Stories about the Mayflower, Moby Dick, explorers or sea fairy tales are a great resource for words about the ocean. Introduce the words to your students and teach them the meanings of the words. With pre-readers, read the story after you teach the words and have students explain the word when you read it or make a sound that indicates they recognize the word. After you read the story, allow the students to retell the story using the vocabulary words. Encourage them to illustrate parts of the story and include words like "starfish," "whale," "crab," "harpoon," "galley," "fishnets" or "mast" in the picture. Challenge pre-readers and early readers to sequence cards with story events.
Vocabulary and spelling words relating to the ocean can be tied into language arts activities. Tell elementary students to write a poem about the ocean or write an ocean fairy tale or short story. Instruct upper elementary students to create a ship log to accompany a story such as "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe, "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville or "If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620" by Ann McGovern. Have students learn about sea animals by choosing an animal and writing a story about it or writing a descriptive paragraph about its habitat.
Crossword puzzles help students match words with their meanings. Create a crossword puzzle with your vocabulary words, Alternatively, have the students use a fill-in-the-blank puzzle to match the word with its place in the story they read. Hangman games and word search puzzles help students learn how to spell the word. Give students a list of ocean words and have them alphabetize the list. Challenge students to create a list of ocean words with at least one word starting with every letter of the alphabet.
Children should learn to talk about ocean activities and ocean-related animals and habitats. Challenge elementary students to memorize and recite the words to an ocean poem or the words to a popular ocean song or sea shanty. Encourage upper elementary students to make up and perform an ocean rap song or create an ocean-themed puppet show and perform it for the class. With young students, have them sit in a group and you start an ocean story with each student in the class adding to it.