ORIENTATION DAY – AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MIDNIGHT ZONE
Welcome to our “Amazing Ocean Camp – Dive into Midnight Zone” series – an at home camp filled with days of relaxed learning and fun themed activities on the ocean’s midnight zone layer! For our first day, we learned all about where the midnight zone is and the mysterious creatures within it.
Like most of our at home camp weeks, we kicked off the week by easing into the topic. We started off with decorating the camp area. Then we made a few crafts and performed some experiments. Like all days, we added in some interesting books and some writing / storytelling prompts to keep them learning! Read on to check out the fun!
INTRO
Most kids are likely familiar with the ocean but some may not know that there are actually “layers” – some of which we know very little about. We like to start off our day by letting the kids know what the topic of the day is and then asking them what they know!
DECORATE THE CAMP AREA
To get the kids excited about the theme of the week – the midnight zone – we printed out a few Deep Sea Fish Coloring Pages from supercoloring.com. Then we added in some “ocean layers” to our camp wall (different shades of blue tissue paper) and added in our newly colored deep sea fish. We also added in some of our own drawings of our favorite midnight zone creatures. 🙂
WHAT TO WATCH
We find that mixing in a short video themed to our day is a great way to add some learning fun! We try to pick informative videos OR mix in a cartoon favorite (where they don’t even realize they’re learning). Below are some of the videos we picked from for the day:
- The Octonauts and the Midnight Zone (30m)
- 7 Deep Ocean Creatures Discovered by ROVs in the Past 30 Years by DeepseaOddities (11m)
FOOD CRAFTS / SNACKS
What’s more fun than taking a break and having a simple snack??? Including the snack in your theme of the day! We find that our kiddos are more than happy to eat the snacks they create especially when they can arrange them into fun shapes and scenes!
For our snack of the day, we brought in a familiar favorite – goldfish! But, we also dressed up our blue paper plates with some other veggies and snacks to make it look like more of an inviting ocean scene.
READING
It’s no secret that reading helps prevent that summer slide. Some even say this is the most important. For our older ones, we have them fill out some worksheets (or let them create some of their own comics) to describe what they read and/or learned!
For our books of the day, we picked two non-fiction books – the first does concentrate on ocean animals in the midnight zone. The second contains a few pages on midnight zone animals but others as well. The kids also wanted to bring back a picture book from a previous Ocean Camp and so we read that one together as well!
- National Geographic Kids: Alien Ocean Animals by Rosie Colosi
- Penguin Young Readers – Freak Out! Animals Beyond Your Wildest Imagination by Ginjer L. Clark
- Down, Down, Down, a Journey to the Bottom of the Sea By Steve Jenkins
WRITING & WRITING PROMPTS
Just like reading, writing helps prevent that summer slide by both encouraging their creativity but also their motor skills and penmanship.
If you’ve got a little one, have them trace words related to the theme: OCEAN, LAYERS, MIDNIGHT ZONE
If you’ve got older children, have them write a sentence or two up to a page or two (depending on their age). Encourage them to be creative AND give reasons for why they made certain choices. This was our writing prompt of the day but definitely pick something your kiddo might be interested in writing about!
- If you could be a midnight zone creature for a day, which one would it be and why?
CREATE & CRAFT
If you’ve got a crafty little one, a simple craft is a great way to keep them interested in the topic. While their creative juices are flowing, you can also chat about what they’ve learned so far or ask them what else they’re excited about learning!
We had a few easy crafts to pick from for the day (with the first being the least messy). We’ve actually done the first one in our Ocean Layer Day for a previous Ocean Camp and it was back by popular demand!
- Learning About the Layers of the Ocean (Paint Sample Craft for Kids) from alittlepinchofperfect.com
- Ocean Zones Upcycled Craft Activity for Kids from livingporpoisefully.com
STEM ACTIVITY
While crafting and writing get their creativity and imagination flowing, we also like to add in an activity that gets them thinking along the lines of science, technology, engineering, or math! These engaging activities or experiments are a great way to keep them learning!
Our STEM Activity came from learningresources.com – DIY Ocean Layers where we could talk about density as well as ocean layers! Note: we did have a few mishaps where some of our layers did mix, so add in everything very slowly!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you for checking out our at home camp article! If you enjoyed this post, please let us know what you think in the comments below and/or follow us on Pinterest
Also, if you haven’t already, check out some of our other Ocean Ideas or DIY At Home Camps!
Happy Learning!
