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coral reef

Free Middle School Years Fun Shark Unit Printables

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have some free shark unit printables to pair with my Shark Unit Study. Also, look at my pages Oceans Unit Study and Lapbook, and Coral Reef pages.

My free shark printables help you to bring a unit study about sharks, the ocean or even coral reef to life. Diving into a unit study my printables will explore shark behavior and habitats, understand shark anatomy and behaviors and explore shark senses.

Free Middle School Years Fun Shark Unit Printables

Also, your child will understand a shark’s role in the ecosystem. Adding my hands-on ideas for shark activities are really the heart of an engaging unit study.

Sharks are some of the most misunderstood animals. Through the book list, the free printables and hands-on ideas your child will understand their importance to the natural world.

True sharks are predators, but they are also a vital part of our oceans in keeping them healthy.

BOOKS ABOUT SHARKS FOR KIDS WHO LOVE TO READ AND BE READ TO

Next, look at these books about sharks for kids.

When we can find them, we prefer living books.

Homeschool Shark Unit Study Resources

Add one or two of these fun shark books and resources to your study about sharks.

In addition, look at these hands-on activities to add to your unit study.

MORE SHARK UNIT HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES

Now, how to grab the freebie.

Free Middle School Years Fun Shark Unit Printables

HOW TO GRAB THE FREE PRINTABLE EXPLORING THE SECRET LIFE OF SHARKS

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Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

If you are studying coral reefs, you will need a host of wonderful books about the Great Barrier Reef for kids to make a rich and full study. Also, grab more ideas on my Coral Reef page.

Also, I have plenty of fun and exciting hands-on activities to do for all ages that will make this one of your best units yet.

The Great Barrier reef is in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.

And it is the world’s largest coral reef system.

Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

It is composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 1,400 miles over an area of approximately 133,000 square miles.

The Great Barrier Reef is important for many reasons.

For example, it’s biodiversity is important, its impact on tourism, the protection it gives the coastline from storms and erosion, and the food and medicine that can be found there as well.

In addition to sharing books about the Great Barrier Reef, I have a faux coral reef craft project that will add a beautiful touch to any room.

BOOKS ABOUT THE GREAT BARRIER REEF FOR KIDS

First, look at some of these books about the reef.

When possible, I add living books to our reading list.

5 Great Barrier Reef Books

Add some of these fun books about the Great Barrier Reef to your home library.

We are going to use hot glue and paint.

Then transforming them into unique coral pieces while we learn about the different types and specifically about The Great Barrier Reef and its inhabitants.

GREAT BARRIER REEF FACTS

The Great Barrier Reef has an abundance of life with:

  • Fish: Over 1,600 species of fish, including clownfish, angelfish, and parrotfish.
  • Corals: Over 600 species of hard and soft corals.
  • Sea Turtles: Six of the world’s seven species of sea turtles.
  • Sharks and Rays: Over 30 species of sharks and rays.
  • Marine Mammals: Whales, dolphins, and dugongs.
  • Seabirds: Over 200 species of seabirds.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s biggest single structure made by living organisms.

It is so big that it can be seen from space.

The reef is home to more than 1,500 species of fish – that’s more than in the entire Caribbean Sea.

Some of the corals in the Great Barrier Reef are over 1,000 years old, coral of the Great Barrier Reef has gradually been destroyed in recent years by a pest known as the Crown of Thorns Seastar, a marine organism that eats Coral Polyps.

Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

The Great Barrier Reef is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means it is recognized as a place of outstanding universal value and is recognized as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.

HANDS ON GREAT BARRIER REEF ACTIVITIES

Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

Finally, look at how to make this coral reef hot glue art.

HOW TO MAKE CORAL REEF HOT GLUE ART

You will need:

  • Wooden plaque
  • Hot glue gun/glue sticks
  • Paint
  • paintbrushes
  • Silicone mat
Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

First, paint your wooden plaque piece blue for the ocean or any color you like.

I found this one along with glue sticks and paint at Dollar Tree, making for a very frugal craft. Set aside to dry.

Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

If you do not have a silicone mat I cannot recommend one highly enough. They are a fantastic item for painting, slime, and any other messy craft.

On to our beautiful faux coral pieces.

To begin with, use a light marker like a highlighter or even a dry erase marker to draw out your design.

Make any kind of coral you want here.

Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

I tried some fan coral, a brain coral and some basic branch pieces.

Be mindful of the size wooden plaque that you have chosen to use. You want to make at least 4 or 5 of varying widths, heights, and types to layer on the background.

You want to gather a lot of hot glue for this activity, depending on how many pieces and how large you want to make them.

CORAL REEF HOT GLUE ART

Now you’re going to take your hot glue, gun and draw along the lines that you made with a nice thick line,

You can allow it to cool while you work on another piece and add additional layers of thickness if you like.

Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

Here is a gorgeous example of fan coral that had been washed up on the beach after a hurricane.

Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

Allow your designs to dry completely until the glue is hard and it will peel right up off the silicone mat.  I peeled it back just to be sure my lines were thick enough and laid it right back down.

Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

Now you are going to paint each piece in whatever color combination you like.

Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

Let the paint dry completely, then begin testing out how you will layer and place your pieces on the plaque.

Exciting Books About the Great Barrier Reef| Faux Coral Craft

Once you’re satisfied, add a little bit of hot glue to the back of each piece and press it into place.

Fun Hands-on Coral Reef Activities and Play Dough Invitation to Play

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have some fun coral reef activities and play dough invitation to play. Also, grab more ideas on my Coral Reef page and Oceans Unit Study and Lapbook.

June 9th is all about celebrating Coral Triangle Day.

It’s a day to promote ocean conservation and protection, especially in the Coral Triangle.

To mark it, I have fun coral reef activities and a play dough invitation to play.

Additionally, the Coral Triangle includes the waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and the Solomon Islands.

Fun Hands-on Coral Reef Activities and Play Dough Invitation to Play

While coral reefs everywhere are important, the coral triangle gains a lot of attention for its diversity within its waters.

Let’s dive into an ocean of learning about the beauty and diversity of coral reefs and the Coral Triangle.

I have books, hands-on activities, facts, and more.

Summer is the perfect time to learn more about the oceans that surround us and the unique coral reefs in them.

Coral Reef Activities Facts

  • The Coral Triangle is also known as the Amazon of the Seas.
  • Here, in the triangle, live 6 out of the world’s 7 species of marine turtles.
  • It is one of the eight major coral reef zones throughout the world, and it is recognized as a very important place of marine biodiversity and a major priority for conservation.
  • Over 600 different species of reef-building coral make their home in the triangle.
  • 76% of all the world’s coral species are found in the Coral Triangle. The area boasts the highest coral diversity in the world.
  • Researchers believe that the Coral Triangle may be where all Coral Reefs once began.
  • The most endangered species in the area are Yellowfin, Tuna Skipjack, and Bigeye Tuna.

Also, look at some of these fun coral reef books and resources.

Coral Reef Unit Study Resources

Add some of these coral reef unit study resources to your unit study.

Also, look at these hands on ideas to study about the ocean and coral reef.

More Coral Reef Activities and Resources

Fun Hands-on Coral Reef Activities and Play Dough Invitation to Play

Moreover, look at my huge Ocean Unit Study and Sea Turtle Unit Study.

Coral Reef Activities Play Dough Invitation

You will need:

  • 1 cup Flour
  • ½ cup table salt
  • 1 cup of Water
  • 1 Tbsp. Coconut Oil (or vegetable oil)
  • 1 tsp. Cream of tartar
  • Food coloring
  • Optional-essential oils

Also, you will need:

  • Small bowls, cups, or a divided tray
  • Shells
  • Plastic ocean creatures
  • Beads
  • Toothpicks
  • Aquarium pebbles
  • Chenille stems

First, combine flour, salt, water, coconut oil, and cream of tartar in a medium pot over medium-high heat.

Fun Hands-on Coral Reef Activities and Play Dough Invitation to Play

Stir constantly until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and is no longer sticky.

Fun Hands-on Coral Reef Activities and Play Dough Invitation to Play

Quickly remove from heat and put the dough onto a smooth surface.

When it cools enough to touch, knead it for a few minutes and add food coloring and essential oil mixing well.

This is the perfect time to mix in a fun beachy scented essential oil like coconut or pineapple.

Fun Hands-on Coral Reef Activities and Play Dough Invitation to Play

Now that your playdough is ready to go you can begin building your coral reef Hands-on invitation to play.

Grab some small clear cups or use a divided tray to place all your items out in an inviting way.

Cut colorful pipe cleaners down into different lengths.

Fun Hands-on Coral Reef Activities and Play Dough Invitation to Play

Put playdough in one bowl, beads and toothpicks in another, chenille stems, toys, shells, and any other little items you have each in their own bowl.

Fun Hands-on Coral Reef Activities and Play Dough Invitation to Play

Encourage your child to build an ocean base with the playdough, press chenille stems into it, poke in toothpicks and stack pony beads on them, Add fish and other ocean toys.

Fun Hands-on Coral Reef Activities and Play Dough Invitation to Play

Your child can build and rebuild unique coral reefs as they learn about their beauty and importance.

Fun Hands-on Coral Reef Activities and Play Dough Invitation to Play

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Your kids will love this fun blow painting coral reef hands-on activity. Also, grab more ideas on my Coral Reef page.

Too, June 1st marks World Reef Day, a day that is a call for everyone to reflect on our beautiful coral reefs as well as come to action to protect and preserve them.

Even if you have never visited them in person, you have surely seen their beauty in pictures or videos.

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

I have a beautiful craft project to share with you which is coral reef blow painting.

It is a unique and fun activity for the kids to make and is a beautiful piece of artwork to hang up in your home as well.

This project is so fun you will probably want to make one yourself.

Coral reefs are important to us because:

  • they hold an abundance of life,
  • reefs protect coastlines from storms and erosion,
  • provide jobs for the community around them,
  • they are a source of food and medicine,
  • and are a source of recreation for those who wish to appreciate them up close.

10 World Coral Reef Day Facts

Next, look at some facts to remember on world coral reef day.

  1. The NOAA estimates that over 75% of the world’s reefs are currently threatened, and within the next 10 years, 90% of reefs will be threatened by human activities.
  2. The biggest threat to coral is climate change.
  3. Corals are animals, not plants, and are the cousins of marine animals like jellyfish and sea anemones.
  4. Corals can move. Adult coral is attached to the ocean floor but larval or baby coral can swim to find a spot to set down anchor.
  5. Coral supports 25% of ocean life, it is much like an underwater forest.
  6. The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef system on Earth.
  7. Like trees, coral has growth rings inside that can help determine the age of the coral.
  8. There are over 800 different types of hard coral around the world.
  9. Coral reefs only grow up to a certain water depth which is about 200 to 300 feet.
  10. Corals eat 2 different ways- either by capturing zooplankton that floats near their polyp tentacles or by their symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae.

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

Then look at ways to protect coral reefs.

4 Ways Kids Can Preserve Coral Reefs

1. Choose Reef Friendly Sun Protection.

Many sunscreens hurt the coral reefs causing coral bleaching and stopping its development.

Instead of using sunscreen made with toxic chemicals, focus on practicing sun management cover-up, avoiding the sun during peak hours.

And opt for non-nano mineral-based sunscreen on exposed areas. These sunscreens are made with zinc oxide and/or titanium dioxide.

2. Recycle And Dispose Of Trash Properly.

You may think tossing just one water bottle from the boat isn’t a big deal, but imagine millions of people doing that, or carelessly leaving trash on the beach.

These actions have big impacts on marine life including corals.

3. Research When Purchasing Aquarium Fish.  

Avoid buying living coral instead look for imitation corals, if you purchase a marine aquarium fish, make sure that it has been collected in a sustainable way.

4. Spread the Word.

Especially if you live anywhere near these precious coral reefs, you can work together with local groups to educate everyone on how important and precious they are.

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

You can find a lot of information online but here are a few books that I highly recommend you use for ocean studies; they both contain a good amount of information on coral reefs as well as the marine animals that make their home there.

More Coral Reef Ideas

Also, look at these resources for studying coral reefs.

Coral Reef Unit Study Resources

Add some of these coral reef unit study resources to your unit study.

Finally, look how to make this blow painting coral reef hands-on activity.

Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

You will need:

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

Cut straws in half to make it a little easier to blow through and direct your watercolors.

Place a sheet of watercolor paper onto a baking sheet, this can get a little messy.

Using a pipette or small paintbrush drop various sized dots of the liquid watercolor all over the bottom of the page, or you can fill the entire page for a closer up view of the coral reef.

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

Have your child blow through the straw spreading the watercolor droplets around.

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

You may wish to repeat and add more “limbs” or new coral once you see the white space.

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

I like to let some of it dry and do the dots again to create different shades and give it a little depth.

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

Allow it to dry.

Lightly add a watered-down wash of light blue onto all the white space if you like to create water.

Let your picture dry completely.

Younger children will probably want to stop here, and that is totally fine but challenge your older children to add more detail. To do this they can trace around each dried shape with a fine liner black pen to define them a bit more.

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

They can also use markers to add some fish in the painting. Use your books or Google for inspiration.

Once completely dry, lay your painted page under a couple heavy books for several hours to press the paper flat.

Create several paintings, each one will be completely unique just like the beautiful coral in the ocean.

Celebrate World Reef Day with a Blow Painting Coral Reef Hands-On Activity

Free Coral Reef Printable Lapbook and Fun Hands-on Unit Study Ideas

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have a free coral reef printable lapbook. Grab more ideas on my Coral Reef, lapbook ideas, and on my best homeschool unit studies pages.

My coral reef lapbook is a fun one to do anytime of the year.

Besides a coral reef being an ecosystem, you’ll want to learn about the organisms which live there.

Free Coral Reef Printable Lapbook and Fun Hands-on Unit Study Ideas

The Great Barrier Reef is so vast it can be seen from space.

At one time it was thought coral reefs were only in shallow depths, but scientists are discovering that some are as deep as 19000 feet.

However, most coral reefs are found at 150 feet where sunlight penetrates.

What Is Coral

Coral reefs are formed by colonies of tiny coral animals.

It is formed from the hard outer skeletons of tiny animals called polyps.

When the tiny animals die, the old skeletons remain, and new coral animals grow over them.

That is how coral reefs grow.

Too, coral can only grow in warm water because polyps only eat algae.

Moreover, living polyps are what give the coral color. If they die, the reef bleaches. It becomes white or loses it color.

Coral is a type of animal that lives in colonies. Each animal consists of a polyp that is the size of an ant.

Polyps have stinging tentacles which they use to catch small plankton as they drift by.

Coral reefs have a symbiotic relationship with tiny algae called zooanthellae.

The algae live inside the polyp tentacles.

Two Main Types of Coral

There are two main types of coral. One is hard coral with an outer skeleton made of calcium carbonate and soft coral which have bits of calcium carbonate inside their bodies.

Then, add a few of these words to your coral reef unit study and lapbook.

Coral Vocabulary

  • algae – a plant like organism that turns light into energy but does not have leaves or roots
  • coral reef – have been described as underwater gardens and coral polyps have the unique ability to thrive in nutrient poor water
  • ecosystem – a community of plants and animals relying on each other to survive
  • habitat – the place where an organism or group of organisms live
  • polyp– it’s a tiny animal that looks like an upside-down jellyfish and comes in many sizes and shapes
  • phytoplankton – a type of plankton that gets its energy from the sun through photosynthesis
  • zooplankton – tiny ocean animals like some jellyfish

Next add hands-on ideas.

Free Coral Reef Printable Lapbook and Fun Hands-on Unit Study Ideas

Look at these hands-on ideas to study about coral reefs.

Coral Reef Hands-on Ideas

Coral Reef Unit Study Resources

Add some of these coral reef unit study resources to your unit study.

More Lapbook Ideas

Additionally, grab these other free homeschool lapbooks.

Free Coral Reef Printable Lapbook and Fun Hands-on Unit Study Ideas

Coral Reef Printable Minibooks

Also, look at these minibooks which come in the free coral reef lapbook.

  • 1 Color Cover for outside of the file folder
  • 1 Black and White Cover for outside of the file folder
  • 3 Main Types of Coral
  • Anatomy of Coral Polyp
  • Layers of a Reef and Soft and Hard Coral
  • How Fast Do Reefs Grow, Where Do They Form and How Many Formations Can You Name
  • Life At The Reef
  • What is a Coral Reef – Plant or Animal and What is Coral

How to Get the Free Coral Reef Lapbook

Now, how to grab the free lapbook. This is a subscriber freebie.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get access to my subscribers library and this freebie.

However, not all my freebies are in the library (wink).

I like to keep up to date with what is valuable to you so I can give you more, some freebies you must sign up again on the form below even if you are already a follower.

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