Night of the Moonjellies

Our second book for T's first grade year was Night of the Moonjellies.  I wanted to row this book while our visit last summer to the beach was still fresh in his mind.  Since this is another book we've rowed before, I'll just mention four of the activities from our row this year.

 

We looked at some pictures from the Five in a Row Fold n Learn about life by the sea.  When I pointed out the fishing boats, T told me that they couldn't be fishing boats because of "all the junk" on the decks.  This led to a bunnytrail of a search for Youtube videos of fishing boats in action; T soon came to see how all that "junk" is pretty useful to fishermen.  In fact, those boats in the pictures were pretty neat and tidy compared a boat where the fishermen are in the middle of hauling in a large catch of fish.

 

Another activity was for T to set up a restaurant complete with a menu of choices for a meal.  He named it "Solitaire's Restaurant".  When I asked him why he chose that name, he just said he liked the name Solitaire.  We also talked about coin values, and he decided on prices for his menu items.  Then different members of the family took turns coming to the restaurant, choosing and giving their order, paying with real money, and being served their food-- with T being sure to periodically check on his customers to see if they needed anything else.  We used paper foods for this activity.

 

 

 

We also made a visit to a marina.  We were hoping to be able to walk on the pier like we did the last time we rowed this book, but we visited a different marina this time, and its piers were behind a locked gate.  That was disappointing, but we were still able to admire them from a distance. 

 

 

 

We spent some time learning about jellyfish-- reading books and watching Youtube videos of moonjellies swimming.  For an art activity this year, we tried making jellyfish window clings.  I did not save the directions we ended up using, but basically, you mix a big glob of glue, a drop or two of dish detergent, and food coloring.  I also added a bit of iridescent glitter.  We made jellyfish drawings on paper, put the paper in a page protector, and brushed the glue on the page protector, using our drawings as a guide for where to place the glue.  T's glue ran together quite a bit, but he still liked how it turned out.  He said it looked like real jellyfish tentacles, all mixed up.  I had to agree.

 

 

 

As a bonus, here is a picture (though not a very good one) of the kids observing real moonjellies at the aquarium we visited last summer.

 

 

I always enjoy doing units where we explore ocean creatures and sea life, and this was no exception.  Another good row!