Imagine gliding past lush tropical islands, dramatic glaciers, or crystal clear ice floes! Get ready to cruise the Caribbean, Alaska’s Inside Passage, or another intriguing destination.

• 1.

  Cruise ships are like floating cities. Ocean liners employ as many as 1,500 chefs, DJs, lifeguards, magicians, doctors, photographers, housekeepers, and wait staff. Find out more about how these magnificent ships are built and operate. Choose a destination and design a breathtaking scene along the way, such as Alaska’s Inside Passage.

• 2.

  Build your ship. Form a multi-decked cruise ship with white Crayola Model Magic®. Mix color from Crayola Washable Markers into the modeling compound to add colorful details. Cut out other ship details, such as a radar scope, from recycled file folders using Crayola Scissors. Color and insert in your ship.

• 3.

  Create the background. Cover your art area with newspaper. Create the ocean on construction paper with Crayola Washable Watercolors and a Watercolor Brush. After you finish painting, mix equal amounts of Crayola School Glue and water. Wash the watercolors with this mixture to make the water shine. Air-dry your ocean. Glue it to a cardboard base.

• 4.

  Depending on your destination, create islands, beaches, mountains, cities, or other scenery. For Alaska’s Inside Passage, you might paint purple, blue, and gray mountains on recycled file folders. Air-dry the mountains. Cut them out and fold a tab at the bottom so they will stand up.

• 5.

  Add scenic details. Sculpt realistic-looking chunks of melting ice, snow, and glaciers with white Model Magic. Create sea animals or other sights if you wish. Air-dry everything overnight. Glue your scene together for a magnificent display! Explain what you learned to your classmates and families.

Standards

• LA: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
• LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
• LA: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
• SCI: Ask questions about the natural and human-built worlds.
• SCI: Construct drawings or diagrams as representations of events or systems.
• SS: Use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools to generate, manipulate, and interpret information.
• SS: Locate and distinguish among varying landforms and geographic features, such as mountains, plateaus, islands, and oceans.
• SS: Identify and describe examples in which science and technology have changed the lives of people, such as in homemaking, childcare, work, transportation, and communication.
• VA: Use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner.
• VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

Adaptations

• In small groups, students discuss vacation destinations that they could be transported to via a cruise ship. The team selects a destination and researches what sights would highlight the location. Student research can be summarized into an electron presentation and accompany their visual artwork.
• Investigate animals native to your chosen destination. Create travel posters on these animals in their native habitats. Use speech balloons to have the animals share special reasons for visiting their beautiful home.
• Students become experts on the great cruise ship, the Titanic. Investigate how the ship was built, theories about why it sank, and what it was like to be a passenger on board. Organize research into a written summary and display it in the classroom along with a sketch of the Titanic, created using Crayola Crayons or colored pencils.
• What is it like to take a cruise? Investigate the fun activities available on a cruise ship, plan what you would do if you were on a three day cruise. Organize your research into an electronic presentation to share with classmates.