Exploring Tide Pools with Curious Kids - Books and Resources

One of my favorite things about living in the bay area is being close to the ocean.  And one of our family's favorite past times is searching the rocky coastal beaches for little creatures who live in the tide pools, admiring colonies of sea anamone, stroking the rough back of brightly colored sea stars, tickling hermit crabs, and just admiring the wide variety of seaweed.

Exploring a Tide Pool with kids of any age can be a wonderfully educational experience.  Here are some resources that might be helpful to you as you prepare for a day by the surf.

Websites:

Enchanted Learning: The Intertidal Zone

Enchanted Learning provides a colorful set of illustrations and coloring pages which you can printout for use in teaching kids about the four intertidal zones: from the spray zone (which is usually dry) to the low tide zone (which is almost always wet.) Provides a good summary of the different zones.


Life in the Ocean

This online lesson was created by elementary school teacher Norma Goddard. You'll find photos and lessons on starfish, anemones, crabs, sea urchins, limpets, and algae appropriate for kids kindergarten to 3rd grade.  From the algae page, you can begin the eight question multiple-choice quiz.

Doheny State Beach - Tidepools

This site provides black and white illustrations of the wildlife that can be found at Doheny State Beach together with information about each creature.  If you are visiting any tide pool in California, you're likely to encounter many of the sea creatures.

Home Science Tools - Tide Pool Lesson for Grade K-2

A lesson plan together with instructions for creating an underwater viewer to help kids see the animals in a tidepool.

National Geogrphic Puzzler

An interactive tidepool puzzle and quiz game.

Cabrillo Tide Pool Study for 5th Grade

Excellent lesson plan for exploring tide pools with 5th graders

Trekking the Tide Pool for 1st Graders by Mrs Hughes

Lesson plan for first graders on tide pools

Books

Peterson's First Guide to Seashores

A field guide that first perfectly in a your pocket with colorful pictures of creatures that are most commonly found at the seashore.

National Geographic Science Chapters - All About Tide Pools by Monica Halpern

Ages 4-8

What's in a Tide Pool by Anne Hunter

Ages 5-7

Life in a Tidal Pool by Virginia Silverstein

Ages 9-12

Related Resoureces:

• Kid-friendly Tide pools in California
• Kid-friendly Tide Pools in Oregon
• Kid-friendly Tide Pools in Washington
• Kid-friendly Tide Pools on Oahu, Hawaii
• Kid-friendly Tide Pools in Maui, Hawaii
• Kid-friendly Tide Pools on Big Island of Hawaii
• Tips for Exploring Tide Pools Safely with Kids

-----------------------------------------

LiLing Pang is a contributing author on Trekaroo – a reviews site dedicated to exploring and traveling with kids.

Travel with kids to: CA | CO | DC | FL | HI | IL | MA | NC | NY | PA | TN | TX | VA | WA