Let’s learn about the Midnight Zone of the Ocean! The midnight zone is home to many different animals including the: Anglerfish, Octopuses, Vampire Squids, Eels, and Jellyfish. It is the third layer down from the top of the ocean. It is mostly dark and very cold in the midnight zone, just like the Abyssal zone we learned about yesterday.
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Angler Fish:
+ The Angler Fish is normally the size of a teacup.
+ It can weigh up to 110 pounds.
+ It has a big head and see through teeth! Look in the mirror, can you see through your teeth?
+ The Angler Fish always looks cranky.
+ They can catch prey 2 times bigger than them.
+ Angler Fish have a lure hanging over their heads – This acts like a fishing pole and attracts the angler fish’s prey. What do we use as a lure on fishing poles?
Learn more about the Angler Fish here:
Angler Fish Activity –
Let’s go fishing. To fish at home you will need:
– A magnet
– Some string
– Pipe cleaners
– Something to make a fishing pole out of – you can use a stick from outside, a wooden dowel, or even a real fishing pole!
Directions:
– Attach the string to your “fishing pole” and then attach the magnet to the end of the string.
– Make some fish out of pipe cleaner by simply folding them in half and twisting the ends together to make the shape of a fish (think goldfish snack shape or when you draw a fish on paper)
– Spread your pipe cleaner fish on the floor and have fun fishing!
*** To add on to this activity you can sort your fish by color, count out loud each time you catch a new fish 1..2..3, create different sized fish and sort by size.
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Octopus:
+ Octopuses don’t have a backbone/spine.
+ Most octopuses stay on the ocean floor and only come up off the floor to search for food at night when the sunlight and twilight zone are dark.
+ How many tentacles do Octopus have? Yup! You guessed it 8!
+ Octopus swim backwards using their tentacles.
+ Octopus can change their color to green, grey, brown, pink, and blue to blend into their surroundings. This helps them avoid prey like seals and whales. They also use their color to communicate with other octopus.
+ They have 3 hearts and suction cups on the bottom of their tentacles
How cute is this baby octopus! https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/walking-baby-octopus
Octopus Activity:
– Listen to My Very Own Octopus by Bernard Most:
– After listening to My Very Own Octopus write a journal entry. Here are some questions to help you! What would you do with your very own octopus? Would you take a bath with your octopus or maybe play baseball or basketball with your octopus? Draw a picture of you and your octopus and then write all about the fun that you would have together!
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Some other fun activities to do at home!
– Make a beach dramatic play area at home. Make collecting the items for your dramatic area into a Scavenger hunt! You can use the attached beach collection list or create your own.
*** If you’d like, you can pack sandwiches for a picnic and bring lunch to your indoor beach sometime this week!
– Gather materials such as shells, sea animals, pipe cleaners, pom-pom’s, and clear or colored beads to add to play dough for some fun ocean play dough exploration. Creating different colored playdough can expand this play. Imagine creating the playdough sea zones and sorting the animals by which ocean zone they live in – how fun! You can also use this cloud dough recipe to create a different base than play dough: https://craftulate.com/beach-cloud-dough/ You can add measuring cups and sand toys to make for a fun sand castle building activity!
By Julie MacPherson for the Orange Room