Ahoy! I'm so excited to introduce you to our curriculum pack at Justice Academy: "O is for Ocean!"

If you're looking for a fun, engaging, and hands-on way to explore the wonders of the ocean with your early learners, this pack is designed just for you. Inspired by the beauty and mystery of the sea, "O is for Ocean" is filled with activities that encourage exploration, creativity, and a love for our incredible marine world.

This unit is a rich, all-inclusive experience, and here's a sneak peek at what you can expect from every one of our thematic learning packs:

Curated Reading List: Discover our hand-picked favorite books that complement the ocean theme. These are perfect for a trip to your local library!

Engaging PowerPoint Presentation and Media List: Access a vibrant learning experience with a collection of videos, songs, stories, and interactive games, making the unit introduction both fun and effortless.

Immersive, Hands-on, & Movement Experiences: Dive into dynamic learning sessions that truly bring the theme to life, ensuring active engagement and memorable discoveries.

All-Inclusive Learning Activities: Explore a diverse range of activities, meticulously organized by subject and age. Each comes with clear instructions and a complete supply list for easy preparation.

SEL & Mindfulness Tools: Foster emotional intelligence and well-being through thoughtfully designed activities that reinforce feelings recognition and coping strategies.

Multilingual Spelling Focus (English & Spanish): Introduce essential spelling words with clear guidance on language fundamentals, available in both English and Spanish for dual-language exposure.

Supplementary Worksheets: Expand learning and reinforce key concepts with additional engaging activity pages and craft templates.

To kick off our underwater exploration, we transformed our kitchen into an underwater wonderland! We hung blue tablecloths over the lights, creating a soft, blue glow, and then added sea creature cutouts that seemed to swim all around us. It instantly made it feel like we were under the sea! 

We also had so much fun getting crafty and learning about different sea creatures. Making simple octopuses with curly legs sparked lots of questions about how real octopuses move and live. While singing along to Super Simple Songs about the ocean, we made silly sharks by gluing white paper triangles onto blue cardstock for teeth. It was a fantastic way to combine music, art, and a little bit of learning!

But the real magic happened when we created our very own ocean right in our backyard! Our deep pool became the deep sea, while our shallow pool was perfect for exploring the "tide pools." We even brought out the play sand to create our own little beach area. The kids spent hours splashing, digging, and pretending – it was truly an immersive experience that brought the ocean to life!

To add a touch of fantasy and adventure, we designed personalized treasure maps! We added all sorts of exciting elements to create our own pretend world where the kids could embark on epic beach treasure hunts. Their imaginations really took over!

Bringing awareness to ocean conservation was also a big part of our unit. We even created a mini "ocean" in our living room using blue blankets and filled it with sea animal stuffed animals and some clean trash. This visual helped us talk about the importance of keeping our oceans clean while  "cleaning up" our living room ocean and sorting the recyclables.

Of course, no learning adventure is complete without language arts! We learned new ocean-themed words, worked together to write a fun story, and read a short story about our friend Ella's trip to the beach.

These are just a few snapshots of the wonderful memories we made during our "O is for Ocean" unit. I hope sharing our experiences inspires you to create your own immersive learning adventures! Stay tuned for more glimpses into life at Justice Academy!

Ready to embark on an underwater adventure? You can find the "O is for Ocean" curriculum pack available now in our shop HERE!

Let's explore the amazing ocean together!