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Ocean Creatures

Investigate the ocean food chain

Learn about the main groups of ocean creatures and the ocean food chain in this oceanography unit study for 3rd to 8th grade.

ocean creatures matchcard

Ocean Creatures MatchCard

Objective: Identify the three main groups of plants and animals in the ocean.

MatchCard: Download below.

MatchCard Information Pieces define and describe plankton, benthos, and nekton. Ideas for projects are listed on the instructor's page and below.

Learn About the Ocean Food Web

Plankton

Plankton are the plants and animals that drift on the top of the ocean. They include algae, protozoa, jellyfish, and the larvae of many sea animals.

Plankton drift passively and are moved by ocean currents. They have no other means of movement.

Plankton make up the base of the ocean food web. All other forms of life are dependent on their existence.

In return, the plankton is dependent on the sun for survival. That is the reason these ocean creatures are only found at the top of the ocean zones.

Benthos

Benthos are the ocean creatures that live on the ocean floor.

Benthos include seaweed, crabs, clams, lobsters, and sea urchins.

Some of the benthos, such as seaweed, are anchored to the ocean floor. Many of the animals in the group are able to move on their own legs. All of the sea life in the benthos group may be moved by ocean currents, but they are not passively dependent on it as the plankton are.

Coral reefs provide an amazing ecosystem of many types of benthos and nekton.

Nekton

The nekton are the animals that swim in the ocean. This group includes fish, shark, whales, sting rays, and many other swimming animals.

Different nekton live at different zones of the ocean. Their diet may be made up of plankton, benthos, or other nekton.

Group Project

Ask each child to choose on plant or animal from each of the three groups. They need to look up information and present it for each of the three species they choose.

If you have more than one student working on this project, have them write and/or draw their sea creature on an index card. Lay the different cards out on the floor in random order.

Let the students more the plankton to the top, and the benthos to the bottom.

Get a ball of yarn and scissors. Students can take turns cutting off a piece of yarn and laying it to connect to cards to show which animals eat other ocean creatures. Take turns making the connections so the ocean food web becomes a literal web on the floor.

Ocean Diorama

Make a poster or diorama of sea life. Include all of the ocean creatures the students choose to study. Use a centimeter or milimeter ruler to draw the different nekton to scale.

Here are some ideas for making a diorama:

Use a shoe box, and let the nekton dangle from string in the middle.
Use a paper plate so it looks like you are looking out of a ship porthole.

Field Trip Time

A trip to the beach would be a great way to learn about the ocean first hand. Of course, if you happen to be 500 miles inland this just might not be a possibility.

However, every area has lakes and ponds. If you can, observe the life on the top and bottom of the water. Make drawings of the three different groups.

Scoop some water into a cup. Let it settle, then look at it with a magnifying glass.

Download and Use the Ocean Creatures MatchCard

This is the second Matchcard of the Oceanography Unit Study. You can DOWNLOAD the
Ocean Creatures Matchcard HERE.

The student matches the definitions and examples on the correct area of the Matchcard..

The second page is the Instructor's Guide with the correct answers.

The third page has the Information Pieces. Student's cut them apart and place them in the correct place on their copy of the Matchcard (first page.)

For more information on how to use the Matchcards, see the MatchCard Science Instructor's Guide.

More information on this interactive unit study is below.

MatchCard Science

The activities and illustration above are from MatchCard Science, a homeschool science unit study. For the complete Ocean Unit Study follow this link. This unit study provides:

hands-on demonstrations
MatchCard reviews to master the material
suggestions for science projects to complete
instructions on a complete unit study curriculum

Currently this curriculum is under-going revision. We are providing free access to the unit study, with the desire that you will provide feedback as you are field testing the materials.

Return from Ocean Creatures to the MatchCard Science Main Page.

The Kid Friendly Homeschool Curriculum HOME PAGE.