I "maaaaaay" have had more fun with Jace's latest school project than he did...
Last weekend, Jace excitedly bounded out of his classroom at car pickup and started talking before the door was even open (oh wait - that's every day at pickup!). His class had been given a science project that was due in a week and he wanted to start on it RIGHT AWAY!
They were to create a shoe box habitat of their choice. Remember those!?!?! I LOVED making those in grade school - and even had to make one my freshman year of college. Jace already knew what he wanted to do as well, the Ocean. He chatted non-stop the entire way home about all the possibilities he could do to create the underwater habitat. I have to admit, my creative juices were going too :)
Over the weekend Jace and I headed out to collect the necessary supplies. Our first priority was getting the sea creatures, so we checked out the dollar store but only found some cheesy-looking fish. We did find some blue, glass stones that Jace grabbed and we decided they looked like water. A few stores later with no luck I knew we'd have to pull out the big guns and off to Michael's we went, which, of course, had the PERFECT tube of little sea creatures.
Our next dilemma was that we actually didn't have a shoe box. I've been very diligent about throwing out boxes lately so we had nothing that would do. We had planned to stop at the shoe store in hopes they had some extras, but inspiration struck in Michael's and we found a large, round box with a lid - perfect for a little aquarium! With our excitement peaked we headed home and got to work - this was definitely the most excited Jace has EVER been about "homework"!
We've worked on it all week, and finished up tonight - here is Jace's Ocean Habitat!
The lid serves as the surface of the water - Jace wanted a dolphin to be "jumping" out of the surface (it goes through, his tail can be seen on the bottom).
We did cut a window out of the side to peek thorough, but realized that it was really dark inside (much like the ocean depths!), but some holes cut in the top and added a little bit of this...
and voila! Let's see what kind of creatures live down here shall we? :)
Oh, how sweet - a little octopus. But why is he spewing out his black ink (which is his defense mechanism)? And wait... what is that in the background??
SHARK!!!!!!!!!!!
Here's a gentle creature, a humpback whale out for a lazy swim.
Oh, these must me his friends over on the other side.
And look, hiding under some rocks is a moray eel. Jeez, that octopus can't get a break, it looks like the eel has his eye on dinner.
Hopefully this sting ray can hid from all the predators in the ocean - he seems to be pretty content in the sandy bottom.
Oh look, another shark, a hammerhead - wonder if he likes octopus?
And the finished product!
