There are several species of whale that populate our oceans. These environments can be an exciting and foreign place to most children, and studying this unique biome helps them understand a place different than their own.

For this portion of our ocean theme, we tackled the migration of the blue whale. Your little one participated in a variety of activities to help them learn about this magnificent creature. The first were our gray whale puzzles. Puzzles are an early learning favorite for educators and children alike! By matching the shapes to complete the picture of the whale, students develop important skills such as problem solving and shape, pattern and color recognition.

We then talked about what breaching was. We watched a short video of this action, and then, using plastic whales at the water table, practiced breaching on our own!

Your little ones have a powerful desire to explore and question the world around them.

They couple their imaginations with accessible materials to recreate many of the situations they learn about on a daily basis. They do this as a means to integrate the known with the unknown.

The final component of our whale unit involved looking at a globe and noting the blue whale’s migration from Alaska to Mexico, and then constructing our version of the Arctic Ocean using foam, plastic whales, and crystal beads. We talked about the different animals that live in cold areas, what glaciers are, and explored concepts such as hot and cold, freezing and boiling, and words such as beluga whales, polar bears, seals, flippers, and ice floe (a flat expanse of floating ice).