About oceans
Welcome! I'm so excited to explore our blue planet with you. Before we dive into the deep blue sea, I'd love to know what sparked your curiosity today. What interests you most about the ocean, or is there a specific reason you want to learn about it?
5th grade level
Awesome! Adapting everything for a fifth-grade level is perfect. To start our journey, here is a roadmap of the exciting ocean topics we will explore together.
Your path
Ocean Zones and Physical Properties
Life in the Ocean
Human Impact and Importance
What Exactly is an Ocean?
When you look at a globe, the first thing you probably notice is how blue our planet is. That is because the vast majority of Earth is covered by the .
At its simplest, an ocean is an incredibly huge, continuous body of that fills giant basins on the Earth's surface. Unlike a backyard pond or a freshwater lake, the water in the ocean contains dissolved minerals—mostly sodium chloride, which is the exact same chemical as the table salt you sprinkle on French fries.
Make worksheets
You've got it! I will gladly put together some great study materials for you.
Before we build our worksheets, we need to meet the grand members of our global ocean family.
SHEET
Worksheet
While you work on those activities, let's look at how we split our giant, single ocean into five main parts called ocean basins.
To help you visualize where these five oceans actually sit on our planet, I am assembling a custom world map for us. It will show how they are all linked together as one massive body of water.
A simplified 2D map showing the continuous global ocean with labeled basins.
As you can see on the map, the is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world—it is the largest and deepest of them all!
In fact, the Pacific Ocean is so incredibly massive that it covers more of the Earth's surface than all of our dry continents and islands added together.