Ocean Lapbook

Top off your study of the deep sea with the templates for this colorful ocean lapbook.

No limit to the artistic affects you can achieve with your favorite media.

Add snaz and color to your lapbook with colored pencils, markers, acrylic paints, highlighters, and other basic art supplies. Suggestions below for making your own lapbook from the MatchCard printables. But of course the sky is the limit in how you and your kids will individualize your own lapbooks.

An inside look at the panels in the ocean lapbook

There is at least one fold out for each of the objectives from MatchCard Science Ocean Unit Study. In addition to the re-usable MatchCards and the regular review game, students include the content in their lapbook which they will proudly share.

Ocean Map Fold Out

Use the Ocean Map from Ocean MatchCard #1 to create this fold out. Colored pencils were used to color the ocean blue and land yellow. Blue markers indicate the ocean currents.

The map was cut out and folded in half. The words "Ocean Map" were written with oil crayons, and colored pencils swirled colors around it.

It was glued on Panel #1.

Parts of Seaweed Booklet

The name and description of each part of seaweed is in the inside flap.

Panel #2 contains the parts of seaweed from MatchCard #5. The seaweed was colored with oil pastels. The background was colored with colored pencils. The booklet opened to show the name and description of each part. Fiskars cut the wavy line at the top of the ocea.

Ocean Creatures

Ocean creatures from Ocean MatchCard #2 is displayed on Panels 3 and 4. The ocean and creatures were colored with crayons.

A tri-fold was made for the three types of ocean creatures (Benthos, Nekton, Plankton.) The title is on the front and striped with different colored pencils. A description is listed on the middle flap. The inside contains pictures and examples of species in that class.

Water Routes

Panel #4 has two different booklets with water routes information from Ocean MatchCard #4.

The MatchCard diagram was shrunk. The different parts of the watershed and waterways were labeled. It was then cut into a square, folded, and collapsed as a triangle.

List your own watershed on the outside of the triangle by naming the creeks and rivers that water will join from the time it falls into your yard until it reaches the ocean. Each part was colored with a different crayons.

Seven different parts of the MatchCard were made into a septagon with the name written on each of the seven flaps. (Ocean, lake, spring, brook, creek, river, estuary) Lift the flap and reach each definition.

The Ocean Zones

The ocean zones from MatchCard #6 were painted directly onto the top of Panels 7 & 8 with acrylic paints. Only three colors were used: blue, white, and black. At the top blue and white were mixed, then blue, then blue and black.

A diagram of the ocean basin was colored using different layers of color. The basin was cut out and and glued over the ocean zones once the paint had dried.

Small match books were made out of tri-folds for each of the three major ocean zones. The name is on the front, the area and defintion are inside the booklets. The thin red area at the bottom of the front was colored red like the bottom of a match book.

Another piece of a file folder was cut out to the the flap that covered the ocean zones. "How Low Will You Go" was written with marker on the front flap. Fish stickers were added. A bottom flap was made by folding it backward and gluing it on so the top is pulled downward to reveal the different zones of the ocean.

The Ocean Floor

The definitions of each area of the ocean floor is read as the flaps at the bottom are opened.

The diagram of the ocean floor from Ocean MatchCard #4 is at the bottom of the Panels 6,7,8,& 9. Each section was colored using a color-on-color technique with colored pencils. The features on the surface of the ocean floor were highlighted with a thin brown marker. (You may wish to use an ultra thin black marker if you don't have brown. The ultra thins work better than the regular thin markers.)

At the bottom the flaps indicate the name and features of each part of the ocean floor.

Algae, Seaweed, Plants

A segmented booklet allows algea and plants to be compared using the information from MatchCard #7. Highlighters were used to highlight the different types of seaweed. Since we didn't have a brown highlighter, yellow, orange, and blue were highlighted over the words and it appeared brownish.

Colored ink pens emphasized the diagrams and key information.

Making the Cover

"Oceanography Unit Study" was printed on blue paper. Curvy fiskar scissors cut out the blue paper.

One quarter inch was cut away from each side of black cardstock.

The blue paper was glued onto the black cardstock and the black cardstock was subsequently glued to the front of the unit study lapbook.

Glitter fish stickers were added to the cover and to different areas inside the folder.

What Will Your Lapbook Look Like?

That's Not all Folks!

You might like to liven up your ocean study even more with our list of ocean tales from classic literature. Fierce storms, fearsome sea monsters, and fearless adventurers will capture their imagination and enliven your studies.