Unit Study on Lobsters
What do you know about the lobster in the fish tank at your local grocery store or fish market? Learn all about lobsters, their habitat and what their lives are like before they reach your plate.
How long can a lobster live? What kind of habitat does the lobster live in? What is the lobster's lifecycle? Are lobsters endangered?
Hands-on activities from tidepooling to word walls are at your pincer tips! Scuttle on down for lobster learning activities...
Creating a Lobster Environment in the Classroom
Setting the Stage for Lobsters
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The first two areas that I like to set up when beginning a unit on lobsters are the Lobster Tank and the Sand Table.
Lobsters live in salt water so you need to set up a salt water tank. Pet stores have all the equipment and information that you need but you may find that there is a knowledgeable older sibling or parent that can set it up for you.
Inspired by the turtle tank at the Boston Children's Museum, I looked for a wide flat tank with a clear bottom. This allows children to lye under the tank to get a view of the undersides of the lobsters as they move around the tank.
From research done by Jelle Atema I found that lobsters like to have hiding places so we fashioned hiding holes from broken cement blocks leaving the bottom open for observation.
Sensory Tables for your Lobster Unit Study
Explore the Lobster Habitat
Set the sand table up with sand, shells and rocks from the beach and a couple of plastic lobsters.
SEE-THRU SENSORY TABLE
Amazon Price: $466.25 (as of 01/01/2010) 
Lobsters are Invertebrates
Lobsters have no bones
Lobsters are crustaceans. They have a hard exoskeleton.
When you eat a lobster, use this time for dissection. Examine the hard exoskeleton. See how the joints fit together and protect the soft body inside.
Clean and dry as much of the lobster's exoskeleton as possible. Spray it with a bleach solution and let that dry. Then put it in the sand table for exploration.
(NOTE: Always wash your hands after handling the shells.)
- Lobster Printout - Enchanted Learning Software
- Lobster Printout. The Lobster is a crustacean that lives on the ocean floor.
- How to Eat Lobster
- Colorful, step-by-step instructions on how
to eat a lobster. Also includes advice on cooking, and what parts you can eat,
and what parts you shouldn't!This Bobby approved section is coded for
optimum accessibility by people with disabilities.
Observation of Lobsters in the Classroom
Lobster Larvae in the Classroom Project
- Lobster Literacy
- Sustaining a thriving lobster fishery through science and community.
Students in Carla Eutsler's 5th and 6th grade science classes at Friendship Village School raise lobsters from hatching to settlement. In the process students learned about lobster biology and the marine environment.
They participated directly in the aquaculture of lobsters by monitoring the water quality in the lobster raising tanks, raising brine shrimp to feed the lobster larvae, and identifying the larval stages as they grew.
These budding scientists had plenty of opportunities to hone their observation skills by watching and writing about the recently settled lobsters in the aquarium.
Lobsters and Marine Biologist Jelle Atema
After meeting and talking with Jelle, Boston University would be the place I would send my child if he or she wanted to study Marine Biology.
- Jelle Atema: A Fine Sense of Smell
- Marine biologist Jelle Atema has a discriminating palate and a connoisseur's nose for fine food and wine. Each spring he collects a new crop of lobsters from the waters near his laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts for his observation tank, not for his dinner table-where he investigates this crustacean's curiously fine sense of smell.
The Secret Life of Lobsters
Jelle Atema was one of the professors at a banquet for students accepted to Boston University. My daughter had gotten accepted to that university. Jelle talked about the work he does with lobsters at his laboratory in Woods Hole. His talk was so intriguing that I went up to him afterwards to find out more about him and his work with lobsters. That is when I found out about the book The Secret Life of Lobsters.
The author was a student of Jelle's and much of the book focuses on Jelle's work. It is fun, interesting, scholarly and at the same time a fascinating story to read. Once I picked it up I couldn't put it down.
The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean (P.S.)
Amazon Price: $10.07 (as of 01/01/2010)
Lobster Anatomy & Biology
- Lobster Anatomy & Biology
- We at the Lobster Institute are happy to answer any questions you may have as a follow up to your online research.
Lobster Prey
What do Lobsters eat?
Tactile and visual learners will benefit from playing with the animals that the lobster eats. Turn your rug into an ocean floor and let the lobsters find their prey.
What do Lobsters Eat?
Adult lobsters are carnivores or meat-eaters.
Most lobsters are nocturnal meaning that they are most active at night.
As adult predators, lobsters eat crabs, clams, worms, snails, mussels, flounder, and other lobsters.
Plastic crabs, flounder, and worms as well as real clamshells, snail shells and mussels shells can be added to the sand table for the children to act out the scenes of the predictor/prey relationship.
- OSL-American Lobster
- Learn about what lobsters eat at various stages of their development.
- Food Web Cards
- Lobster Food Web Cards
Who eats the lobsters?
Lobsters are the prey too!
- Lobster Printout - Enchanted Learning Software
- Lobster Printout. The Lobster is a crustacean that lives on the ocean floor.
- Hyannis Whale Watcher - Marine Life
- Lobsters are both predators and scavengers.
Giant Lobsters
- Poseidon the giant lobster | YeinJee's Asian News
- Fun and discovery blog, with funny junk and bizarre stuff, as well as knowledge sharing in science and technology, history, geography, mysterious stuff, Internet, gadgets, and the latest buzz.
Rescuing Old Lobsters
- NYC eatery grants freedom to lobster centenarian - Yahoo! News
- A 140-year-old lobster once destined for a dinner plate received the gift of life Friday from a Park Avenue seafood restaurant. News, Headlines and Latest Stories on Yahoo! News
Lobster Books
Gather a wide variety of books about lobsters, the ocean and soon the children will be reading all around the room.
L Is For Lobster: A Maine Alphabet Edition 1. (Discover America State By State. Alphabet Series)
Amazon Price: $12.21 (as of 01/01/2010)
Lobster's Secret (Smithsonian Oceanic Collection)
Amazon Price: $4.95 (as of 01/01/2010)
Lindie Lobster, A Tale of Big Claws, No. 29 in Suzanne Tate's Nature Series
Amazon Price: $4.95 (as of 01/01/2010)
Coral Reef
Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 01/01/2010)
Lobster Chair for Storytime
Cuddle up with a great lobster book and imagine that you are in the ocean too!
- Lobster Chair
- KKM WonderShop specializes in unique hand crafted Adirondack chairs and furniture for children and adults.
More Lobster Activities
- Learning About Lobsters - Unit Study on Sea Creatures, Lesson 10
- Learning About Lobsters - Unit Study on Sea Creatures, Lesson 10. Have you seen a tank of live lobsters in a restaurant or the supermarket? They aren't very friendly looking, are they? Learn all about lobsters!
- Lobster Worksheet
- Lobster seatwork.
- Gulf of Maine Research Institute: Lobster Activities
- Learn All About Lobsters: History of Lobstering, Lobster Boats, Lobster Life Cycle and mating, even how to eat them!
Includes: Lobster Math, Making Buoys, Harvesting Lobsters, Crustacean Poetry, Lobster Factoids, Lobster Anatomy, and Lobster Links. - Lobster Lesson Plans
- Lobster Lesson Plans from the Lobster Conservency
Lobster Habitat Bulletin Board
- 5-14 - Illustrations and photos - Natural habitats
- Royalty-free colour illustrations of different natural habitats. These are offered free for educational use by Learning and Teaching Scotland.
Lobster Bulletin Board
Fishing Net, 6 X 10 Ft Fish Net, Netting Shells, Starfish, Floats Decorative Nautical Decor Display
Amazon Price: $14.00 (as of 01/01/2010)
Plastic 11.5 inch Lobster 1 pc
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 01/01/2010)
Sea-Life Border Trim (12pcs/Pkg)
Amazon Price: (as of 01/01/2010)
BORDER OCEAN WAVES SCALLOPED
Amazon Price: $2.40 (as of 01/01/2010)
Lobster Pot Words
Graniteware 19 Quart Decorated Lobster Pot
Amazon Price: $29.80 (as of 01/01/2010)
Norpro Red Lobster Cracker
Amazon Price: (as of 01/01/2010)
Utility Tong, 12'', extra heavy weight 1.2 mm. stainless steel, scalloped edge
Amazon Price: (as of 01/01/2010)
Plastic Lobster
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 01/01/2010)
Lobster Poetry and Songs
- The Lobster Quadrille - Lewis Carroll (C L Dodgson)
"Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail.
"There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail.
See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!
They are waiting on the shingle - will you come and join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance?
Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?
Keep your little Lobsters Busy
Oceans of Sea Life Activites
Sea Life Art & Activities: Creative Learning Experiences for 3- To 7-Year-Olds (Williamson Little Hands Series)
Amazon Price: (as of 01/01/2010)
Janice VanCleave's Oceans for Every Kid: Easy Activities that Make Learning Science Fun (Science for Every Kid Series)
Amazon Price: $11.66 (as of 01/01/2010)
Awesome Ocean Science (Kids Can! series)
Amazon Price: $15.25 (as of 01/01/2010)
The Ocean Book: Aquarium and Seaside Activities and Ideas for All Ages
Amazon Price: $10.10 (as of 01/01/2010)
Lobsters
The crustacean puzzle helps with learning spacial relations and logical thinking.
Pens with sea life toppers make writing fun and can also be used for Write the Room activities.
Use the dice for making lobster games such as a board game where the lobster needs to crawl from hideout to food supply to hideout.
Plush Yomiko Lobster SM 10"
Amazon Price: $13.19 (as of 01/01/2010)
Scramble Squares: Crustaceans
Amazon Price: $5.98 (as of 01/01/2010)
Sea Life Pen
Amazon Price: $4.95 (as of 01/01/2010)
Safari Main Lobster
Amazon Price: $10.99 (as of 01/01/2010)
16mm d6 Round Cornered Opaque Lobster Dice
Amazon Price: $0.85 (as of 01/01/2010)
Lobster Math
Lobster Trap One-to-One Correspondence
Buy several sets of lobster and lobster trap napkin rings.
1. Children match the lobsters to the lobster traps.
2. Count the lobster traps.
3. Count the lobsters.
4. Notice that there are the same number of traps as lobsters.
Variation: Make patterns of lobsters and traps.
New England Coastal Lobster and Trap Napkin Rings - Set of 4
Amazon Price: $19.99 (as of 01/01/2010)
Skip Counting with Lobster Legs
How many legs on a lobster?
Lobsters have 10 legs. Using the plastic lobsters, tongs and lobster pot again, roll some dice, count out that many lobsters and then Skip Count to see how many legs all together.
- Plastic Lobster, Lobster Replica - Animal Toys
- Lobster, 8 1/2-inch plastic (length includes feelers) - Your purchase helps save endangered species!
Lobster Quadrille Skip Counting by 4's
Learn how to make Lobster Lima Bean math manipulatives and use them to set up the Lobster Quadrille. Then skip count by 4's to see how many lobsterss are dancing the Quadrille.-
Skip Count, Skip Count, Count by Two's
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Skip Counting is what you do when you count by 10's, 5's or 2's. All young children learn to Skip Count but did you realize that this is one of the beginning steps to learning multiplication. This lens has rhymes, songs and activities for teaching S...
The Lobster Quadrille
Alice At The Palace (1981) - Mock Turtle, Lobster Quadrille
The Lobster Quadrille
- The Lobster Quadrille from Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll (chapter10)
- The Mock Turtle sighed deeply, ...you can have no idea what a delightful thing a Lobster Quadrille is!'
'No, indeed,' said Alice. 'What sort of a dance is it?'
Mock Turtle and Gryphon demonstrating the Lobster Quadrille to Alice
'Why,' said the Gryphon, 'you first form into a line along the sea-shore-'
'Two lines!' cried the Mock Turtle.
Board Games about Lobsters
Play games and learn more about lobsters and the ocean they live in.
Late for the Sky Ocean-Opoly
There's something fishy about OCEANOPOLY. It's all the fun of a large-scale aquarium without having to set it up or clean it! This game features all kinds of ocean life with details about each one on the backs of the deeds. You'll swim around the board as a crab, fish, shark fin, lobster, starfish, or seahorse. Collect your blocks of water and turn them in for the big fish to collect the most sand dollars and win the game!
Amazon Price: $19.99 (as of 01/01/2010)
Prof. Noggin-Life In The Ocean
Take a plunge into the coolest trivia game yet. Professor Noggin offers a variety of questions as vastly deep as the ocean itself, with trivia on lobsters, dolphins, whales, sharks, and many other animals of the high seas.
Amazon Price: $6.95 (as of 01/01/2010)
Lobster Colors and Coloring
Blue, Yellow and Red Lobsters
- Blue Lobsters
- Only one in two million lobsters are blue in color. Scientists blame this on a genetic defect that causes the lobster to produce an excessive amount of protein.
Apparently the yellow lobster is even rarer with only one in 30 million live lobsters being yellow in color. - Lobster Coloring Page
- Color a Lobster.
- Lobster coloring page
- Coloring pages lobster. Free realistic colouring pictures. Educational coloring sheets to print and download. Coloring book pictures.
Lobster Crafts
- HowStuffWorks "Lobster Craft: Loony Lobster"
- This Loony Lobster animal craft is one cute crustacean. Learn how to make your own Loony Lobster with these illustrated instructions.
- Lobster Origami
- Make a lobster.
- Lobster Mosaic
Adam Begley used chips of tiles to make this beautiful lobster mosaic. Adam has a lot of fun teaching a mosaic class in Traverse City, MI at the Traverse City Art Center facility.
He also offers an "Online, Mosaics 101 for Kids" that is send out in segments, like assignments.
Parents can be a wonderful resource for your classroom. Ask for donations of broken times and volunteers to help with this project.
For a less ambitions project, children could use construction paper or bits of recycled paintings to make a Lobster Mosaics.
Lobsters learn about the Ocean
- Ocean Unit - Ideas for Teaching, Resources for Lesson Plans, and Activities for Unit Planning
- Float potato whales in a Salt Water Experiment
"Jelle Atima was looking for an animal to study with high post-experimental eatability."
Eat a Lobster Tonight
Live Lobsters Shipped to your Door!
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Live Lobster From FineLobster.com!
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I decided to do something special for dinner and thought "What could be better than fresh, live lobster?" A friend recommended this website, so I went there and ordered fresh lobsters to have them delivered overnight. Wow! They came the next day. I...
Cook a Lobster
- Boiled Maine Lobster Recipe : : Food Network
- Food Network invites you to try this Boiled Maine Lobster recipe from Dinner: Impossible.
Lobster Teaching Fashion
Lobster Fashion inspired by Ms. Frizzle
Sugar Kids' Betsey Cat
Amazon Price: (as of 01/01/2010)
Adult's Lobster Halloween Costume (Size: Standard)
Amazon Price: (as of 01/01/2010)
Lobster Repeat Tie by Fun Ties - Black Polyester
Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 01/01/2010)
Exploration beyound Lobsters
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Book Bags. Home Bags, Book Buddies, Story Bags... Literacy Bags are a fun way to help children share what they are learning with their families. Children take these literacy bags home, read the stories, do the activities with their families and then...
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It's Raining! It's Pouring!
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As the Rain Pours Down the Learning Soars... Water, rain, puddles, wetness... This lens will give you dozens of ideas, resources, hints and tricks to create water-themed rainy activities for both homeschool families and classrooms. There are endle...
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Frog Unit Study: Hopping to Learn
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Take trips to the frog pond. Become a frog and play games and sing songs, gobble up the insect words and swat the fly verbs. This lens will give you dozens of ideas, resources, hints and tricks to create frog-themed activities for both homeschool fam...
This Lobster Unit Study is in the Four Wheeler's Online Unit Study Directory
Thank you to the Four Wheelers for including the Lobster Unit Study in their Online Unit Study Directory.
- Internet Directory of Unit Studies
- The Four Wheelers Internet Directory of Unit Studies contains a list, roughly arranged by subject, of links to unit studies that are published on the Internet.
Look Who's Twittering about Lobsters
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- SustainableSeas
- @TrevorCorson I'm just finishing The Secret Life of Lobsters - Well done!
-
- FindelaTierra
- lobsters will be abounding RT @dserjeant: @FindelaTierra lol excellent - don't have to bring my own lobsters do I?! :-)
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- teamkimberly
- @lovelycalls didn't thought of slapping on some sunblock?! but oohs, i love eating lobsters! can i like eat you? LOL! :D
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- dserjeant
- @FindelaTierra lol excellent - don't have to bring my own lobsters do I?! :-)
-
- Quartamill
- Ppl wanna go to red lobsters i cant even eat/taste nuttin
Lobsters of the Sea just received a Purple Star
Congratulations Lobsters!
Photo Credit: Lobster receiving a Purple Star
original image by FlickR member "hazelnutter" licensed under CC 2.0.
Lobsters of the Sea just received a Purple Star !
Thank you Purple Star Squids for the honor of receiving a Purple Star!
Only a few purple stars are given out each week, to exceptional NEW lenses created by Giant Squids. Read all the goods and news about purple stars.
Lobster Chat
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Reply
- Pastiche Pastiche Dec 14, 2009 @ 10:49 am
- Lee Loves Lobster and this Lobster Lens ... congrats on the purple star, another excellent resource for teaching, and also for adults who like to learn
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Reply
- Evelyn_Saenz Evelyn_Saenz Dec 15, 2009 @ 3:39 pm
- Thank you so much. Here's a virtual lobster for your pot :)tw
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Reply
- ElizabethJeanAllen ElizabethJeanAllen Dec 4, 2009 @ 3:35 pm
- Great purple star lens!
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Reply
- Evelyn_Saenz Evelyn_Saenz Dec 5, 2009 @ 6:41 am
- Thank you, Lizzy. So glad you enjoyed this Lobster lens.
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Reply
- Spook Spook Dec 2, 2009 @ 12:15 pm
- Came back for another look and to say I must be losing it. Blessed by an Angel.
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About the Author of this lens
Evelyn's Hands-On Learning Blog.Find out what I'm up to when I'm not investigating lobsters.
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Evelyn Saenz: Lensography of a Teacher
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My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning should be integrated and no skills should be taught in isolation. I believe that each topic s...
by Evelyn_Saenz
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