Historically, early sailing, fishing, etc. were recorded by drawings. They were often farfetched.

Have some kids describe in writing without naming a creature. (Give them a picture to start the activity.)

Years before it was faddish, I found a book on Nautical Knotting. We learned it, the kids loved it, and it turned out to be the basics of Macramé. Sailors made key rings and bracelets. Most were real boating knots.

Sun Prints

Make a Map using only natural landmarks that they see on the cruise (or on a class trip, or in the school yard).

Any chance of making something to people scale like an oyster… and trying to open it the way a starfish does?

Scrimshaw: What do sailors do without TV? Give out plaster tiles… engrave with pencil-like implementation… wax, then shoe polish engraving. Don’t know if it would work… but something similar might.

Check out a new book by a woman who spent time living in Lewes, Delaware. She recorded stories about sea life and the bay… don’t know the name, but it’s supposed to be great and you may get ideas. (Notes from the Shore, by Jennifer Ackerman.)

I was surprised to learn a friend goes everywhere in the world from his backyard on the Tuckahoe River. Chart a way to anyplace using the rivers as highways. We’ve forgotten how to look at it that way.

Exotic Aquatics is the term used for all things that now live in the waters that are not indigenous to the area. Phragmites, certain worms carried on boats, zebra mussels, oyster diseases.

Products inspired or made from local sea creatures: e.g., Barnacles inspired super glue. Make up more.

Artwork and Crafts: made from sea creatures, local and historical; jewelry, mother-of-pearl, driftwood. Make something. Tumble some oyster pieces?

Could some kind of “Where’s Waldo” mural of the Bay be made? Or a collage that each student could add to?

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