INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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2 INTRODUCTION The movie Dolphin Tale 2 tells not only an inspiring story but also provides an excellent opportunity for families to learn about some of the fascinating aspects of dolphins and the oceans in which they live. This curriculum offers parents and students the tools to turn their movie experience into an enjoyable learning expedition, involving fun and interesting lessons, activities, and experiments. ocean and how this information relates to the movie. All of the lessons contain instructions and activities for elementary to high school-aged students, along with age-appropriate explanations and vocabulary. Each The dolphin denotes activities and experiments geared toward elementary-aged students, the sea turtle for middle school and high school-aged students. The text is written in an engaging way so parents can read aloud to younger students, and older students can read the material independently. Students will be encouraged to keep a notebook in order to record their work. This will become a wonderful way to review the material before and after the movie experience. When combined with additional reading, these activities provide a unique unit study for summer enrichment or school-year science work. The notebooks can consist of a three-ring binder with printed pages from the e-book, or students can construct lap books using colorful construction paper and photographs of their work. All of the lessons desired. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sherri Seligson has homeschooled her four children for 21 years and is the author of Apologia s Exploring Creation with Marine Biology high school curriculum, Interning for High School Credit, and the curriculum Dolphin Tale and War Horse.

3 LESSON 2: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF DOLPHINS LITERATURE AND BIOLOGY READ ALOUD A STORY WITH COLORING PAGES toward the small dolphin. The dolphin s mother, three times the size of her young calf, came alongside her young one as if to say, Don t play with your food. This is a lesson on how to hunt and eat. The dolphin calf was getting a hunting lesson from its mother this morning in the safety of the ocean sound where there was little current and little risk of predators. The dolphin mother knew that the shallow seagrass

4 She had to teach her young calf not only how to capture its food but also how to avoid predators. It would be a short four to six years that she would have to build this close bond with her calf and to teach it how to survive in the ocean. The mother dolphin turned her head, having heard the whistle of another dolphin. Four more dolphins were coming into the area, another mother and calf and two male dolphins. They were part of the mother dolphin s pod, living together in the ocean as a group. This gives dolphins a move out into the open ocean, migrating along the coast as the seasons change. The young calf doesn t realize it yet, but traveling in a pod keeps her safe. As the pod moved outside the inlet, it came across a hungry shark looking for an easy meal. Immediately, the older and stronger dolphins moved themselves in front of the young calves, echolocating and sending sounds to each other. They worked together, bumping the shark with their melons to scare it away. A sudden threat was quickly stopped, and the dolphin pod could continue on its way. it easier for them to feed. The young calf watched this and learned that in a group, it is much easier for dolphins to capture food. As she lives and grows in her pod, the calf will learn many more lessons that she will teach to her young calf one day. READING COMPREHENSION Based on the story above, see if you can answer the following questions. Do some research on dolphin pods if you need help. For further study, do additional research on the topics below and write a short report including the facts you learned in this lesson. 4. Explain how echolocating and whistling might help dolphins work together in a group to complete a 5. Explain how an isolated dolphin might be at a disadvantage in the wild as well as in an aquarium environment.

5 BECOME A SOCIAL HUNTER A package of at least 10 small balloons (more than this is better) A clean kitchen garbage bag Three other helpers A stopwatch while the other two will be your fellow dolphins. time yourself to see how quickly you can push all the balloons together into a group. DO NOT USE YOUR couch or some other hard surface to help you. Make a note of the time it took for you to get all the balloons together in a pile. Now do the exercise again with your two dolphin helpers. Work together to corral the balloons in a group. Talk to each other to make sure you don t miss any of them. the balloons by yourself, it probably took much longer and you likely became more tired. With your pod, though, the job was probably much easier.