Many people head to the beach in summer, but you can make it
more than a fun outing! Either before your beach trip or during, take some time
to teach your kids about the ocean.
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A great introduction to beaches, and a great way
to get kids to respect the beaches, is to teach them about what a healthy beach
should look like. While at the beach, ask them questions. How crowded is it?
Are there animals around? Is there trash on the ground or in the water? With
kids you will likely be heading to a busier beach with a lifeguard, so once you’re
home show them photos of unoccupied beaches. Ask them how humans change the
beaches, and what they should do to treat the beaches well.
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Now that your kids have talked about the human
impact on beaches, extend that to the ocean. Ask what your kids think first,
then give examples. Tell your kids about how sewage gets into the water. Show
pictures of sea creatures trapped or injured due to garbage. Explain how boats
and nets can hurt animals, even if they aren’t caught. This will encourage your
children to take better care of the beach and even their neighborhood.
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Now you can go more into the marine life in the
ocean. Whales are a great place to start. Almost all kids know about them, and
they have a complicated history. See what types of whales they know about, and
expand that knowledge by telling them about species of whales they don’t know
about. Explain whaling, when whales were hunted for not only their meat, but
their blubber. The whale hunting caused some whales to go extinct, and most to
be endangered. They are now protected. Feel free to discuss other marine life
such as sharks, turtles, and jellyfish.
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Now it’s time to dive deeper…in fact, dive as
deep as you can go! The Mariana Trench is the deepest place on Earth, and that’s
sure to grab your kid’s attention. Very few descents have been made, so what we
know about this place is limited. Almost nothing lives in this deep part of the
ocean, as far as we know. Because the water is so deep (almost 7 miles), the
trench is dark with temperatures barely above freezing. Live humans have only
reached the bottom of this trench one time. The water pressure is so high that
almost nothing can survive down there. However, due to lack of exploration, for
all we know there are creatures living in the depths that haven’t been
discovered yet.
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Now you can move on to ocean habitats that can
hold more life than the deep Mariana’s Trench. Most of the ocean life your kids
are familiar with will live in the upper zones of the ocean. There’s plenty of
charts online that go into depth about these zones so be sure to use them!
