Identifying Seashells

Materials:
Seashells - We found ours at the beach, but these can be purchased at craft stores.
Shell Identification Cards - We found our cards here at Homeschool Share, listed as Shell Memory Game Cards.

We've been working on an undersea unit.  I use the term "working" very loosely.  Basically, we asked a bunch of questions, and the plan is to go to the library to get some books and find some answers.  But the other day, we were at the beach and the kids collected some seashells.  When we came home, we used our shell identification cards, found here at Homeschool Share, to categorize the shells we found. 

Some were easy to identify, like the cockle shells and the scallops.  

Some were a lot more difficult.  

There were lots of broken pieces.  In that case, we just gave it out best guess.  We've been talking about the word "hypothesis" lately.  

Natalie loved this activity.  Daniel loved watering the plants while Natalie and I identified shells. 

And Silas loved the water ;)