Living in a land-locked state (in a desert, no less!) makes it easy to forget that the world is FULL of water. In fact, 71% of the Earth's surface is covered in water.
Dip your toes in some ocean knowledge with five fun things to teach your kids:
1. A silly joke.
Oh, buoy! I sense a fin-tastic ocean joke is on its way...
What does the ocean do when it sees its friends? It waves!
2. A new vocabulary word.
The ocean is full of unusual creatures with unusual names like the Royal Gramma, the Sarcastic Fringehead, the Tasselled Wobbegong, and Hawaii's famous Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. Learn more about these interesting fish at padi.com.
What is a Humuhumunukunukuapua'a? It's Hawaii's state fish. Also known as a reef triggerfish, the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a's name translates to "the fish with the pig-nosed face."
3. A word puzzle.
To solve a rebus, consider not just the words, but the placement, size, color, and quantity of everything within the box (and sometimes just outside the box!) when trying to decipher the puzzle.
4. A fun fact.
The ocean is a mystery. According to National Geographic, scientists have studied a greater percentage of the surfaces of Mars and the moon than our own ocean floor.
What lurks below the surface of Earth's water? Well, we don't really know. More than 80% of the Earth's ocean has yet to be mapped, explored, or even seen by humans. Learn more about the ocean from National Geographic's Resource Library.
5. Teach a personal discovery.
Mermaids are mythical sea-dwelling creatures found in folklore across the globe. You probably recognize the name Ariel right away, but movies and literature often use other magical ocean-inspired names for their characters like Sirena, Coral, and Aquamarine.
Just for fun, what is your mermaid name? Use the Mermaid Name Generator or create your own with ideas from Imagine Forest, an online resource dedicated to helping people improve their creative writing skills.
"Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back." - Chinese proverb
