NEPTUNE Canada

Underwater Senses (Grade 4)

Author:

Learning Objective(s)

To get students thinking about the conditions and what happens in the world’s oceans.

Introduction

Introduce this lesson by asking students to think of all their senses and what it may be like under the water. What is the temperature, what does it look like, how do they smell, what can they hear, what is bigger than humans and what is smaller.

Materials

• Internet
  
• Paper
  
• Pens

Activity

• Ask students to look on the NEPTUNE website to learn about the ocean, how it changes with depth and the changing conditions.
  
• Introduce students to the songs made by Northern Resident Orcas, Southern Resident Orcas, Humpback Whales, and Pacific White Sided Dolphins.
• Brainstorm on the board what students learnt about the ocean.
  
• Using these ideas, ask students to write an imaginary story as a fish or an ocean explorer using facts from the NEPTUNE website.
  
• Encourage students to think about all their senses. Refer to temperature with depth, mammals and fish, food chain awareness (e.g. “I am a mackerel and I had to swim so fast to get away from a blue shark”) and relative sizes (e.g. “A huge whale shark passed right overhead”).

Extension

• How is this area different in other oceans (Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean sea?)

Assessment

• Did they make the appropriate connections?
  
• How well written/accurate is their story?

Related Website

Tags

food chain, Indian ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean sea