Resources for Kids
Are you embarking on your ocean curriculum? Still, looking for some good ideas? This is the perfect place for you. Below is a list of resources, from online sources only, to help inspire your own ocean curriculum at home or in the classroom.
Resources List
General
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World Ocean Day for Schools Website
Unit 1 Oceanography
One Big Ocean
Highly Recommended! A Fantastic set of lessons for children ages 5-7 by Encountered Edu
Weather and Climate
NASA probably know what they’re doing so check out climate kids
Ocean Exploration
The NSF (National Science Foundation) has a collection of classroom resources
Including ‘I want to be’ , Arctic and Antarctic and Exploring with Alvin
Unit 2 Marine Biology
Ocean Plants
As a marine biologist, I’d avoid most of the information for kids, online, regarding ocean plants – this is because it’s either incorrect or simplified to a level of being incorrect. To put it simply but still correctly, there’s true-plants (the seagrass) and plant-like organisms (seaweeds and phytoplankton) with multiple seaweed groups (red, brown and green). It’s easy to pass on common misconceptions when teaching specialised subjects. It’s just very challenging to teach. I would recommend grabbing some ID cards, if you can go to a museum, aquarium or local beach then great, and doing some basic ID activities like treasure hunts.
Ocean Animals
An example of a lesson about ocean animals – maybe you could make something similar?
Ocean Ecosystems
NatGeoKids activity on deep ocean ecosystems
Monterey Bay Aquarium live cams (recommended to me by Cassie (aged 9))
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Georgia Aquarium live stream (recommended to me by Cassie (aged 9))
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Unit 3 People and the Ocean
The Earth is our Home
Highly Recommended! Our Ocean and us by Encountered Edu
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Ocean Conservation
Highly Recommended! Our Ocean in Crisis
Eco-Schools Lesson plan on litter
An example of a litter resource pack from Herefordshire Council
Free resources for teaching about the impacts of littering by Bin It
Ocean History
An example of a lesson plan for ‘Visiting the Beach 100 years ago’ – perfect for ocean history
Lesson ideas on the seaside in the past by Keystage History: KS1 History Help 100 years ago
Learning about international events is an important part of history. Learn about the Titanic from BBC Bitesize
Learning about famous people is another important part of history. Check out this great example of a lesson on Captain James Cook
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Unit 4: Prehistoric Oceans
Everybody loves dinosaurs! This great website by LGfL is one of my favourite Dinosaur resources
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