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Ocean Hide and Seek
By: Jennifer Evans Kramer
Illustrator: Gary P. Phillips
Publisher: Sylvan Dell Publishing
Copyright: 2009
Genre: Marine Animals, Nonfiction, Juvenile Literature
Grade Level: Preschool - 3rd
Brief Synopsis: The sea is a place of mystery, where animals big and small play hide and seek! Can you imagine a shark hiding in the light? What about a clownfish in plain sight? Don't believe it? Then, sink into the deep blue sea with Jennifer Evans Kramer and Ocean Hide and Seek! Surround yourself with the vibrant ocean illustrations of Gary R. Phillips. The ocean is an old, old place, and the exotic animals in the depths have learned to adapt to their surroundings to survive. Can you find the creatures hidden on every page? Or will you, too, be fooled by an ancient, underwater disguise?
About the Author:
Jennifer Evans Kramer- she loves spending time outdoors and believes children make the very best nature guides. Jennifer graduated with a BA from Emory University and a JD/MBA from Georgia State University. It was at Emory that Jennifer obtained her NAUI scuba certification. Her first dive trip was to a rock quarry in Alabama, where there were no sea animals. Since then, she has snorkeled and dived off Maui, the Caymans, and the coast of Cozumel. She loves to talk about coming face-to-face with a white tipped reef shark! In addition to Ocean Hide and Seek (Spring 2009), Jennifer has also written Good Luck Charlie and The Ninth Dragon. She has fiction and non-fiction stories and articles published with Highlights for Children, Ladybug, Educational Testing, McGraw Hill, and more. Jennifer currently resides in Georgia, with her husband, four children, and a standard poodle that thinks he is Elvis.
Gary R. Phillips- he has been a freelance illustrator for 25 years. He has illustrated for numerous clients in both the editorial and children's illustration markets receiving Verse Page Illustrator of the Year from Highlights magazine in 2003 as well as five other awards from Highlights. Gary has several books to his credit, including 86 Years: The Legend of the Red Sox, New Old Shoes, The Naptime Book, and Santa's Little Sleigh. He has also taught illustration and creative thinking as an adjunct professor. Gary lives in a rural corner of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with his wife, two daughters, and two Siamese cats. He loves camping, tennis, painting out in nature, and drawing wherever he goes.
Jennifer Evans Kramer- she loves spending time outdoors and believes children make the very best nature guides. Jennifer graduated with a BA from Emory University and a JD/MBA from Georgia State University. It was at Emory that Jennifer obtained her NAUI scuba certification. Her first dive trip was to a rock quarry in Alabama, where there were no sea animals. Since then, she has snorkeled and dived off Maui, the Caymans, and the coast of Cozumel. She loves to talk about coming face-to-face with a white tipped reef shark! In addition to Ocean Hide and Seek (Spring 2009), Jennifer has also written Good Luck Charlie and The Ninth Dragon. She has fiction and non-fiction stories and articles published with Highlights for Children, Ladybug, Educational Testing, McGraw Hill, and more. Jennifer currently resides in Georgia, with her husband, four children, and a standard poodle that thinks he is Elvis.
Gary R. Phillips- he has been a freelance illustrator for 25 years. He has illustrated for numerous clients in both the editorial and children's illustration markets receiving Verse Page Illustrator of the Year from Highlights magazine in 2003 as well as five other awards from Highlights. Gary has several books to his credit, including 86 Years: The Legend of the Red Sox, New Old Shoes, The Naptime Book, and Santa's Little Sleigh. He has also taught illustration and creative thinking as an adjunct professor. Gary lives in a rural corner of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with his wife, two daughters, and two Siamese cats. He loves camping, tennis, painting out in nature, and drawing wherever he goes.Themes: - Learning about the importance of camouflage
- Animals tactics to survive
- Using rhyming and repetition to create a flow while reading
- Learning about different marine animals
- Animals tactics to survive
- Using rhyming and repetition to create a flow while reading
- Learning about different marine animals
Pre-Reading Activities:
- Have the students play a round or two of hide-and-seek. Once the game is over have a class discussion about the strategies they used to stay hidden the longest. What helped them to not be found by the other players? Why were some students found very quickly? Ask the seekers...What skills did you use to find the other classmates?
- Ask students to come up with everything they know about fish and marine life. What types of fish do they know? What do they eat? Where do they live? Once they are done, come up with a big class list of all the prior knowledge coming from the students regarding marine life.
- Begin a class aquarium and have the students take on the tasks like feeding the fish. This will build students interest in learning about sea life if it is also something that can take care of in the classroom.
- Have the students play a round or two of hide-and-seek. Once the game is over have a class discussion about the strategies they used to stay hidden the longest. What helped them to not be found by the other players? Why were some students found very quickly? Ask the seekers...What skills did you use to find the other classmates?
- Ask students to come up with everything they know about fish and marine life. What types of fish do they know? What do they eat? Where do they live? Once they are done, come up with a big class list of all the prior knowledge coming from the students regarding marine life.
- Begin a class aquarium and have the students take on the tasks like feeding the fish. This will build students interest in learning about sea life if it is also something that can take care of in the classroom.
- Make a graphic organizer for the students to get the technical, scientific aspects out of the story. Next to each marine animal have them write what they do to hide or stay safe.- What other animals use camouflage like the sea creatures in this book? Students will turn and talk, and then we will connect the story to things that we already know. After this the students will create a picture of their animal of choice and their habitat. They will include a couple sentences on how they camouflage themselves.
- Ask the students how the illustrators in the book help us understand how these sea creatures stay safe? What do you like about the illustrations?
- Students will get in groups of 3 and will receive a fact from the book about ocean hide and seek. They will become the experts on their topic and as they present the rest of the class will listen and take notes. The description of the animal needs to be in the students on words. They will get a sheet that says; Fact Title, Description, Example. There will be multiple areas for this because students will need to write in their notes as they are listening to the other groups.
- Imagine if you could change your own skin color to blend into your surroundings. In fact, if you look at the army camouflage outfit, that's what soldiers do with their clothes! To what color would you change your skin to hide in or around:
WATER, GRASS, SAND, ROCKS, SNOW, LEAVES, MUD, TREES.
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Reflection: I really like this nonfiction book because it is not typical of what most would picture a nonfiction book to be. It is a cute and catchy storyline that also teaches the students a lot about camouflage under the sea and the survival of marine life. The pictures are very vivid and really help to capture the creatures hiding in their habitat. I like that the book also includes links to their educational website for the book. The publisher has many books on this website that come with games, pictures, and other fun facts.
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