Annie Crawley (known to the children as “Ocean Annie”) is an underwater photographer, cinematographer, dive instructor and boat captain. She is on a mission to show children and parents all the wonders of the sea and how we should protect them, through her company Dive Into Your Imagination.
What Makes A Fish, A Fish is the first in a series of Dive Into Your Imagination DVD’s which includes titles such as Who Lives in the Sea? and Dive Into Diversity. Beautiful visuals of all kinds of fish from around the world are shown in this video. The DVD is recommended for Pre-K and up, and I would say it’s geared mostly toward ages 3-5. My 8 year old found it really young for her – the adults speak slowly and repetitively as if to very young children. We can however watch the DVD without the sound and just enjoy the great visuals. 
And in addition to English, you can watch the DVD in Spanish – perhaps a good exercise for those learning Spanish in their homeschool.
The chapters in this DVD include:
- What Makes A Fish, A Fish
- Sea Anemones and Their Friends (A little pet peeve – on the onscreen DVD menu, they misspelled anemone).
- Hide and Seek on the Reef
- Frogfish are Funny Looking Fish
- Bathtime for Fishes
- Don’t Be Afraid of Sharks
- Dinner Time for Fish
- Fishes, Fishes, More and More Fishes
And in a special section at the end, Annie also talks about how she does her job and what each piece of equipment is for. Then the musician who wrote and performed the score chats about how he watches the footage and comes up with music to complement it.
There are two educator guides available for this DVD, one for Preschoolers and one for Grades 1-3. While designed for the classroom, they are easily adapted for homeschool use. Each full-colour guide is hundreds of pages long. They cover everything: science, literacy, math, geography, and character education. Ocean Annie is a little cartoon character in these guides. There are many black & white printables included such as puzzles, games, and notebooking and colouring pages.
Each DVD in this series costs $19.95 US. Go to the store at http://www.anniecrawley.com/store to receive free shipping for the months of May and June. The guides are available in print as a set for $299 or as individual PDFs for $69.95.
When you buy a DVD, in “note to seller” make a note that you’re a Homeschool Parent to receive a FREE set of guides to go along with your DVD 🙂
To see what other TOS Crew Members thought of Dive Into The Imagination, click HERE.
I was given this DVD & guides in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Love, Luck &
Laughter,
