Ecology: The Ocean
updated March 24, 2022
Recorded here is my own personal collection of articles, resources, favorite links, teaching ideas, and lesson plans. It encompasses many years, from the very beginning of my experience studying and learning about Waldorf to the present time. People from all around the world visit my site and recommend it to others. Welcome!
This site records my journey. I hope my honesty is encouraging and helps break down some barriers that may prevent people from trying Waldorf methods. Because this is an ongoing site documenting my curriculum planning and ideas, some materials are more Waldorf-y than others. Please feel free to take what you like and leave the rest.
Ecology
The Ocean
Mission Statement - Consulting Services - Lending Library
Ecology is a wide-ranging topic and you'll need to choose one particular theme to focus on. We chose The Ocean
and I'm really excited about it! Here are my notes
as I plan this block.
Pinterest - Renee Schwartz
My curated collection of visuals! Browse sample main lesson book pages, watercolor paintings, chalkboard drawings, etc. for
Ecology.
What happens when you mix math, coral, and crochet? It's mind-blowing: How two Australian sisters channeled their love of STEM and coral reefs into the most glorious participatory art project
article at the Waldorf Today newsletter!
lots of lesson plans from the Georgia Aquarium
They're Blue, Pink and Purple, and No One Has Ever Seen Them Before
Atacama trench snailfish article from The New York Times
The Mariana Trench: Earth's Deepest Place lesson plan from National Geographic, grades 6-8
Color-It-Yourself Map of Mariana Trench
goes well with the Contour Model Kit for 2-D Topographic Map
 
Essential Documentary Film
A Plastic Ocean (DVD)
Booklist: Suggested Resources
Activity One:
Activity Two:
read Galapagos George by Jean Craighead George, talk about adaptation
 
create the Ocean Zones in a Jar -- new and improved notes about this in my blog post!
gather thoughts from the class about what animals might live in each zone, consider how the zones are different (darker, colder, more water pressure
as you go farther down),
introduce the idea of vertical migration in the water column
Activity Three:
Activity Four:
Melting Ice Science Experiment with Salt and Liquid Watercolors activity
exploring the idea of changing the temperature at which something freezes since
we read about animals with antifreeze in their blood in the Polar biome nomenclature for Antarctica
I froze
water in two containers: a Pyrex loaf pan and a Pyrex pie plate
also... find two freezer-safe containers and fill both with water
except add
rubbing alcohol to
one of the containers along with the water, place them both in the freezer at the same time, see which one freezes
first
read Down, Down, Down: A Journey
to the Bottom of the Sea
 
plan art installation for Ocean Zones, assign children to different zones, have them pick animal(s) they
want to portray, brainstorm art materials and techniques based on the animal and plant life that interests them
NOTE: Immediately teach students to begin to organize their notes by color coding the zones. I put out different colors of construction paper
and had students write the names of animals they were intrigued by on the correct color of paper. That way, we could
see if all zones were covered and we could begin to organize our art ideas for the zones as well as for the calendar project.
I wrote the common name for the zone, the scientific name for the zone, and the zone depth in meters on top of each piece
of paper.
| Paper Color |
Common Name |
Scientific Name |
Depth in Meters |
| Orange |
Sunlight |
Epipelagic |
0 - 200 m |
| Yellow |
Twilight |
Mesopelagic |
200 - 1000 m |
| Green |
Midnight |
Bathypelagic |
1000 - 4000 m |
| Blue |
Abyss |
Abyssopelagic |
4000 - 6000 m |
| Brown |
Trench |
Hadalpelagic |
6000 m and below |
also have available Scary Creatures
of the Deep for research
 
look at An Ocean Garden: The Secret Life of Seaweed
taste sea vegetables
- Dulse Palmaria palmata (Atlantic Ocean)
do not eat -- read California Warning on label -- discuss why this might be
- Nori Pyropia yezoensis (Pacific Ocean)
- Wakame Undaria pinnatifida (Pacific Ocean)
- Kombu Laminaria japonica (Pacific Ocean)
start Pagoo as a read aloud story
 
Activity Five:
art projects!
large museum exhibits for the Parent Expo... and small art for the 2018 calendar project
explain calendar art project, begin to make art
Front Cover (starfish on newsprint)
July (marine snow on black paper)
December (worms on black paper)
start dyeing coffee filters for coral reef. this works
best with a shallow jar such as the glass jars from Oui! yogurt. they get their color very quickly and dry quickly too, so lay out several folded old towels and transfer the dyed
coffee filters to them every few minutes and make a new batch. put something under the coffee filters when you are drawing on them with the markers, since it will bleed through.
another note: if done correctly, the color will not transfer into the water, so the jars of water can be reused over and over
start dyeing cotton swabs for coral reef by dipping tips in FW Fluorescent Artists Acrylic Ink, Neon, Set of 6. this works
best with a very shallow dish so that you dont get ink on your fingers when you flip the cotton swab over to dye the other side... we learned this the hard way! Gerber stage 2 baby food jars are perfect
 
start posters for museum: Sponges (sunlight zone)
things I planned but didn't get to:
Salt Water Density Straw activity from Steve Spangler
if you want to make a rainbow of colors, 1 tsp salt in cup #1 (dye red), 2 tsp salt in cup #2 (dye orange), 3 tsp salt in cup #3 (dye yellow),
4 tsp salt in cup #4 (dye green), 5 tsp of salt in cup #5 (dye blue), 6 tsp of salt in cup #6 (dye violet)
read The Drop in My Drink, review
water cycle, the Dead Sea, the Great Salt Lake
 
NOAA answers the question, Why is the Ocean Salty?
Activity Six:
continue with art projects!
hang pompom yarn in lengths from ceiling (seaweed), attach with clear pushpins
read several chapters of Pagoo (finish chapter 2, read chapter 3, read chapter 4) while people
were quietly working on art projects
dye more cotton swabs and more coffee filters for Coral Reef Art Installation
paint the interior of toilet paper tubes red, to be later cut into sea anemones
add title to Sponges poster created last week
make a large collaborative krill swarm
research animals which have bioluminescence, in preparation for Museum activity a la Steve Jenkins in Down Down Down (pages "Glowing in the Dark" and "Lights Out")
a student came up with this fun idea... parents entering the Twilight zone
will need to take a glow stick bracelet and an animal matching card, then look at their card to see a full-color picture of
an animal which uses bioluminescence, then try to match their card to a poster on the wall which shows ONLY the parts of the animal which
light up... in glow-in-the-dark paint
work on calendar art:
December 2017 CLOUDS
March 2018 PING-PONG TREE SPONGE
April 2018 KRILL
May 2018 DIATOMS
Activity Seven:
make Expo invitations extra large manila tags sponge painted with Martha Steward "cloud" pale blue on both sides, starfish stamp
with Ranger Archival Ink pad in Aquamarine on both sides, tied with brown sparkly yarn, Expo details in black felt-tipped pen
Side A: You're Invited to...
Side B: "Creep into the Deep"
date, time, address
dye extra white pompom yarn to the different shades of seaweed using food coloring
read Horseshoe Crabs
and Shorebirds, discuss food web
 
Penguin Camo activity
2 mm thick craft foam in white and black, glue, bowl of water, flashlight, piece of black paper, scissors, and penguin pattern (which
I printed at 60%)
work on individual museum projects
work on calendar art: January 2018 SEAL
things I planned but didn't get to:
emperor penguin chalkboard drawing -- put on chalkboard and keep there!
on date of Expo, use chalkboard as divider between Sunlight and Twilight Zones, they hunt in the Twilight but live in the Sunlight
"At sea, emperor penguins can dive to 1,850 feet -- deeper than any other bird -- and stay under for more than 20 minutes."
add pictures above the krill swarm of animals that are
in the food web in Antarctica, connect predator to prey with orange pieces of string
Shark Buoyancy activity
Whale Feast Feeding
Discovery Lab (PDF)
Activity Eight:
read Moonsnail Song by Sheryl McFarlane,
compare mollusks which are gastropods and those which are bivalves, add seashells and starfish and sand dollars to coral reef display (set up
on playstands with a blue/violet silk canopy overhead)
 
Cornmeal Currents activity
Deep-Water Currents activity
read and display Actual Size by Steve Jenkins (giant squid eyeball)
 
continue with art projects, including building a life-size construction paper collage of a giant squid!
things I planned but didn't get to:
Water/Shoreline Erosion activity
Beach Glass vs. Broken Glass activity
you can find sea glass on Etsy
I got
a large piece for the activity and small pieces to give to each child to keep
Activity Nine:
read Where the River Begins by Thomas Locker
 
focus on conservation, continue with art projects, prep for Expo,
plan science experiments & demonstrations for Expo
"Oil-Coated Feathers" experiment from The Curious
Kid's Science Book
we used Toasted Sesame oil
 
Asia Citro focuses on having kids design their own experiments: our kids tried canola oil, water, milk, lemon water, apple cider vinegar, Dawn dish soap
or if, you want a packet to hand out, here's a nice Oil and Feathers science experiment from Project Beak (PDF)
cutting out 80 ft of giant squid tentacles for the Midnight Zone (calculating how many pieces of paper it will take to make
80 feet if your paper is 1 1/2 feet long) and covering every bit of that length with traced two inch circles (we used the cardboard
ring inside the glue dots)
making construction paper collage sea lilies for the Abyssal Plain
hanging the last of the dyed pompom yard seaweed from the ceiling in the Sunlight Zone
calendar art:
Activity Ten:
finish calendar artwork:
September - SNAILFISH - chalk pastels on black paper
October - SWIMMING DEEP-SEA HOLOTHURIAN - tissue paper
November - MICROSCOPIC BACTERIA - mono printing with acrylic paint
set up Mariana Trench art installation in crawlspace with black fabric and animal artwork (crustaceans, worms)
relax and
read another Steve Jenkins collage artwork book: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
 
Activity Eleven:
set up dolphin exhibit in Sunlight Zone, write fact cards, decide on color of index card for each zone, write title
of fact card in gold Sharpie and fact in black
finish spraying remaining coffee filters with starch
finish hanging artwork in Mariana Trench
read One Well:
The Story of Water on Earth, choose facts for fact cards
 
Activity Twelve:
discuss how all life on Earth began in the water...
look at Franz Lanting's incredible Life: A Journey through Time, add to display of books
 
finish exhibits!
wrap completed calendars!
make expo foods!
Parent Expo on December 21, 2017!
Walk parents through museum displays and present calendars as holiday gifts.
Monterey Bay Aquarium live web cams (there are many; these are just a few favorites)
Foods to serve at the Expo:
Blank Scrapbook Calendar Project
An idea I'm really excited about in lieu of -- or in addition to -- hosting a Parent Expo!
Every year my students use
blank
wall calendars to create holiday gifts for their parents. They write in the month names, week names, and dates,
as well as creating the art for each month. It is always fun to present parents with these handmade gifts!
One year we did the entire Timeline of Life as a wall calendar, representing all of the time from
the creation of the earth (January 1) until present day (December 31) TO SCALE. Each day was equal to approximately 13 million years. The artwork
month by month showed what the earth looked like and what new organisms had evolved. It was so fun, and it gave the kids
such a clear understanding idea of how things changed radically over time.
This year I decided to use a similar concept for Ecology. Each child can create a 2018 wall calendar showing how the ocean world changes as you go deeper
and deeper in the water.
It won't be hard to duplicate some of the most successful art projects
and make extra art for the calendars. The art simply needs to fit on a 12 x 12 inch scrapbook page and be flat.
As it turns out, the deepest part of the ocean -- the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench -- is believed to be
36,070 feet. With 12 months and each piece of art being 12 inches tall, we will have 144 inches of height. The math is easy;
our scale will be 1 inch = 250 feet.
I will make the sample artwork for each month and we can lay the examples all down on the floor
to show the entire depth of the ocean in a 12 foot high display. It will just look like
one of the Expo displays. Then after the parents walk through the entire Expo (December 14 or December 21),
the children
can present them with their calendars. And they will find out that they each have their own personal copy of our trip to the bottom of the sea!
Just as with The Deep,
which has a tick-mark next to each organism's photograph showing how deep each is found (with the scale printed on the inside front
cover and inside back cover flaps), we will be clearly showing
the correct depth of each animal. And... empty squares on the calendar which are not used
for dates can hold interesting facts about the animal(s) in the artwork. I'm in love with this idea!!!!
NOTE:
If you do this, I highly recommend you make a sample calendar to show the children.
I also strongly suggest that you use Glue Dots (use one in each of the four corners) to adhere the artwork to the calendar pages. Glue Dots are quick and easy. They are
instant and permanent and they are mess-free. The only downside is that the teacher has to be the one to do all the glueing, since they
are permanent and mistakes can't be easily rectified. I have my students put their name on stickers, which I put
on the back of all the cardstock art paper, since
you can't easily write your name on black paper. Then I know whose is whose and I can glue the art in after the artwork has dried and the kids have left for the day.
Here are the Ocean Layers and a few art ideas I came up with. The ones we used for the calendar are written in all caps:
Front Cover
Creep into the Deep
December 2017 - sunlight and blue sky
explain concept of calendar, explain calendar scale (1 inch = 250 feet)
January 2018 - ocean surface to 3,000 feet below
Epipelagic Zone - "Sunlight Zone" - 0 to 200 m - 0 to 656 ft
SEAL
painting of the seal (wet on dry watercolor, Live Education!)
also the sea turtles (wet on dry watercolor, Rick Tan)
also the school of fish (colored pencil, Live Education!)
poster project: sponges
art display: seaweed (use clear pushpins and lengths of Pomp-a-Doodle pompom yarn draped in large swaths from the ceiling -- I used the blue
"Shoreline" yarn as well as the white yarn, which we dyed other seaweedy colors)
art display: coral reef (stacks of dyed coffee filters and cotton swabs arranged to be a coral reef and placed
in front of a large picture window, with plenty of colorful fish drawn on the window with window crayons. this works
best if you create a structure for the coral reef with vertical elements using toilet paper tubes, paper towel tubes,
and wrapping paper tubes. weight the tubes to keep them from falling over, if needed, by putting dried beans in old spice
jars, tying a long string to the jars, and slowly lowering them into the tubes until they stand on the ground inside
the tubes and are hidden from view. I built our coral reef on a long piece of wax paper and placed it underneath of
Zac's playstands,
with a long blue/violet canopy silk above it, and I put seashells and sand dollars and starfish on the shelves of the playstands
and sprinkled sand on the wax paper after the coral reef pieces were in place.)
February 2018 - 3,000 to 6,000 feet below
Mesopelagic Zone - "Twilight Zone" - 200 to 1000 m - 656 to 3281 ft
March 2018 - 6,000 to 9,000 feet below
Bathypelagic Zone - "Midnight Zone" - 1000 to 4000 m - 3281 to 13,124 ft
PING-PONG TREE SPONGE
stamp ends of wine corks into light green (Pistachio Mint) paint, add stems with more light green paint and a small brush
Ping-Pong Tree Sponge - Found at depths of around 9,000 feet, the ping-pong tree is a carnivorous sponge that can grow up to 20 inches in height. While they may not look dangerous, they are covered in tiny hair hooks which catch any small creature passing by. Then, slowly, cells in the sponge move towards the prey and digest it."
also the green bomber worm
violet sea cucumber swimming video
also the battles between sperm whales and giant squid -- this would make a great shadow puppetry!
art display: giant construction paper collage squid LIFE SIZE! this enormous tan creature ran from my kitchen all the way down the hallway.
we did the mantle (7 feet long), placed the Actual Size book with the picture of eye (1 foot long) right in the location
where the eye would be, and made the eight arms (each 9 feet long) and the two tentacles (each 40 feet long). the beak is in the center
of the arms and is two inches long.
April 2018 - 9,000 to 12,000 feet below
Bathypelagic Zone cont.
KRILL (from Down Down Down)
pinkie finger painting krill with orange paint, add Sharpie dot eyes
Dumbo Octopus - "The ear-like fins of this octopus have earned it the name "Dumbo." The octopus lives at extreme depths of 10,000 to 11,000 feet, searching for worms and other crustaceans at the seafloor."
also a huge poster of the krill swarm
and cards listing the animals which eat it, and the animals which eat those
May 2018 - 12,000 to 15,000 feet below
Abyssopelagic Zone - "The Abyss" - 4000 to 6000 m - 13,124 to 19,686 ft
June 2018 - 15,000 to 18,000 feet below
Abyssopelagic Zone cont.
DEEP SEA CUCUMBER
Enypniastes - "Enypniastes is a deep sea cucumber which leaves nothing to the imagination and lives up to 16,400 feet down. The red area is the animal's mouth. Around it are tentacles, which scoop up edible mud from the seafloor. From there, well, you can see."
July 2018 - 18,000 to 21,000 feet below
Hadalpelagic Zone - "The Trench" - 6000 m to the bottom of the deepest parts of the ocean
MARINE SNOW
splatter paint "light buttermilk" paint with old toothbrushes and wire screen on black paper
August 2018 - 21,000 to 24,000 feet below
Hadalpelagic Zone cont.
September 2018 - 24,000 to 27,000 feet below
Hadalpelagic Zone cont.
SNAILFISH
deepest known living fish - "Setting the record at 8,143 meters, (26,872 feet) was a completely unknown variety of snailfish, which stunned scientists when it was filmed several times during seafloor experiments. The white translucent fish had broad wing-like fins and an eel-like tail, and slowly glided over the bottom."
chalk pastels on black paper, Faber-Castell, set of 72 soft pastels
 
October 2018 - 27,000 to 30,000 feet below
Hadalpelagic Zone cont.
SWIMMING DEEP-SEA HOLOTHURIAN
deep-sea holothurian AKA sea cucumber
awesome video!
crumple a 6 1/4 inch square page of deep purple art tissue, open it back up, cut out into a sea cucumber tubular shape, then attach onto black paper with a few
glue dots (only at the top so that it hangs and can move and "dance")
November 2018 - 30,000 to 33,000 feet below
Hadalpelagic Zone cont.
December 2018 - 33,000 to 36,000 feet below
Hadalpelagic Zone cont.
WORM (from Down Down Down)
oil pastel squiggles on black paper
Blog posts from when I was teaching this in Science Club (making calendars):
UPDATED BOOK LIST - July 6, 2020
Habitats: Mesopelagic, Bathypelagic, Abyssopelagic, Hadalpelagic Zones
Blog posts from when I was teaching this topic in main lesson (making MLBs):
2020
2022
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