Australian Ocean Nature Study

Description

Did you know…

• Nature Study can be immersed in all home education styles and classrooms?
• Nature Study covers the sciences of all elementary and some secondary topics?
• Nature Study integrates most of the school subjects?
• Nature Study is family orientated and inspires children to explore the outdoors?

The Australian Nature Study Guide contains:

• a whole chapter on how to use the nature study guide.
• 12 nature study lessons.
• a list of additional nature study activities.
• a resources list.
• 100 Notebooking Pages
• Free Shell Identification Cards

The Australian Ocean Nature Study Guide is:

• Focused on the ocean, its ecosystems and the animals and algae found in each.
• Self-contained and ready to use. Additional resources are suggested should you choose to dive deeper into a subject but they’re not necessary. Dip your feet in or dive in. The choice is yours!
• An integration of subjects to save your sanity and time.
• An activity based program for multiple ages – Kinda to 15 yrs.
• Flexible. The Guide can be altered to suite all home educating approaches and styles.
• Adaptable. The themes within the weekly studies can be altered to suit your climate and locality.
• 71 Pages, digital curriculum in PDF format.

Let’s Dive In!

Each chapter in the ocean nature study will prepare you with the knowledge you need to answer questions when they’re squirted at you by eager marine explorers. It is by no means exhaustive. I’ll be referring you to helpful resources or links on the weeks topic if you’d like to research it further and dive deeper. These resources and suggestions for deep diving is located in the sidebar where you’ll find the following five prompts.

Inspire

Be inspired  and motivated with activities, videos, songs, field trips or a reminder to review a topic covered in another nature study guide. I hope these ideas  enhance your nature investigations.

Discover

Discover stories and poems related to the weeks theme which will offer enjoyment and ignite excitement for the topic. Read them aloud to the children or listen to the read aloud version on YouTube. Included with this guide is a notebook page to list the titles of books you and the children have read. Utilise the book report and poem study notebook pages. File these in the students portfolios.

Investigate

Research the weeks topic with the reference books listed. This is not a complete list and there are many great books available. If you have a resource sitting on your book shelf or have access to another through the library, please use those reference books instead.

Engage

Invite the children to a group activity with the craft suggested here. If you don’t have time for the extra student assignments, then this is the activity for the week. These ideas will enhance their understanding  as they begin to focus on the subject. Photograph activities and use the activity notebook page to paste the image and write a summary of what was made or learned.

Explore

Explore the ocean and its ecosystems with the ideas listed here. Allow the children to play freely and once their energies have been exhausted (somewhat) begin to engage them with questions and activities. Give them the opportunity to ask questions and share their nature discoveries with you. You’ll be able to gauge their interest and understanding of the content covered. Photograph the excursions and use the field trip activity page included with this unit to record places you’ve visited. Place activity pages into their individual portfolios.

Assignments & Projects

Assignments and projects have been suggested for the four learning styles. The learning styles have been categorised according to how a particular personality learns best. This model was developed by the Myers-Briggs system.

Notebook Pages & The Portfolio

100 notebook pages have been included with this ocean nature study. Please use them to record field trips, activities, experiments and projects. File the pages into a ring binder to provide a safe place for all the work accomplished through the unit. All notebooking pages are to be filed in a portfolio for presentation and record keeping purposes. The portfolio can be subdivided with the weekly themes or according to subject areas. It’s up to you.

Vocabulary Words

A list of vocabulary words have been included for your convenience. They can be defined through dictionary work or used as spelling words. File the list in the portfolio.

Further Study

This section includes a list of topics that are related to the current lesson. If a child is interested in learning about a concept then engage him/her in a mini project to indulge their curiosity. Record the work and add it to the portfolio.

Come along! Let’s dive into the extraordinary secret world of the Australian seas.

NOTE: This ocean nature guide can be used independently of the Math in Nature: Measurement guide.