We recently did a unit study using the book Seabird by Holling Clancy Holling.

For our unit study we used this FREE Seabird unit study from Homeschool Share.

Each chapter has lesson plans which gives direction and ideas for study. It covered our read aloud, English, writing, geography and history, science and social studies for the time we used it. All I added to make it a complete homeschool program was our math program.

I also added my own spelling lists and we also created a Seabird seascape art project. (See project below.)

Mechanical Man’s sketch of Seabird.

 Here’s a quick summary of what we covered by subject area:

• English– vocabulary, writing assignments, literary analysis such as-character study, word uses (vivid verbs),  imagery, writing dialects, foreshadowing, similes and metaphors.We incorporated dictionary and research skills as well.
• Animal Science–  seabird study, arctic animal study, or whale study

You might like to use my nature notebook pages to record your animal studies. Read more about Bird Notebook Pages here.

Bird Notebook Page Preview

• Earth Science– glaciers and icebergs, island formation
• Social Studies-Greenland, Nantucket, history of whaling, the South Pacific, kinds of boats, sea travel, the Andes, California Gold Rush, Hawaii, latitudes and longitudes, China, generations, India

3D Seabird Sea Scape Tutorial

Materials you will need:

• Large shallow cardboard box or lid.
• Pacon Fadeless Art Paper, 48″ x 50′ roll, Clouds
• Acrylic Paints ( Variety of ocean and sea floor colors.)
• Cardboard to cut out coral and underwater plants.
• Shells, plastic animals, etc.
• Clay, popsicle sticks and white paper for sails.

1. Find a large shallow box or lid. Paint to cover words or cover with sky printed paper. We used Pacon Cloud Print Art Paper  for back cover and sky.For the iceberg, we simply added crumpled printer paper and painted around it.

2. Paint the background. For seabird we needed a sea bed area, under ocean area, arctic area, and sky- which is the cover paper in our case.

3. Next, add the details you want from the story. Whales, Seabird himself, coral and underwater details, and perhaps the island details.

4. Add a model ship. We designed our own little clipper ship from a few resources and our imagination:

Go here to build your own and research more about clippers.
We also found a interesting book on making a model, which could certainly be a stand alone project.

• Sculpt bottom with clay and bake.
• Cut and glue paper triangles and trapezoids to popsicle sticks for the masts and sails.
• Then attach to the them to the base with hot glue.

5. Now hang your ship from the top of the box. To add the ship you can use fish line or thread and hang to inside top with sturdy clear tape. And here is our finished product:

What’s your a favorite Holling Clancy Holling Book?

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