Ireland is a gorgeous and fun country to visit. I’ve been lucky enough to visit twice and would love to go back with my kids. In the states, around St. Patrick’s Day, it is normal to see lots of green and pots of gold and shamrocks. It’s also a great time to dive into this fascinating island and it’s rich history and culture. Here is everything you need to do a unit on Ireland with upper elementary schoolers.

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Visit Ireland

So, obviously going to Ireland is the best way to really experience Ireland. However, this isn’t possible in a lot of situations so here are some alternatives.

Attend an Irish Cultural Event

A lot of cities and towns have Irish Cultural Events around the time of St. Patrick’s Day. Parades, Festivals, etc. These will allow you to at least hear Irish music, maybe see some Irish dancing. You might even be able to try out or watch an Irish sport like curling.

Virtual Visit to Ireland

Another option is a virtual visit. My fourth graders loved this 17 minute YouTube visit to Ireland.
Ireland: Travel the World with Your Kids

Read about Ireland

Follow Me Around Ireland
by Wiley Blevins

I have been pleasantly surprised by this series several times. They serve as a good introduction or overview of a country, in this case Ireland. I love that they are from a child’s perspective so they include things like how kids play and what school looks like. FOLLOW ME AROUND IRELAND is a wonderful book for giving some context for all of the playful picture books on this list for St. Patrick’s Day.

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Celtic Tales: Fairy Tales and Stories of Enchantment from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and Wales
illustrations by Kate Forrester

This is a beautiful book of fairy tales from Celtic heritages. Obviously they aren’t all from Ireland, but when we did our Fourth Grade Unit on Ireland, or when you’re getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day you could just read the tales from Ireland. They are brief, just a few pages, which works well for a daily read aloud or before bed.

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For More Book Recommendations, check out this booklist on My Storytime Corner

Explore Irish Music

• Irish Music lesson from Music in Our Homeschool
• St. Patty’s Music Theory from My Fun Piano Studio

Art Activities inspired by Ireland

• Make St. Brigid’s Crosses using pipe cleaners from Everything Irish by AnnMarie O’Grady
• Learn to draw a Pot Gold with Art Hub for Kids
• Draw Celtic Knots with Kitchen Table Classroom.

Science & Math Activities

• Pot of Gold Multiplication Game from Hanging with Mrs. Hulsey on Teachers Pay Teachers.
• St. Patrick’s Logic Puzzles freebie from Mrs. Thompsons Treasures
• Bake Irish Soda Bread. Everyone swears by their family recipe for this, but regardless of the recipe you choose – this bread is a staple.
• Play Rainbow Game from Waldock Way
• Make Rainbow Slime from Little Bins for Little Hands

Irish Reading & Writing Activities

• St Patrick’s Day Fact vs. Opinions
• Write Irish Limericks – this was a favorite with my kids.
• Ireland Cursive Pages
• Write Your Name the Celtic Way also from Everything Irish by AnnMarie O’Grady

Learn about Irish Dance

Irish Dance is a unique form of dancing that’s a traditional part of Irish culture still thriving today. If you can’t watch Irish dancers live, here are some YouTube videos of Irish dance:

• RiverDance – you might be able to find a full show at your library as well. This was a world famous touring group of Irish Dancers.
• Trinity Irish Dance Company – this group is currently touring and is a more modern take on Irish dance.
• Leahy Call To Dance – this is a family of musicians that play in a band together. They are not professional dancers, but they dance and I love this song. It’s great fun.
• Cairde – also more modern, but still traditional. This is a group in Ireland.

If you have more time, Netflix has an animated movie full of Irish dance, RIVERDANCE: THE ANIMATED ADVENTURE which is really cute.

End of Unit Irish Program

At the end of our unit, we had an Irish themed program for friends and family. We included:

• Irish Dance
• Irish Songs on Recorder and Piano
• Irish Limericks Read Aloud
• Art Show

More Ideas for Third, Fourth and Fifth Graders

Rocks are the things I find everywhere. My kids stash rocks in the pockets around their seats in the car. I find rocks in the pockets of all of my coats from my kids asking me to “please save this!” when they find a special one at the park. My kids love rocks. My daughter especially is constantly lugging around rocks or looking for the perfect smooth one or a round one.

When my twins were in fourth grade we took a deep dive into this rock obsession with a Geology Unit.

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Field Trips

For field trips, head to wherever rocks are plentiful near you! Beaches, rivers, hiking trails are some options. My kids seem to find rocks everywhere we go. Field Trips are an opportunity to see rocks, or geology in a natural environment. Observe the differences found in one area up close. Hike next to cliffs where you can see the layered rock.

Torrey Pines Beach
My daughter calls this rock beach because it’s one of the few near us that’s mostly rocks instead of sand. It was our first Geology field trip. We love Torrey Pines for a whole host of reasons, read more about this San Diego beach in this post.

Dave’s Rock Garden
We used THESE MARKERS to decorate rocks and then the following week we visited Dave’s Rock Garden in Encinitas. It’s a short walk from Moonlight Beach which also has tons of rocks all along the shore. We took pictures of different favorites, tried to identify the rocks we found from what we’ve learned in our labs and videos, and sketched a favorite in their nature journals.

Natural History Museum
Most cities have a natural history museum. Check if yours has an exhibit about geology. The San Diego Natural History Museum has a cool collection of gems. We took a field trip there to see some real life examples of the gems and minerals we have been learning about.

Annie’s Canyon and other San Diego Hikes
The ocean side cliffs along some of the beaches and hikes through canyons in San Diego offer a wonderful example of sedimentary rocks. We were able to see the layers of rock in the cliffs. It helped my kids visualize rock types on a larger scale. If you’re in San Diego, all of our favorite hikes are listed in this post.

Children’s Books to Read

Excellent books are always a part of our units. Here are some we especially loved during our Geology Unit.

Let’s Go Rock Collecting by Roma Gans
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A Rock is Lively by Dianna Hutts Aston
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I’m Trying to Love Rocks by Bethany Barton
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Magic School Bus Volcanoes and Earthquakes
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Rocks and Minerals by Dr. Sarah Stamps
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Geology Activities

Back at home we thoroughly explored our rock collection. We sorted, observed, identified and drew rocks. We also used a variety of activities, kits and books to help us learn more about geology.

General

• Outdoor School: Rock, Fossil and Shell Hunting guide was a huge resource for us. We went on rock hunts, learned about and identified the different types of gems and rocks, and more. We also read each chapter on the different kinds of rocks and then used their help to figure out which rocks we had in our collections. I wrote a whole post about this Outdoor School series – read here.
• Complete the Alchemy pages from our Harry Potter Curriculum from The Waldock Way
• Watched short videos on YouTube about the rock cycle, different kinds of rocks and weathering like this Crash Course video on Rocks.
• Crayon Rock Cycles (we followed the directions in this experiment on Little Bins for Little Hands) and documented the progress using the Alchemy Rock Cycle page from our Harry Potter Curriculum from Waldock Way

Minerals

Used National Geographic Mega Gemstone Dig Up kit. This was a HUGE hit with my kids. They patiently dug out each of the gems, exclaiming over each discovery and eagerly trying to identify it using our guide. We also used the National Geographic Kids Geode Kit which was also a ton of fun. Do both of these outside if you’re able to – they made a pretty big mess.

Learning about Volcanoes & Igneous Rocks

• Erupted a volcano using the National Geographic Volcano Kit.
• Baked Lava Cakes from GEOLOGY LAB
• Watched Volcano documentary videos on PBS

Learning about Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks

• We used our Rock Tumbler to clean and polish our rocks. Then we used our Rock books to identify the types of rocks we have in our collection.
• Got our hands a little messy with experiments about mud in our GEOLOGY LAB FOR KIDS book.
• Cooked layered sandwiches and conglomerates in the kitchen.
• Did a gravity art experiment where we filled a tray with paint and then dropped rocks to see what would make the biggest splatter. It was a ginormous mess but a ton of fun. Did bigger rocks splat more? Did it matter what angle we dropped them from? (see photo below)

Final Geology Celebration

We ended our Geology unit with a Rock Party with some homeschooling friends. During our party we:

• Played The Floor is Lava
• Cracked open more geodes. This was one of my kids’ favorite parts of the Geology Unit so we repeated the activity with our friends. These are the Geode Kits we used.
• Decorate smooth rocks with these markers.
• Made rock necklaces and bracelets with this kit.
• Ate rock candy.

CLICK HERE for More Upper Elementary School Unit

Butterflying isn’t the first thing that pops in my head when I think about Fall activities. To me, Fall has always been more about leaf peeping, pumpkin picking, and apple farms. That all changed last year when we read CITIZEN SCIENTISTS.

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This is a cool book that gets kids excited to participate with and explore nature. There is an adventure/focus for each season and the Fall one is all about butterflying. I highly recommend the whole book for inspiring adventures.

I also highly recommend the book WINGED WONDERS by Meeg Pincus. It’s a gorgeous, fascinating book about how the mystery of butterfly migration was solved.

Butterflying in San Diego

It turns out, in Southern California Butterflying is an ideal field trip to do in the late Summer, early Fall. If you live further north, then mark your calendar for earlier in the summer to see Butterflies at their peek.

WHERE TO GO

A Butterfly Garden is the ideal place to go Butterflying. We went to the Butterfly Garden in San Dieguito County Park. This is a fun park to explore with kids. There are trails, playgrounds and a pond. There is also a Butterfly Garden.

The Butterfly Garden is at the Northern end of the lower park. You can park nearby in a lot. We parked at the other end and hiked to the garden and back. The garden has an assortment of flowers and other plants that attract butterflies (along with hummingbirds and bees).

More Info about the Park & Garden: WEBSITE

WHAT TO BRING

• Sunscreen
• Water bottle
• Journals and Pencils (for kids who love to draw or create on adventures)
• Camera to practice taking photos (for kids who love a tool to use on adventures)
• Butterfly Guidebook (optional for kids who want to know more)

Butterflying Activity Ideas for Anywhere

Below are a variety of butterfly activity ideas for all ages to expand on your Butterflying adventure.

• Look for a Butterfly exhibit near you. Many zoos have seasonal butterfly exhibits. There are also places like the Butterfly Wonderland in Arizona (which my kids absolutely loved!) that are open year round.
• Butterfly Storytime for Preschoolers from My Storytime Corner – excellent Butterfly themed read alouds and more extension activities.
• Preschool Butterfly Unit from Bambini Travel – great ideas for a range of ages.
• In the Garden Unit from Bambini Travel – for kids who want to learn and explore more about flowers.
• Butterfly Art Prompt: put out photos from your trip or from a favorite butterfly book with simple drawing materials and invite your child to draw a butterfly.
• Plant your own butterfly garden. Have older children research what plants attract butterflies and plant some in your own garden.

Swimming back and forth in the tank in our schoolroom is Mr. Weasley. He’s a beta fish we recently adopted from some friends who are moving. He’s bright orange which is probably the most exciting thing about him, because honestly he spends most of his day hiding under the bridge in his tank. I’m not a fish person. I’m not really a pet person. None of that matters though, because my kids are animal obsessed and they are now fish obsessed.

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There have been hints at an interest in fish in the past.

There was the season where my son was in a “fishing club” at school that basically consisted a few friends who talked about fish and fished together when they could convince their moms and sisters that this was how we wanted to spend our afternoon. This past year he also earned a fishing merit badge at scouts which included learning about fishing in depth, going deep sea fishing, and learning to cook and clean fish.

Also Read: 10 Tips for Fishing with Kids

There was the snorkeling. Our first time was to see leopard sharks and the following summer we went to La Jolla Cove, a known local snorkeling spot, to see fish swimming in the reef. I’ll admit that it was pretty awesome seeing the bright pops of color under the water.

Also Read: Snorkeling in Oahu with Kids

Now there was Mr. Weasley.

Interests have a way of popping up like this in our lives. There are hints. Here and there an interest. And then they swoop in and pull all of a kid’s (or both’s) focus. They talk, read, watch, and learn obsessively about something. I have to admit it’s actually one of my favorite parts of parenting. The interests are rarely something I expect and they always pull us in interesting directions.

In this case, we swam towards fish and dove hard.

Ideas for Learning about Fish

Our interests have a general pattern to them. My kids (each different in their learning styles) like to explore interests in a few pretty predictable ways. After ten years, we’ve hit a groove (for the most part). I think we got here mostly by me accepting whatever random thing they were interested and then throwing any ideas I could find that felt meaningful around the house and seeing what sparked further exploration. Here are some ways we learned more about fish:

Caring for Our Actual, Live Fish

This was obviously where it started and caring for their little orange fish was a big part of this learning unit. They fed him, learned how to clean his tank, watched his movements obsessively.

Books about Fish

A Place for Fish
by Melissa Stewart
Find Online

How do Fish Breathe Underwater
also by Melissa Stewart
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Hello Fish: Visiting the Coral Reef
by Sylvia A. Earle
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Papa’s Mechanical Fish
by Candace Fleming
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Fishy Watercolors

I have pretty art enthusiastic kids and so art is often part of our learning. In this case, watercolors felt like an appropriate medium for representing fish. We did this a few times.

Materials:

• Mat for under paper or other table covering
• Paper towels
• Watercolors
• Watercolor Paper
• Paint Brushes
• Cups for Water
• Pencils or Black tipped pens
• Pictures of fish or close proximity to a tank of fish (optional)

Invitation:

When we do art it is rarely the “everyone come to the table so we can paint” variety. I like to set up an invitation – a spot for each kid to work and some sort of visual prompt – and let that spark their interest. If they’re interested, then it often stays out for a few days or is set out again multiple days (depending on our currently home size / table situation). In this case I set out our Outdoor School: Animal Watching book and some other fish book near the fish tank with the supplies listed above.

Nighttime Fish Habitat Check

We have been using the Outdoor School series to inspire some of our learning about outside, including animals. (You can read more about how we used Outdoor School books last year in Fourth Grade in this post).

When we started reading about fish in Outdoor School: Animal Watching my kids were super excited to do this Nighttime Fish Habitat Check.

Directions:

• Prep your flashlight in a bag, with rocks if needed.
• Plan where to go. We went to the bay because we snorkeled there recently and saw a couple fish and a stingray. We also found it helpful that where we could go on a bridge to get above the water a little, but we did see some fish wading into the water as well.
• Put on weather appropriate clothes and bring towels (these dock & bay quick dry towels are my favorites)
• Further directions for the habitat check are in the OUTDOOR SCHOOL guide, but it’s pretty straightforward.

More Fish Field Trips

Most of these field trips were repeated multiple times during our unit or period of learning about fish. Come back to the things they enjoy. Repeat things that are interesting. Talk about them and see what new questions they have and then head back.

• Snorkeling in the ocean
• Aquarium Field Trip
• Pet Store
• Coi Fish Pond at the Japanese Friendship Garden

You May Also Like: How to Use an Adventure Journal on Field Trips

More Unit Ideas for Upper Elementary School

UCSD in La Jolla, just north of San Diego has a fun sculpture collection all around their campus. Part of our fifth grade homeschool was learning about sculpture. We did a lot of looking at sculpture books and hands on sculpting ourselves, but seeing large, diverse sculptures in person is the best kind of inspiration.

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Sculpture Hunt

This scavenger hunt will take you around some of the pieces in the Stuart Collection on the UCSD Campus. Download your free printable hunt below to get started.

Also Read: Photography 101 – Teaching Kids to Take Pictures

Once you find parking (I’ll admit this can be tricky! My advice is to come on the weekend or during a campus break so you can get street parking just off campus). Then START at the La Jolla Playhouse and head north to Scholars Drive to find the answer to the first clue on the printable hunt.

Get Your Sculpture Hunt Printable Here

The printable will direct you around campus to four of the many pieces of art. There are a lot more, but this hunt will cover a range of types and take you to different parts of the campus.

More Ideas for Exploring Sculptures with Kids

Seeing sculptures is fantastic, but don’t stop there. Afterwards, create a variety of sculptures yourself! One of our favorites is working with clay. Here are some options:

• Go to a clay studio. Check your local area for clay studio for kids. If you’re in San Diego, we like Cool Creations on Garnet in Pacific Beach. This type of experience allows you access to a kiln.
• At home, or in a classroom, there are a lot of options as well. For smaller projects my kids love colorful air dry clay like this
• For larger or more authentic clay experiences, we love this big block of air dry clay.

You May Also Like:
GETTY VILLA, PERCY JACKSON & MYTHOLOGY FOR FOURTH & FIFTH GRADE

Get Your Sculpture Hunt Printable Here

Learning about Native Americans felt like an important piece of California history that I didn’t want to jump past learn about missions and the Gold Rush when I was planning out our Fourth Grade Social Studies curriculum.

I’m sure I did an imperfect job of talking about this with my children, but I did my best to offer them resources that helped explore the different tribes native to California to get a overview of the vast differences between tribes and their history both before and after Europeans arrived.

affiliate links are included in this post.

Books to Read

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids
edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Modern day powwow experiences are shared in this anthology of short stories. I love how this focuses on modern experiences when so many Native American stories for kids depict teepees and bows and arrows. The history is important, of course, but so is remembering that Indigenous people still live in our country. This is a well written collection of stories by various authors.
Find Online

Children of the Longhouse
by Joseph Bruchac
This is an exciting chapter book that looks at native american life but also their interactions with outsiders. It would make for a good read aloud, independent read or bookclub book.
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The People with Five Fingers: A Native Californian Creation Tale
by John Bierhorst
A picture book version of a Native American creation story. My kids loved this one and how different it was from the story they’re familiar with.
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How Chipmunk Got Tiny Feet: Native American Animal Origin Stories
by Gerald Hausman
This is a collection of short stories along the same vein as the picture book above.
Find Online

The Girl Who Rode a Shark & Other Stories of Daring Women
by Ailsa Ross
We’ve used this collection of stories for several units. For this one we read Sacagawea’s story. I like the brief but interesting stories for introducing my kids to interesting and daring women.
Find Online

Unit Activity Ideas

Native Californians were one of our loops for November. About once a week we worked on the list of activities below. Learning a little about, really just scratching the surface, the tribes that lived in California.

Activities we did to explore Native Californian tribes:

• Research about Tribes: we pulled out a stack of books I borrowed from our public library on a variety of California Native Tribes and my kids completed this independent research project on one of the tribes shown above.
• Work on Map Skills with this California regions/geography and tribes worksheet.
• Learn about how the Sierra Miwoks made food with this STEAM activity.
• Read FRY BREAD by Kevin Noble Maillard and made our own Fry Bread (there is a recipe in the back of the book).

Learning about Native Californian Art:

• Browsed the stunning collection of artwork in Art of Native America from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
• Learned the basics of weaving with these simple loop weaving sets.
• We also made these collaborative wall hangings that involved weaving from Meri Cherry.
• Then we did Lab 6 from the Minecraft Lab for Kids that involves weaving and talks about Native American patterns.

We could definitely do more. This is such a huge part of American history and it is often glossed over. This certainly won’t be the last time we talk about this aspect of American History in our house, but it felt like a good look at some of the beauty of the different tribes especially the ones that lived on the same land that we occupy today.

You May Also Like:
Ideas for Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade

Photography was our first art unit of fifth grade. In a world of watercolors and oil pastels, that might seem like a strange place to start but it leaned into my kids’ natural interest in photography and our heavily science based curriculum.

As with most things, we taught photography in a variety of ways but focused on getting out of the house and practicing their photography skills in the real world. (You can read all about my philosophy on learning and teaching in Little Walks Big Adventures

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Photography 101 Essentials

You do not need a lot to teach basic photography. I recommend:

• Cameras ( my kids both have one of these cameras with a waterproof strap to hook on their wrists to limit dropping )
• Photography Journals or some other place to keep and share their photographs. We are using sketchbooks like this to paste their photos into because it will be their art journal for the whole year.
• Computer & Printer – to upload and print photos.

Photography Neighborhood Walk

Our first field trip was a walk around the neighborhood with our cameras.

Before you go:

• Go over basics of how to use your cameras. How to turn them on. How to take a picture. Go over any safety recommendations. For example, I encourage my kids to wear the wrist straps whenever they’re carrying their cameras to avoid lots of dropping.
• Talk about photography. Before we went on our Photo Walk, I had them go online and find a photo that they liked. Just one. It could be a photo of anything that interested them – buildings, flowers, animals. One photo that they found interesting. We printed it out, added it to their photo journals and then shared what they liked about the photo. This led to a conversation about some photography basics. In our case, light and perspective were both discussed. I kept this brief and basic, but we talked about how they photo might have been taken and why they liked the way the subject had been approached.
• When we went on our walk I brought these up again as they were taking photos by saying things like; I wonder how the light would change if you took a photo of that flower from a different angle? or I remember you liked the photo that was taken from a low perspective, have you tried taking a photograph of that tree from that same perspective? or I see you taking a picture of that flower, I wonder how many different interesting ways you could photograph that same flower?

Afterwards:

• We learned how to upload photos onto the computer.
• They reviewed the photos they took and chose a few favorites. Those were printed and then added to their art journals with a sentence about their photo.

Visit an Art Museum

• Visit an art gallery or photography museum.
  The Getty Center in Los Angeles has a building devoted to photography. They also have a lesson plan for middle schoolers about photography. Here in San Diego, Balboa Park has the Museum of Photographic Arts.

We visited the Getty Center which is an amazing free art museum in LA. The architecture and garden is amazing. Make sure to set aside time to explore the garden. That was the part my kids loved best. I also highly recommend the kids scavenger hunts that are available next to the front desk.

There is also a full building devoted to photography which is where we focused our art viewing for this trip.

Ideas to Increase Engagement:

• Check online before you go to see what exhibits are currently showing. Take some time to learn a little more about the artists you’ll be seeing
• Use the info on their website to create a quick scavenger hunt for the photography section of the museum.
• Another option is to have your kids look around and then sketch their favorite photography in their art journal or write about they are inspired to try after viewing the photos.

The Getty
1200 Getty Center Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90049, USA
Open 10a-5p Closed Mondays
Entrance is FREE but you must pay $20 to park and have a reserved timeslot to enter.
Website

Additional Resources for Learning about Photography with Kids

• Great American Artists for Kids
  We are using this book all year to study different styles of art. It covers a range of art forms and artists throughout American history. Ansel Adams and Sandy Skoglund are the photographers included. Each chapter has a little about the featured artist and then an activity related to that artist’s work for your child to try. Buy Online
• Combine Photography and Poetry with this Best Part of Me photography project.

Read More Photography Tips

Mythology hooked my kids in fourth grade. They dove into gods and goddesses, primarily in Greek culture, but learned about mythology from around the world. Here are some of our adventures and resources as they explored the magical world of mythology.

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Field Trip to the Getty Villa

Getty Villa

While in Los Angeles for a weekend we visited the Getty Villa. This is one of the two Getty Museums in LA. It has Greek and Roman antiquities housed in a re-created Roman country home.

The Getty Villa makes a huge effort to be family friendly. There are a lot of activities for families at the museum. The super cool thing for kids who love mythology is that you can take an immersive audio tour of the museum.

My kids absolutely loved having the characters in their ears as they explored the museum on their own personal quest. Access the audio tour here or ask for more info at the information desk.

Getty Villa
17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272, USA
Open 10a – 5p, Closed Tuesdays
FREE to visit, $20 to park.
Must reserve a time slot online beforehand.
Website

Percy Jackson

Percy Jackson was our way into Mythology and I expect we’re not alone. Once my kids had read THE LIGHTENING THIEF, especially my daughter, they were hooked. Suddenly they wanted to know all about all kinds of mythology.

Percy Jackson Inspired Activities

• Make sure you visit the Rick Riordan website. There is a wealth of information including these Teacher Guides.
• There is a Lightening Thief Unit Study on Proverbial Homemaker.
• Fabulous Classroom has a huge list of resources about Percy Jackson learning inspired by the release of Sea of Monsters on DVD but they would work for a general unit as well in most cases.
• Here are some fun ideas if you want to have a Percy Jackson bookclub meeting from Adventures in Mommydom.

Book Recommendations:

There are SO many Percy Jackson books and related books, but in case your voracious mythology fan needs some more ideas here are some more series we’ve enjoyed.

• Hopeless Heroes series by Stella Tarakson
• Zeus the Mighty series by Crispin Boyer
• Thunder Cluck! Chicken of Thor by Paul Tillery and Meg Wittwer
• Goddess Girls series by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams
• Heroes in Training series by Tracey West
• Nico Bravo graphic novel series by Mike Cavallaro
• Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland

Mythology

Once my kids were exposed to mythology via Percy Jackson, they seemed to thirst to learn all they could.

Books to Read

• Usborne Illustrated Stories from the Greek Myths
• Myth Atlas: Maps and Monsters, Heroes and Gods from Twelve Mythological Worlds by Thiago de Moraes
• National Geographic Kids: Everything Mythology by Blake Hoena
• Gods and Heroes: Mythology Around the World by Korwin Briggs

Activities

• Impressive and diverse twelve week mythology study that covers all the curriculum areas on Redhead Mom.

Mythical Creatures

Mythical Creatures are some of the most fascinating parts of mythology, especially for kids who are huge animal fans like mine. If you want to go down this rabbit hole, here are some books and activities to explore.

Books to Read

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J. K. Rowling
• Mythopedia: What A Beast by Sophia Kelly
• Miss Turie’s Magic Creatures by Joy Keller – This is a cute picture book. If you’re diving into Mythology and Mythical Creatures with an early elementary schooler I definitely recommend this one.
• Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland is all about dragons that have to save their magical world. These are also good on audio.

Games to Play

• Createures Drawing Deck: This is game / art activity that is loads of fun if your kids enjoy drawing.
• Runes & Regulations: This is a strategy game that’s funny and also plays with mythical creatures.

Read About More Fourth Grade Units

Marine Animals are kind of an obsession in my house. My son has basically minored in sharks the last 3 years and my daughter vacillates between adoring anything from octopus to whale sharks to seashells and more.

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Declaring Marine Biology as one of our homeschool science subjects was an easy decision. We started the year exploring tide pools and learning about whales, then switched gear to study some other areas of science, before circling back again to sharks and Marine Biologists again in the spring.

Below are our favorite field trips and resources for learning all things Marine Biology with upper elementary school kids (so far – I’m sure there will be more).

5 Marine Biology Field Trips

Learning through adventure is a huge way that we explore topics around here. The hands on, real life experiences truly cannot be beat for getting kids exciting, curious, and engaged in learning.

Snorkeling with Leopard Sharks

La Jolla Shores is just a few miles from our house and happens to be the annual mating ground for leopard sharks. Wade into the water just off the beach and there they are. A few tips though because it took us a while to snorkel here successfully:

• Check the surf report before you go. You want the waves to be low and the winds to be light. This will also tell you what is appropriate to wear. The ocean is often cold even in the summer months and a wet suit is helpful if you plan to swim around out there for a while.
• Check the weather as well. You want a nice sunny day to really be able to see clearly in the water.
• Shuffle those feet. Sting rays abound in the same spot so make sure you go slow, shuffle your feet and keep an eye out for sting rays as well. If you do get stung, head to the first lifeguard you can find for treatment.

Read more about snorkeling with kids in this post.

Visit California Sea Lions

We are fortunate to live a quick drive from La Jolla where you can see California Sea Lions and Seals up close in their natural habitat.

Tide Pooling

We love visiting the tide pools at the beach when there is a negative tide. My biggest suggestion is to check the tide pools. You are looking for low tide and preferably a tide lower than -1. The lower the better. Around here in Southern California the winter months are usually the most ideal for tide pooling.

Read More: Top Tips for Tidepooling with Kids

Whale Migration

We are fortunate to live right on the Pacific Coast where seeing the annual gray whale migration is possible. Some years we have gone Whale Watching on a boat but because of Covid we didn’t feel comfortable doing that this year.

However, if you’re lucky it is possible to view the whales from the coast. Cabrillo National Monument offers a great point to view the ocean.

Aquarium or SeaWorld

Obviously, if you want to see marine animals up close, it is hard to beat an aquarium. In San Diego we have both Sea World San Diego and the Birch Aquarium. We have made many, many trips to both.

Children’s Books about Marine Biology

We have read so many books about Marine Biology. Truly almost all of what the San Diego Public Libraries have to offer on the subject and more we’ve ordered or been gifted. SO many books. These are our favorite though – especially for this age group.

Marine Science in the Real World by Carol Hand
About: Marine Biologists
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Ocean Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of the World Under the Sea by Julia Rothman
About: All of the Ocean
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Who Would Win? Hammerhead vs. Bull Shark by Jerry Pallotta and Rob Bolster
About: Sharks
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Life in a Frozen World: Wildlife of Antarctica
by Mary Batten and Thomas Gonzalez
About: Antarctica, the ocean and animals
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About Marine Mammals: A Guide for Children
by Cathryn Sill and John Sill
About: Marine Mammals
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Blue Floats Away
by Travis Jonker
About: Ice burgs, water process, climate change
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I Am the Shark
by Joan Holub
illustrated by Laurie Keller
About: Sharks
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Marine Biology Activities

Back at home, in between adventures outdoors, we explored Marine Biology in a huge range of ways. We used a variety of sources, books, music, hands on activities, experiments and more. Here are some great Marine Biology Resources for kids.

General

These are the two curriculum resources I used as the base for our Marine Biology learning. I took pieces from both, moved stuff around, and added more things – but these two are both a great place to start. They both have lessons on all of the main themes listed below.

Marine Biology Unit from The Good & The Beautiful – free download

Marine Biology for Kids

Learning about Oceans and Tides

• Ocean Song on Ted Ed
• Making Waves Activity from The Ocean Book: Aquarium and Seaside Activities and Ideas for All Ages
• Watch: The Magic School Bus Goes to Mussel Beach (on Netflix) and printable activities from Scholastic.

Learning about Tidepools

• You can’t replace actually visiting a tidepool. If this is a possibility in your area then I highly recommend it. Remember to check the tide tables (available online) for a negative tide so you’re actually able to see things!
• Read Ocean Soup: Tide-Pool Poems by Stephen R. Swinburne. It has facts about each animal alongside each poem. Afterwards, pick the animal you have the most questions about and research more information.

Learning about Rivers, Streams and Lakes

• Learn about frogs with Melissa Stewarts A PLACE FOR FROGS and her awesome learning ideas on her blog. I used the Teacher’s Guide that is on the right hand side bar.

Learning about Marine Life

General:

• Watch: The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten (on Netflix) and printable activity from Scholastic.

Sharks:

• Shark Week Unit Ideas has a full list of all of the fun shark activities we have done in the past few years.
• Watch: Shark Documentaries on Disney+ (SharkFest is one of our favorites)

Seals & Sea Lions

• Research. Gather a stack of books specifically about seals/sea lions and some that are just generally about marine animals and include pinnipeds. Take turns sharing information about both seals and sea lions. Create a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting them.
• Blubber Experiment. This experiment works with many ocean animals (whales, polar bears, etc) but we did it with our mini-seals and sea lions unit. As part of fourth grade science we are focusing on animal adaptations. After the experiment, have your kids write or discuss how the adaptation of blubber is important for seals and sea lions.
• Watch: TedEd Video about Sea Lions

Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises

• Measure out the lengths of different whales outside and mark them on the ground with chalk.
• Read The Secret Life of Whales by Rena Ortega. An absolutely stunning book about all things whale.
• Read LITTLE WHALE and talked about migration. Map your favorite or local whale’s migration path on a map or the globe.
• We also enjoyed the Play the Lunch with Whales Game in the Marine Science for Kids book.
• Watch: Secrets of the Whales series on Disney+

Final Animal Projects

At the end of our Marine Biology Unit, my kids each did a presentation on one animal of their choice. This allowed me to assess a lot of common core standards (speaking, coherent presentation and writing, research skills, organization, use of technology, etc.) and was a fun way for them to dive in deep on an animal they love.

• Pick an animal.
• Do research. My kids used this Graphic Organizer to take notes while they researched and prepared their presentations. You can DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE HERE.
• Pick a way to present and prepare a presentation.
• Present animal projects to family (or classroom).

Still More Ocean Ideas:

• 20+ Ocean Unit Activity Ideas for Kindergarten and First Grade
• Sea Turtle Unit for Preschoolers

California History is the social studies focus for fourth graders in California. Growing up in Wisconsin, I learned about Wisconsin history so this unit was almost entirely new information to me as well. We had so much fun exploring the diverse geography, history and people of California.

affiliate links are included

California Basic Facts

I used CALIFORNIA HISTORY FOR KIDS as the foundation for our study of California history this year. It covers California history from Natives and Early Explorers through modern issues like forest fires and pollution. It felt a lot less textbook like to read together than other options that I looked at and had some fun activities to do along the way.

My fourth graders also did a page in a California Dailies Workbook each week that helped to cover some of the basic facts, dates, and such we might have missed otherwise.

California Geography

California is one of the most diverse states in the United States. It has coastal areas, farmlands, mountains, and deserts. Helping my kids appreciate that diversity was a big goal this year and we visited each of these areas this year.

• Did Minecraft STEM Labs activities about maps, ecosystems, and city planning.
• Used California Region and State Pages from This Reading Mama state pack.

Coastal Region of California

• Visited Torrey Pines
• Took a field trip to see the La Jolla Sea Lions and learned more about sea lions with Good and Beautiful Marine Biology unit.
• Read: THE TREE LADY: THE TRUE STORY OF HOW ONE TREE-LOVING WOMAN CHANGED A CITY FOREVER by Joseph H. Hopkins

Desert Region of California

• visit Joshua Tree National Park. Visiting Death Valley National Park or Anza Borrego State Park would also be great choices.
• Visited the Balboa Cactus Garden and California Plant Garden at Balboa Park.
• Watch: Magic School Bus Dries Up and do activities on Scholastic

Forest/Mountain Region of California

• Visited Sequoia & King Canyon National Parks.
• Took weekly hikes at Mount Laguna in the Cleveland National Forest an hour from San Diego.
• Learned about Forest Fires

Farm Region of California

• I wish we could have visited Napa or a larger farming area, but we did visit an orange farm.
• We learned about what is grown in California and cooked with avocadoes and lemons.

California National Parks

California has some incredible National Parks and Fourth Grade is also the year that you can get a free National Park Pass for the whole family. Visiting the different California National Parks is an excellent way to support learning about California Geography and deepen your nature studies for the year.

Read: The Camping Trip That Changed America about Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir by Barb Rosenstock

Redwoods National Park

Sequoia and Kings Canyon

Joshua Tree National Park

Cabrillo National Monument

California History

We started the year by creating a huge timeline that we added to throughout the year as we traveled through time. Then we went chronologically through California history starting with Native Californians.

1500s – Early California History

Native Californians – We learned about tribes native to Southern California. This was a fun unit with lots of history and geography, but also art activities, awesome read alouds and more. READ FULL UNIT POST

Juan Cabrillo – read about him in our CA History book and then visited Cabrillo National park.

1700s – Spanish Missions

Father Junipero Serra founds the first California mission in San Diego. We visited the local Mission Basilica SD De Alcala. Then later in the year we went to Mission San Juan Capistrano in Oceanside. It is a bigger, beautiful mission with a free audio tour with admission. You could visit any of the other 21 California Missions up and down the coast of California.

1800s – Wars and Explorers

In 1821 Mexico gained independence from Spain and the Missions ended. This is a brief period before explorers start heading westward from the United States on the East coast. This led to the 1846-1948 Mexican-American War and then soon after the Gold Rush and statehood. This portion of history comes to life at Old Town San Diego.

Old Town San Diego represents life in the Mexican and early American periods of 1821 to 1872. It is a wonderful spot for a field trip with plenty of hands on activities and experiences. You can learn more about Old Town San Diego State Park on the CA State Park site. Girl Scouts San Diego also has a fun scavenger hunt (that can earn you a patch if you are in fact a Girl Scout) for Old Town San Diego.

Gold Rush, Telegraph, Pony Express, Transcontinental Railroad & Statehood

In 1848, James Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill and California’s path changed forever. As the Gold Rush began and people flocked to the west coast in search of fortune, statehood wasn’t far behind. California became the 31st state in 1850.

• Pan for gold, if you’re in the San Diego area you can do this at Old Town State Park and in Julian CA
• Read What Was the Goldrush
• Play Oregon Trail Card Game
• Built model covered wagons

What followed was a burst of development. The development of new forms of communication and transportation played a large part of these transformations.

• Read: Ride On, Will Cody!: A Legend of the Pony Express by Caroline Starr Rose to learn about the Pony Express.
• In 1861, telegraph messages began to reach California. Write notes to each other using Morse Code. Here are some more related activities from Education.com

Then in 1869 the Transcontinental Railroad was completed.

• Read Locomotive
• Cook food from The US History Cookbook. We made a Coast to Coast Apple Pie.

1900s: San Francisco

If you can visit San Francisco, it is such a fun city for families. Here’s a peek at our 48 hours in San Francisco during our California Road Trip.

Learn about the Golden Gate bridge and the 1906 Earthquake in San Francisco. We read What Was the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 to dive in more deeply about the Earthquake and how it shaped the state.

• Earthquake math place value activity from Orison Orchards
• Earthquake videos ( 1906 Earthquake – Why Do Buildings Fall in Earthquakes – Why Are Earthquakes so Hard to Predict )
• I used this free Earthquake worksheet to assess what my kids learned and document for their portfolios.

Movies & Film in California

1927 First movie with sound created. Film Capitol established.

• Visit Hollywood, Disneyland or Universal Studios if you are able.
• Read Who Was Walt Disney?
• Watched Imagineers docuseries on Disney+
• Read about Disney and history of movies in CA in California History for Kids

1941 World War II

• Visit Unconditional Surrender Statue and USS Midway
• Read On The Horizon by Lois Lowry
• Japanese Internment Camps which was included in our Japan Unit

Immigration

1965 Immigration increases with new laws

• Read: Between Us and Abuela
• Read: Santiago’s Way Home

Final Project

At the end of the Spring, each of my kids picked one topic from California History they were most interested in and created a presentation on it. They needed to explain the topic (how it was invented, the general history of it) and then explain how it impacted California History. My son did his on the Transcontinental Railroad and my daughter did hers on Disney and Film.