Swimming with the Seahorses

Aren't Seahorse so cool? I mean they have to be one of the cutest fish in the sea. Well at least that's what we think. It's kind of crazy to know that in our ocean (the Atlantic)where the kids swim, jump the waves, and boogy board there are thousands of tiny and not so tiny seahorses swimming around with their fry(baby seahorses). We have spent the month of May exploring all kinds of wonderful things, Seahorses is one of them. We started with reading Mr. Seahorse by Eric Carle. He writes some of my all time favorite children's books.

 We really enjoyed exploring the book,  we found hidden fish, counted babies, and talked about the differences of how different types of sea life carry their babies differently. Did you know that it is the daddy seahorses that carry the babies in their pouch? Also when a seahorse is born it is only 1/2 a centimeter long. That's tiny. The average size of an adult Seahorse is 4-6 inches and it hits adult stage of life at 8 months old.

The boys created a seahorse using the mosaic look, like Eric Carle does in his books.

They did a beautiful job.

Next we talked about how and what seahorses eat. The boys didn't really want to suck up plankton or shrimp, so I decided yogurt would be perfect for them to see what eating like a seahorse was like. They used their straw to suck the yogurt up like a vacuum. They liked it so much they asked for another yogurt. (laughing)

I drew a seahorse on that little white piece of paper(it's approx. 5 in. long-the average seahorse size). We then traced how big everyone was onto butcher paper and measured how many seahorses we would have to stack up to be the same height. (Math and they don't even realize it)

Of course I never want to leave Baby Bell out of our learning, so she got to play with a seahorse too. 

I recommend reading the books Seahorse Fry and Seahorses along with Mr. Seahorse, they are fabulous books packed full of great information. 

Last but definitely not least, the best way to learn about something is to find the real thing and watch it. 

When seahorses sleep they hang onto seaweed with their tail so they won't be swept away from there home.

Little B was fascinated by the seahorses.

Swimming seahorses

The seahorse is back to sleep. 

A few interesting facts we learned about seahorses 

 When seahorses find their mate, they dance together every morning holding on to each other's tail.

After the fry hatch they live in the daddies pouch for 5 days before the daddy pushes them out into the big ocean. 

It takes human's 9 months to grow a child inside of us, it only takes 15 days for a seahorse to hatch.  

A growing baby(fry) seahorse eats thousands of shrimp in one day. An adult seahorse eats 50.

If you are interested in a seahorse pack check out Homeschool share here.

If you haven't purchased Mister Seahorse for your shelves, it's a must have. We love it!

The boys really enjoyed learning all about seahorses. 

I hope you will join us for our next study on Shells and Hermit crabs. 

If you are looking for other great ideas check out my Pinterest board here.