"Sea Mammals" Art & Nature Science Unit

Come visit the fascinating world of lovable Sea Mammals in this Art & Nature-Science Unit.

It contains 76 pages of delightful pictures, poems, articles, and art lessons about dolphins, porpoises, whales, and seals—from the up-to-110 foot blue whale that can hold an entire football team on its tongue, to the cute little 5 foot long ringed seal that can dive down 1,640 feet deep. We have included fun tables for your kids to compare the sizes of whales, speeds and leap heights of dolphins, and deep diving records of seals.

Your kids will read about dolphin intelligence, whale watching, and our editor’s experiences petting a baby killer whale. They will learn about pinnipeds and cetaceans, including deep ocean cachalot whales, singing humpback whales and a man who composes cello music to go with their songs, delightful white beluga whales, and even a little whale with a long horn reminiscent of unicorns!

They will learn about 3-ton (6,000-pound) elephant seals, trick-performing sea lions, cute little furry harp seals, and walruses feeling their way around in the dark depths of the Arctic Ocean, eating over 6,000 mollusks from the ocean bottom each day. How are they able to dive down so far and stay down so long without running out of breath? At each turn we share with your kids the understanding that these incredible feats of nature can only happen through design by an intelligent Creator, God.

In this issue we have included more than 20 coloring pages, beautifully done, in most cases with our colored picture examples for your kids to learn from. They will definitely improve their art abilities as they learn about color gradations, as the light aqua water at the ocean’s surface fades gradually into darker shades of turquoise and darker and darker blues. We show them how to portray the ocean’s sunshine surface as a sea mammal looks upward from beneath the water. And they’ll learn about reflecting sunset skies in the water, too.

This issue contains more than a dozen paintings of the sea (including sailboats) by famous artists for your kids to enjoy, discuss, and in some cases seek to replicate, in order to learn the simple art principles that they convey. We feature artist Winslow Homer and discuss how he creates cheerful or anxious moods depending on the colors he uses. And we share our own family drawings of dugongs, beluga whales and seals (drawn by our kids at ages 13 and 15).

Best of all, we give you an exciting 2-page article about archaeological discoveries that may confirm the crossing of the Red Sea by Moses and the Children of Israel by God’s incredible miracles.

So get ready to be inspired! Download and get started on your Art & Nature-Science Unit on Sea Mammals today!

Originally published as issue #4 of the popular Artistic Nature Magazine (no longer a magazine). The editor, Joymarie Dunlap, was a leading writer for The Teaching Home magazine for 10 years.