This year the kids have decided to study marine biology. After spending a significant amount of time studying sharks, the kids requested that we study rays next.

Rays are closely related to sharks, so I felt it made perfect sense to honor their request.

My biggest challenge has been finding resources to use while studying rays. There is not a lot out there!

I figured the best place to start was to create some nomenclature cards for identification purposes and then branch out from there. Dinomite helped with this process.

You can find our beautiful nomenclature cards included in our NEW FREE Montessori-inspired Ray Printable Pack!

FREE Montessori-inspired Ray Printable Pack

The kids' interest in rays peaked over the summer as we visited Walt Disney World in Florida. While in Epcot the kids enjoyed the aquariums. There were a couple rays in one of the tanks. One of them decided to get up close and personal with Princess.

Ever since then, all three kids have been fascinated about every aspect of these beautiful and amazing creatures. They have had so many questions!

We will be doing some more in depth research and writing projects about these amazing creatures, but for now we're starting with simple identification.

Sunshine was able to participate in identification fun too. During our last visit (which was a pass to our hotel for the day) she and Dinomite had loads of fun together using the cards.

Dinomite went through each nomenclature card with her, explaining which ray was which and how they were each different from each other.

We brought along a magnifying glass and safari toob ray to enhance the activity. Sunshine LOVED everything.

Our visit included two-day passes with Sunshine, which meant we had time to use the cards in different ways. On the second day of the visit, Sunshine and Dinomite played a memory game with Sunshine's favorite ray nomenclature cards.