Habitats: Tide Pool, Coral Reef

Although Zac has mostly been interested in our own biome, Temperate Forest, he is slowly starting to be curious about other habitats. For the past year he's been fascinated by the globe and all of the maps he can find. It used to be that he brought them to me and wanted to know where we are on them, but now he is starting to make connections about life in other places.

Of course, he is constantly picking up the "school-kid books" and "reading" everything he can get his hands on. Living in a house that is also a school has a major influence on what he's exposed to. But one thing I've noticed about all four of my children. If you fill the house with books, buy new ones all the time, read yourself, read to them, and then tell them they aren't old enough to learn how to read on their own yet, they'll look at books CONSTANTLY day in and day out and sneak them at night. Whether you're living in a school or not.

Yes, it's a magical thing. But soon, not yet.

Keep building up the mystery.

I actually wonder if Zac might be the first of my children to teach himself to read. He's constantly looking for patterns. He can write his name although I never showed him how. (I actually wonder if maybe I should show him now, so that his pathways are correct. Since he's locking in some bad habits.)

His current quest is to find the number 10 all over the house, and he's right about what 10 looks like even though I never told him. He figured out place value and how to read numbers to 40. I think that's from looking at the numbers on the pages of books. He taught himself how to read an analog clock to the half hour, just from me telling him what time it was and how much time until the end of his nap.

So now I'd like to start keeping some notes on resources we have for different habitats. Notetaking is key. Writing things down clears my head of all of the jumble of reminders that keep chiming like an endless wall of cuckoo clocks. And maybe the lists are helpful to other people too? If you know of a picture book or chapter book or nonfiction book or poem or song, etc. that would be useful for one of these lists, please share!

Tide Pool (California - Pacific Ocean)

Pagoo
by Holling Clancy Holling

Tide Pool (England - Atlantic Ocean)

I See a Kookaburra! Discovering Animal Habitats Around the World
by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page

natterjack toad
sea star
peacock worm
hermit crab
anemone
oystercatcher
sea urchin
weeven fish

Coral Reef

The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World's Coral Reefs
by Kate Messner



Coral Reefs: A Journey Through an Aquatic World Full of Wonder
by Jason Chin

moon jelly
azure vase sponge
stove-pipe sponge
giant barrel sponge
row pore rope sponge
orange elephant ear sponge
yellow tube sponge
warty sea rod
common sea fan
bushy sea whip
pillar coral
ivory coral
whitestar sheet coral
great star coral
staghorn coral
elkhorn coral
boulder brain coral
mustard hill coral
thin leaf lettuce coral
spotted cleaner shrimp
red coral crab
spiny lobster
rock-boring urchin
giant anemone
squirrelfish
blue chrome
banded butterflyfish
queen triggerfish
glassy sweeper
balloonfish
sergeant major
indigo hamlet
spotted scorpionfish
Atlantic spadefish
fairy basslet
porkfish
foureye butterfly fish
queen angelfish
horse-eye jack
dog snapper
rock beauty
Spanish hogfish
blue striped grunt
giant barracuda
glasseye snapper
rainbow parrotfish
french angelfish
neon goby
Nassau grouper
longlure frogfish
green moray eel
spotted eagle ray
southern stingray
common octopus
Caribbean reef squid
hawksbill turtle
nurse shark
reef shark
whale shark
great hammerhead shark



Look Again: Secrets of Animal Camouflage
by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page

whip coral shrimp
trumpetfish
crocodile fish
scarlet frogfish
giant Pacific octopus



One Night in the Coral Sea
by Sneed B. Collard III

bryozoan
plankton
nudibranch
Portuguese man-of-war
orange cup coral
finger coral
scroll coral
star coral
branching staghorn coral
soft coral
purple tipped coral
pineapple coral
mushroom coral
fire coral
staghorn coral
brain coral
galaxy coral
frogspawn coral
star coral
giant clam
biscuit sea star
brittlestar
feather star
crown-of-thorns starfish
blue sea star
cone snail
banded coral shrimp
sea fan
scarlet sea fan
ghost shrimp
slate-pencil sea urchin
spotted seahorse
diagonal-banded sweetlips
lionfish
sixline wrasse
smalltail wrasse
bird wrasse
banded pipefish
harlequin ghost pipefish
greensnout parrotfish
gray demoiselle
yellowmask angelfish
goby
squarespot anthias
blue-girdled angelfish
harlequin tuskfish
axilspot hogfish
slingjaw wrasse
damselfish
striped boxfish
anthias fish
princess damselfish
lemon damselfish
Gunther's wrasse
moray eel
blue-spotted stingray
blue-ringed octopus
bottlenosed dolphin
green sea turtle
humpback whale
whitetip reef shark



Time to Sleep
by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page

parrotfish
green sea turtle


Coral Reef Habitat Mat from Waseca Biomes

marine zooplankton
marine phytoplankton
staghorn coral
pineapple brain coral
toadstool leather coral
table coral
mushroom coral
cabbage coral
brain coral
Gorgonian fan coral
tube sponge
giant barrel sponge
Christmas tree worm
fuschsia flatworm
feather star
magnificent anemone
giant clam
crown-of-thorns starfish
Pacific cleaner shrimp
blue linckia sea star
sea squirt
pygmy seahorse
bluestriped fangblenny
bluestreak cleaner wrasse
yellowstripe fairy basslet
steephead parrotfish
one spot foxface rabbitfish
emperor angelfish
ocellairs clownfish
blue tang
bluestripe snapper
pajama cardinalfish
blue ribbon eel
green sea turtle
blacktip reef shark

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