Explore! Deserts and Oceans Thematic Unit

Description

Full lesson plans for thematic, hands-on classes.  There’s enough content for up to three hours of content for fourteen weeks or you can use just half a lesson each week to extend the content to cover an entire 28 weeks!

These lesson plans are also highly adaptable for various ages and time constraints. 

Weekly activities include:

1. A craft
2. Key points on the weekly topic
3. A collaborative project
4. A writing activity
5. A math or logic activity
6. A survival or preparedness activity
7. A large, topic-related activity
8. A physical activity

Weekly topics for Explore! include:

Week 1 – Training for Adventure
Reading, studying, languages, physical preparation, library, map making, learn to observe

Week 2 – Desert Adventures: Special Equipment and Preparation
finding water, desert temperatures, water cycle

Week 3 – Desert Adventures: Find New Creatures
Camels, Scorpions, animal tracks, desert diorama, desert dichotomous key, 72-hour kits, bush tucker, desert web of life

Week 4 – Desert Adventures: Seek Out New Lands
Howard Carter & Lord Carnarvon, Burke & Willis, Aboriginal craft, Timbuktu, Arabic calligraphy, tell time by the sun, Australia Day food, boomerangs

Week 5 – Desert Adventures: Search for Lost Cities and Treasure
Exploring a tomb, Egyptian death mask, papyrus, oil candles, Egyptian food, Egyptian artifacts

Week 6 – Desert Adventures: Discover Natural Wonders
Mirages, sandstorms, Grand Canyon,  Adrinkra cloth, Senet, emergency survival kit, experiment with erosion, sandstorms, and mirages, game from Zimbabwe

Week 7 – Special Event: Celebration in the Desert
Hike, nature hunt, liars contest

Week 8 – Famous Explorers
Magellan, Lewis & Clark, Vikings, runes, spice trade, mapping, Viking treasure hunt

Week 9 – Across the Oceans: Special Equipment and Preparation
Boats, diving equipment, submarine, sailing skills, dangers at sea, starfinder, ocean water experiments, word roots, knots

Week 10 – Across the Oceans: Find New Creatures
Sea monsters, creatures of the deep, concrete poetry, squid dissection, ocean food chain

Week 11 – Across the Oceans: Seek Out New Lands
Northwest Passage, Columbus, Ancient Explorers, Atlantis, daGama, Cook, Darwin, Amunsen, Galapagos Islands, ocean currents, Bermuda Triangle, timeline of exploration, signal mirrors, water density

Week 12 – Across the Oceans: Discover Natural Wonders
Volcanoes, hydrothermal vents, ocean abysses, ocean water layers, Great Barrier Reef, military time, Hawaiian language, emergency sanitation supplies

Week 13 – Across the Oceans: Search for Lost Treasure
Famous Shipwrecks, sunken treasure, Titanic, emergency shelter, shipwreck survival

Week 14 – Special Event: Celebration on the Ocean
Survival cooking, symbiosis, beach cleanup treasure hunt, boatmaking, boat races, treasure hunt, review game, shipwreck game, refreshments

Access to lessons includes membership to Learning Outside the Box website (information included in the product download).