ECC Weeks 27-28 More From Japan & Ocean Studies

I decided to post a few more activities we enjoyed during our Japan/Ocean studies. We enjoyed that study so much.

I am also going to try to start posting our lapbooks as they are completed as well. These have been a real highlight for my kids. When each one is completed I hang it in our 'classroom' on the closet door. Beau will occasionally look at them and comment about how much he has learned this year.

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We did an ocean experiment to compare the densities of freshwater and saltwater. We used an eyedropper to add several drops of green saltwater to the clear cup of freshwater and several drops of red freshwater to the cup of clear saltwater to see what would happen. (We didn't have any blue so we used red.) The conclusion is that saltwater and freshwater have different densities so they do not readily mix.

The directions said that the water will eventually mix after a few hours. We let ours sit for a couple of days. The saltwater eventually dropped to the bottom as it is more dense than the freshwater but even after a few days the freshwater never completely mixed.

Experiment Day 1

Experiment a few days later

I have included our Ocean and Japan lapbooks. I created the cover of the Ocean lapbook in a scrapbooking program. I compiled the different lapbook components from various lapbooks at homeschoolshare.com. The stickers were Sea Animals Stickers from a Dover Little Activity Book.

Ocean Lapbook Cover

Roo's Ocean Lapbook

Beau's Ocean Lapbook

We did some fun sand art activities related to the ocean as well.

I purchased the fish bottles at Michaels at the end of last summer for about a $1.00 each. The starfish was one of the homeshcoolshare.com ocean ideas and we added those to the lapbooks above.

Our Sand Art Activities

I used components from the Japan lapbook on homeschoolshare.com for our Japan lapbook and I added some clip art from various internet searches.  These started out as one page projects but sort of grew into two.

Roo's Japan Lapbook

Beau's Japan Lapbook

When we are working on a lapbook we usually work on one or two components a day.  It really depends on how much time we have.  If we are working on a  science or art activity we may not work on any of the lapbook pieces that day.

Well, I think this finally concludes our Japan/Ocean studies.  We have almost finished our Russia/Tundra studies.  I'll post those activities soon.  :)