Fun Facts: Did you know?
Fish don’t have eyelids so they can’t close their eyes. Both squid and octopuses have blue blood! The blue colour comes from an oxygencarrying copper pigment in their blood.
The coastline of the United Kingdom is 11,073 miles (17,830km) long.
Hermit crabs don’t have their own shells. To protect themselves, hermit crabs search for abandoned shells – usually sea snail shells. When they find
one that fits, they tuck themselves inside it for protection and carry it with them wherever they go.
Baby puffins are called pufflings. Aahh! Many seabirds will spend several years at sea and only return to land to breed.
Jellyfish are made up of between 95-99% water.
The official measure of a sand grain is between two millimetres and a 16th of a millimetre in diameter. If a grain is smaller, it’s classified as silt. If
it’s bigger, it’s gravel.
Sea turtles have special glands which help remove salt from the water they drink.
The world’s largest seashell belongs to the giant clam. They can reach up to 150cm in length and are found in the tropical Pacific regions of the world.
The world record for the largest stick of rock was set in 2000 by Blackpool-based, Coronation Rock, whose giant sweet clocked in at 424.5kg!
Little puddles of ocean water on the beach are called ‘beach cusps’. They form in small bays hollowed out by the waves rolling in at an angle.
Molluscs can turn their shells different colours by eating a variety of colourful food. For example, red seaweed gives some sea animals a red shell!
Ideas for Homework
Bring pictures from home of yourself or family members at the seaside or swimming in the sea. Identify the different locations on a UK or world map.
Visit your local library to browse or borrow story and information books about the seaside.
Write or film a book review about your favourite.With an adult, use the web to research famous artists who use the beach for inspiration.
Make a miniature seashore garden, using natural materials such as pebbles, twigs, sand and shells.
Make a list of all the activities you could do at the seashore. Survey your friends and family to identify the ‘Top Five Shore Activities’ and show the
results in a pictogram or bar chart.
Create a collage of a seaside scene using magazine pages.
Share with your family the tongue twisters and riddles you have learnt. Can you write some more of your own?
Make a word search with all the names of the living things you have learnt about. Ask your family and friends to have a go!
Make a 3-D sea animal. You could use any material you like – perhaps papier-mâché, fabric, plastic bottles, clay, play dough or Lego pieces?
Write a poem about the living things that make their home in a rock pool. An acrostic or shape poem would be fun!
Design, draw, and paint a picture of a beach hut. Bring it into class and display everyone’s beach huts next to each other.