesson) and begged me get started yesterday! When I told them we were going to watch the Blue Planet Series, they thought that would be fun. But, I caught Nathan working on his "ocean box" every spare moment he had! 

2 comments

  1. Looks great! We just went to the Smithsonian with our oldest two and I am so irritated with all the evolution garbage and trying to figure out the best means to hammer in creation, creation, creation right now. :)

    I'll have to look into their science books too.

    Jolanthe

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  2. Oh, I'm so thrilled that you all watched the Blue Planet series. Just AWESOME, isn't it? Did you get Planet Earth, too? We're getting ready to watch them all again.

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