With a budding marine biologist/zoologist in our midst, anything to do with the ocean is a big hit around here – so I was excited to be chosen to review one of the fabulous underwater DVDs from Dive Into Your Imagination.
We were sent the DVD titled “Who Lives in the Sea?” – perfect for us.
Since the girls are quite a bit older than the recommended ages for the educational guides (more about those later), and because Hannah already knows quite a bit about marine life from reading and from being a Young Environmentalist for our local SeaLife Aquarium, I was a bit worried that the DVD wouldn’t hold their attention and there wouldn’t be anything on the DVD that they didn’t already know. I shouldn’t have worried – the DVD was 45 minutes of pure education and entertainment for the girls, and they’ve watched it repeatedly. (And those catchy little tunes really do get stuck in your head!)
PRODUCT DETAILS
The DVD consists of four parts:
Chapters
- Let's Go Swim With the Dolphins
- Playtime With Sea Lions
- Baby Birds and Their Families
- Dinosaurs of the Sea: Marine Reptiles
- Eight Armed Animals
- Living Forever Under the Sea
- Nudi, Nudi, Nudibranchs
- Whale Sharks: World's Biggest Fish!
Bonus Chapter: The Ocean AlphabetSpecial Features
- Meet Annie
- Meet Craig (Craig Dobbin, who wrote the music)
- Helping your kids love the water (tips & tricks)
- Credits
- Transcript of the movie (a nice feature)
The Ocean Song – a lovely introductory song and video clip
Other products – info about other DVDs offered
You can select to play the DVD in English, Spanish, or with music only.
The DVD is available at both websites (ANNIE CROWLEY or DIVE INTO YOUR IMAGINATION) for $19.95.
We were also given access to both educators guides that complement the DVD.
Guides are available for PreK – K (306 pages), and Grades 1-3 (347 pages). Colorful and appealing, they are chock full of additional information and learning activities to go along with each chapter of the DVD. From the website:
The Educator Guide to Who Lives in the Sea accompanies the award winning DVD of the same title by Dive Into Your Imagination. Now educators can use this revolutionary program combining ocean literacy standards with science, math, literacy, social studies, art, character education while adding a special behavior component in which students use imagination play to become scuba divers, scientists, submarine pilots, explorers, and so much more. The Dive Into Your Imagination Educator Guides combined with the award winning DVDS, and soon to be released books and ibooks will engage your students while they read, watch, listen, collaborate, and do.
Who Lives in the Sea Educator Guides are available in two age-group versions. Each educator guide covers eight chapters with 6-7 activity station per chapter aligned with common core and next generation standards. As your students explore amazing animals such as dolphins, sea lions, cephalopods, and whale sharks, they will learn literacy, science, math, geography and more. There are more than 150 extension ideas to keep your imagination flowing!
The price for the printed educator guides is fairly expensive ($299 for both grade levels), I believe, because they were written with classrooms in mind - but for a limited time when you order a DVD you can receive the guide free if you mention in the comments section that you’re a homeschool parent.
SPECIALS:
- when purchasing any of the DVDs if you'll mention in the comments that you homeschool and would like to have the PDF version of the Educator Guide and which level you’d like, she will send it to you for free. This offer is valid at the time of this post, but order quickly - I don’t know how long this offer will be honored.
- Annie is also offering free shipping on the DVDs during the months of May and June, 2012.
WHAT I LIKE
Great footage, great narration. Easy to watch, and easy to listen to.
One of our favorites parts was the alphabet song – naming sea creatures that start with each letter of the alphabet. The girls have taken upon themselves to find a sea creature whose name starts with a V (this is a teaser – watch the movie and find out why!).
The “Helping your kids love the water” section under Special Features has great tips & tricks to help parents do just that – help their kids love the water.
My personal favorite part of the DVD was the section about my favorite sea creatures, cephalopods. Those cuttlefish are amazing!
I WISH…
I wish I’d had those tips/tricks for helping kids love the water when my girls were really young!
WATCH OUT FOR
Be prepared – if your kids love the ocean and ocean creatures as much as mine do, you’ll watch this movie over and over. But that’s okay because it’s a great DVD!
After seeing this video (or, I suspect, any of the series), your kids might just want to be like Ocean Annie when they grow up! (And I don’t blame them – what she does looks really fun!)
The narration tends toward lower elementary ages, but my older girls still enjoyed it.
BE SURE TO
Learn about the history of Dive Into Your Imagination.
Get more info on this DVD HERE.
Explore the rest of the products offered HERE.
Check out Annie’s BLOG.
Check out the EXPLORE and KID’S CORNER sections.
COMPANY CONTACT INFO
Skype: Annie Crawley
Phone: 805-453-1947
Annie Crawley
www.AnnieCrawley.com
Annie@AnnieCrawley.com or annie@diveintoyourimagination.com
www.DiveIntoYourImagination.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/anniecrawley
Twitter: AnnieCrawley
Facebook: Annie Crawley
FINAL THOUGHTS
I really believe that the target audience of these DVDs is that for which the educational guides were written – PreK – K and Grades 1-3. However, my girls really enjoyed them anyway, and learned quite a bit from them. I plan to purchase more.
THOUGHTS OF MY CREW MATES
To see other reviews of this product, click HERE and look for the linky tools list at the bottom of the post. For giveaways, other product reviews and other fun things, follow the 2011-2012 TOS Homeschool Crew blog at:
**Disclaimer: As part of the 2011-2012 TOS Homeschool Review Crew, I received the product referenced in this review (DVD and educator guides) at no cost in exchange for my fair, honest and unbiased (and not necessarily positive) review. No other compensation was received.
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