Ocean Murals

We ended our unit study with ocean life. Here the girls created their own mural. We found out that the ocean contains many zones and the farther down it goes, the darker it gets and the animals that live in each zone vary, including the way God created them to live in those zones. We found a really cool website that allowed the girls to play a game where they descended gradually in the ocean called Journey to the Deep. They started out by picking which creature they wanted to be: a fish, a seal or a whale. At each level they learned things about the creatures that lived there and answered a question after 60 seconds of exploring. Then they were able to descend to a lower part of the ocean. It was really neat. The girls actually got a little intimidated when it got to the lowest zone, sometimes reffered to as the Aphotic Zone (but I found that there are other names for it as well). It was really dark and some rather strange creatures lived there! We also watched some on-line video on different creatures that live in the sea and there were many that we have never known to exist! God is very creative!













Grace and Emily especially like watching video of sharks! There was one where a great white actually leaped out of the water to eat a sea lion! Emily didn't want to watch that one but Grace was very intrigued.














The girls love to do anything that involves crafts, especially painting! They don't get to do it as often as they would probably like because I don't always feel creative :) but it's a great time for them when they get to. They put their all into it.

At the Pond

Jesus said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water I that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up unto everlasting life, John 4:13-14

For the past two weeks, we have been learning about water. Rain, God's blessing to man; famine, life without water; the water cycle; Why we need rain; Ponds, rivers and lakes; Ocean life; Jesus is the Living Water. We learned that rain can be a blessing but at times can be a curse. But God causes rain to fall on both good and evil man, providing for all no matter if they believe and love him or not. Areas have been stricken with famine from the times of Abraham, yet God still provides for His creation. We have the opportunity to help those in areas of famine. Grace thought of some ideas to raise money to send to those areas; selling lemonade (always popular with the younger set), a yard sale and a "skate-a-thon" at the ice rink (look for info of this coming your way soon!). We visited a pond and checked out the many critters that live in and nearby. This was a fun trip. We are going to visit the ocean once the weather clears up a little. This has been a fun unit and we wanted to share a few things that we did. Next unit is about plants!

A heron, called a Snowy Egret. We watched it look for food as it walked along the banks. We found out that it has bright yellow feet! It's very beautiful when it flies.

There were lots of mallard ducks, as well as a few other types and lots of geese, including beautiful Canadian geese. We watched as a mallard couple flew straight for the water and at the last minute, the female spotted a turtle in her path and slammed on the brakes, sending a spray of water into the face of the turtle! We laughed over this and imagined what he would tell his family when he got home! This picture was a funny one taken while the mallard boys dove for food.





This was the turtle, right before the ducks flew in. We were so excited to see turtles! There were several more laying on a log a little further down.







Dayna enjoyed our little jaunt, too! She kept up with us as we traipsed all over the place. There was a moment, though, when a dog covered in mud up to her chest came running straight for Dayna and I. As I picked her up, expecting the worst, the silly dog quickly changed course and headed for the pond to play some more. I seriously think the dog was laughing at us!

When we first got to the park, the geese surrounded us - greedy little birds. Actually they are quite large! They are at just about eye level with the girls. This had happened once before at another pond and it really frightened Grace and Emily, so they were on edge before we even got out of the car. I showed them that if you just stomp your feet and say, "Shoo, shoo, shoo!", they would slowly retreat. So here they are, showing the mean faces they would give the geese. Aren't they intimidating? (Disclaimer: No geese were injured during the making of this field trip) What a fun day!