All About Oceans Unit Study for Young Learners

Teach your early elementary-aged student all about oceans, oceanography, and the animals that live in the oceans with this All About Oceans unit study!

Dive into learning All About Oceans & Marine Life, coral reefs, and ocean zones along with hands-on science, literature, geography, and more!

This All About Oceans Unit Study was designed for younger children in preschool to 2nd grade, but you can include younger or older children in your study as well by slightly modifying the lessons and activities.

Some links in this post may be affiliate links. This means that if you click on them, I may make a tiny commission, at no extra cost to you. For more info, check our privacy policy.

Oceans Unit Study: Recommended Resources

The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole

Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae

Leroy the Lobster and Crabby Crab by Edward Harriman

Wish for a Fish: All About Sea Creatures by Bonnie Worth

Children’s Encyclopedia of Ocean Life by Claudia Martin

Coral Reefs by Gail Gibbons

Printable Activities Pack from the Free Resource Library

All About Oceans Unit Study: Activities

CREATION OF THE OCEAN:

Read Genesis 1 from the Bible. Review creation of the seas and animals of the sea. Draw a picture of the creation of the seas. Use the Creation of the Ocean Copywork page (from the All About Oceans Unit Study packet in the Free Resource Library)

WHAT IS AN OCEAN:

Use all five senses to brainstorm what an ocean is. Ask your kids: What does it look like, smell like, sound like, taste like, feel like?

Create an ocean invitation to play with this Ocean Playdough Tray

Your littlest ones will enjoy making this Sea Life Spinner Ocean Craft to learn what animals live in the ocean.

THE WORLD’S OCEANS:

Locate the major oceans on a world map. Show how the oceans are all connected. Use the blank world map (from the All About Oceans Unit Study packet in the Free Resource Library) to label and color the oceans. Discuss the difference between an ocean, sea, and lake.

OCEAN LITERATURE:

Read Commotion in the Ocean. Discuss rhyming. Find rhyming pairs. Older writers can create their own rhyme about the ocean.

Read Leroy the Lobster and Crabby Crab. What are some of the words used to describe objects and characters in the story?

Act out these adjectives: lazy, creepy, mysterious, savage, frightened, awful, awesome.

Discuss how Leroy felt about the book he found. What about Crabby? What was the most exciting part of the story? How did you feel at that part? How did Leroy and Crabby escape? What treasure did they bring home?

EMERGENT LITERACY:

Search out letters with this Ocean Letter Find Activity.

OCEAN WAVES:

Fill a shallow pan with water. Blow on the water from one end. Notice the waves, their shape, their motion. The moon pulls on the earth. The easiest place to see this is in the waves. Wind can also affect waves, as well as the oceans’ currents and other factors like earthquakes.

Try one of these additional experiments (depending on the ages and abilities of your kids):

Make a DIY Ocean in a Bottle with Math and Science

Warm and Cold Ocean Currents with Nano Girl

SALT WATER:

Complete the lab on making saltwater along with the ocean water density comparison at Gift of Curiosity Here’s some background info for parents about ocean saltwater from Thought Co.

Watch this video from Mystery Doug about the saltiness of the ocean.

OCEAN ZONES:

Read Wish for a Fish. Make a diagram of the ocean zones.

Use these instructions to make the zones with construction paper, or create a tiny one with a paint strip from the hardware store like A Little Pinch of Perfect, or with a recycled wipes container like Living Porpoisely did.

Use brown construction paper to create the ocean floor, black for the midnight zone and the abyss, dark blue for the twilight zone, and light blue for the sunlit zone. Cut out and paste pictures of animals and plants that belong in each zone, or draw your own pictures.

OCEAN ANIMALS:

Use Encyclopedia of Ocean Animals to make a list of ocean animals. Identify which animals are mammals, birds, fish, or invertebrates.

Choose one animal to learn more about. Draw a picture of the animal. Let your child dictate a brief report (scaled to your young child’s abilities) describing where the animal lives, what kind of animal it is, what it eats, or anything interesting about the animal.

Use the Ocean Animal Report Form for Young Learners (from the All About Oceans Unit Study packet in the Free Resource Library) or grab the Ocean Animals report found in the God’s Amazing Sea Creatures Unit Study for your older elementary kiddos.

Create one of these ocean animals crafts with your kids:

Dolphin suncatcher from Simple Mom Project
Painted Stingray from a paper plate at The Pinterested Parent
Paper plate & toothpick pufferfish from The Simple Parent
Make an Egg Carton Ocean Animals with the directions from Homeschool Preschool
Create some Ocean Creatures of your own with play-doh, pipe cleaners, and beads.
Create an Angler Fish from a paper plate like Kid Lit +STEM did

Use the Ocean Animals Matching Game (from the All About Oceans Unit Study packet in the Free Resource Library) to learn the names of some of the more unusual Ocean animals.

Then print out the Ocean Animals Gross Motor Cards (from the All About Oceans Unit Study packet in the Free Resource Library) for your kids to get their bodies moving and pretending to be different ocean animals.

Finally, create an Ocean Animal Sensory bottle for a calming experience.

CORAL REEFS:

Read Coral Reefs. Watch this short video about coral reefs from Free School. Create your own coral reef with these materials:

Printable background (from the All About Oceans packet in the Free Resource Library)
plastic ocean animals
play-dough
pipe-cleaners
seashells

Be sure to include at least one animal and one plant found in a coral reef.

Or make a magic crystal coral reef like Dandelion Bouquet did with her kids.

OCEAN FLOOR:

Read The Magic School Bus On the Ocean Floor. On a large sheet of paper, draw and color a diagram of the ocean, some of its parts, its animals and birds, just like Miss Frizzle’s class does at the end of the story.

FIELD TRIP:

Take a field trip to the ocean. Before going, make a list of things to look for, such as waves, inter-tidal zone, the high tide mark, tidal pools, and creatures of the tidal pools. Use this free printable beach scavenger hunt while at the ocean.

Or if you are land-locked, take a field trip to an aquarium or look for a virtual tour from an aquarium.