Snorkel Scene

Use Crayola® Oil Pastels to draw Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef ecosystem.

• 1.

  Explore various resources to research the location and characteristics of the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem. Note varieties of interdependent living things.

• 2.

  Use Crayola Oil Pastels on white construction paper to illustrate a small part of the ecosystem. Include several interdependent components. Refer to illustrations and photographs when drawing details.

• 3.

  Try these techniques when using oil pastels: <li>To achieve interesting color combinations, layer colors and blend with a soft cloth or finger. <li>To depict air bubbles in the ecosystem, fill in small circular areas with white and outline with a color. <li>To represent energy from the sun, add radiating lines of color through the water.

Benefits

• Students research, identify, and describe elements of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef ecosystem.
• Children identify how specific living and nonliving components interact within the ecosystem.
• Children create a visual representation of living and nonliving components of the Great Barrier Reef.

Adaptations

• Younger children view illustrations in books or on the Internet, creating drawings that depict basic interdependent things such as fish, plants, coral, algae, and the sun.
• Secondary students incorporate this pastel drawing as part of a larger written research project explaining the interaction and interdependence of components within ecosystems. Drawings can be on a larger scale with labels identifying species of plants, an
• Create cards identifying and describing each component in the ecosystem drawing and explain how it is interdependent within the system. Link cards with yarn or string to their representations.