Activity Introduction

Quick summary: In this activity, children are asked to investigate our oceans. Younger children are asked to look at animals that live in the sea, and what features these animals have that help them live in the water and how these differ to animals that live on the land. They are asked to ‘build’ an ocean using a tub of water and other sea-related materials. Older children are asked to investigate what it means for an ocean to be healthy by looking at waste items commonly found in our oceans, and by building a healthy ocean using a tub of water and other sea-related materials.

EYLF Learning Outcome

Elaborations

Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world

3. Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment

Outcome 4: Children are involved and confident learners

1. Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity

2. Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, enquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating

3. Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another

4. Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials

 

Equipment needed: Sea diorama worksheet.

Ages – 0 to 2

  • A range of toy sea animals suitable for getting wet. Your selection should include sea animals such as fish, shark, starfish, seahorse etc and should have at least one for each child.
  • A range of sea related materials, such as sand, shells, seaweed and pebbles/rocks.
  • A half full bucket or tub of water.

Ages – 2 to 3

  • A range of toy animals suitable for getting wet. Your selection should include sea animals such as fish, shark, starfish, seahorse etc and land animals such as horse, lion, elephant and bird.
  • A range of sea related materials, such as sand, shells, seaweed and pebbles/rocks.
  • A half full bucket or tub of water.

Ages – 3 to 5

  • A range of toy animals suitable for getting wet. Your selection should include sea animals such as fish, shark, starfish, seahorse etc and land animals such as horse, lion, elephant and bird.
  • A range of sea related materials, such as sand, shells, seaweed and pebbles/rocks.
  • A range of waste materials, such as plastic bag, chip packet, plastic bottle, tin can (all items should be clean and sharp edges covered in masking tape).
  • A half full bucket or tub of water.

Other resources:

Cool Australia Presents Biodiversity from Cool Australia on Vimeo.

 

The team at Cool Australia continually reviews and refines our Early Learning resources in line with expert advice and current educational practices.

Worksheets

Teacher Worksheet

Background information:

When we talk about biodiversity we are talking about all the plants and animals that live on Earth, including those that live in the oceans. Unfortunately, our oceans are also suffering from human activity. Issues like overfishing, pollution and climate change are all threatening the long term health of our oceans.

  • Overfishing - Unregulated fisheries in many parts of the world have seen global fish populations plummet. Many fish stocks are now desperately low, affecting not only those individual species but also those species that rely on them for food.
  • Pollution - In the middle of the Pacific Ocean is a vast and murky pool of rubbish. Known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch it is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water.
  • Climate change - Our oceans act as carbon sinks, absorbing the excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere caused by human activity. Un
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