The Ocean

Books

Here is a collection of ocean themed books that we found at the library. I tried to stay with "ocean" instead of "beach" because we had done the latter during our first beach theme and our second beach theme! The kids really enjoyed all of these, particularly the following: I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean, Spiny Sea Star, I Saw the Sea and the Sea Saw Me and Swimmy. They requested them over and over at bedtime during the weeks we had these. We also read a couple from our own collection, such as Pout Pout Fish and The Snail and the Whale. Love those!

Stencil + Sand Art

I came across this fun idea from Gift of Curiosity. We had tons of leftover colored sand after Honey Pot's Peter Pan birthday party, where we bottled Pixie Dust. So I pulled out our wonderful ocean stencils and taped them onto contact paper, which lay sticky side up on blue construction paper. Then the kids scooped and poured the sand onto them.

When they were completely covered, they patted it down with their hands. Then I dumped off the excess sand, and peeled off the stencil.

The kids had so much fun. I set up another paper and stencil for each of them. Here is round two...

Here are Honey Pot's first two creations:

And here are Little M&M's first two:

They probably could have done this all afternoon. They wanted more, so I set up two more for each of them.

Here are their last ones:

Beautiful result! Our sand had glitter in it, from the pixie dust craft. And it really made them sparkle!

Cutting Practice

This worksheet comes from 3 Boys and a Dog. Honey Pot likes practicing her scissor skills.

Symmetry Drawing

I revisited the idea of symmetry, which was introduced during our butterfly unit, by asking Honey Pot to draw the other side of the star fish and sea turtle.

Drawing with Stencils

We cleaned the sand off of our stencils from earlier this week and used them another way. Here is Honey Pot using the stencils with markers.

And then Little M&M wanted to give it a try!

He really was getting the hang of it! He'd hold his stencil steady and move his marker through the holes. Great start to pre-writing!

And he was so happy with his drawing.

Shape Whale Puzzle

This comes from Moms Have Questions Too. I like this type of puzzle for Little M&M because it suits his attention span and he can finish it. Honey Pot likes the full pattern block puzzles though.

Color Matching

Inspired by the same site as the printable above, I created a color match activity for Little M&M. He flew through this!

So pleased with himself... :)

What is Missing? Game

I have been meaning to try this with Honey Pot. I gathered the sea creatures from Little M&M's previous activity and lined them up.

Then while Honey Pot was closing her eyes, I removed one.

She had to remember what was there, and tell me which one was missing.

She loved this game and wanted to do it again and again! I eventually made it extra challenging by rearranging and moving the four remaining items together.

Scooping and Pouring Activity

Just a simple fine motor activity for Little M&M. We used the fish ice cube tray from Honey Pot's Little Mermaid birthday party.

Jellyfish Craft

This idea comes from No Time for Flashcards. We used light pink cupcake liners from my stash, and the kids colored them with pink markers.

Here is little M&M gluing the googly eyes onto his.

Then helping to tape his tentacles (strips of crepe paper and ribbon) onto the back of his cupcake liner.

Then Honey Pot did the same, but by herself.

Then she glued hers onto construction paper...

And added the googly eyes.

Ta-da! Here is Little M&M's:

And Honey Pot's. She had written her name at the top too, so excuse the blue block!

Roll and Cover

I found this for free at Teachers Pay Teachers. We used our seashells, also from Honey Pot's Little Mermaid Party. First the kids each colored their octopus.

Two-handed!

Then they would take turns rolling the dice. Honey Pot counted up her total, found that number, and covered it up. For Little M&M's turn he rolled the dice, and then I just pointed to where it was on his paper. They had such fun!

Ocean Puzzle

We love our Under the Sea jigsaw puzzle from Melissa and Doug. Such a good size for Honey Pot's current level, at 24 pieces. And Little M&M would do well too, when I prompted him with questions. For example, "Could you find a piece with the purple octopus on it?" This was a good cooperative activity for them.

Ocean Geography

I know this is a little above Honey Pot, but I wanted to just introduce her to the five world oceans. Sheppard Software has wonderful interactive games available for all levels. I narrowed it down to just oceans instead of continents, at the tutorial level, which just said aloud the names of each as you scrolled over them and clicked the mouse. Plus, in this day and age, a little computer practice is so necessary. We also identified where we live on the map.

Ocean Sensory

We play with sand often throughout the summer, so I didn't bother with that for our unit. Instead I filled the water table with water, tinted it blue with food coloring, and added our seashells. Each of the kids added some sea creature toys as well, for some imaginative play.

They had fun pulling out the seashells to compare and contrast them. They described their shapes, different colors and even some of the textures.

Here is Little M&M pouring some shells down the slide.

They each did a lot of scooping and pouring!

Honey Pot even inspected a few up close.

Fun week!

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The Letter Z!

Literacy

Beginning Sounds and Letter Tracing Worksheets

These printables come from the Education and Kids Learning Station websites, respectively. We like to start off our weekly letter units with these pages. Great introduction to the letter Z!

Creating a Story

Z isn't a very common beginning letter in a preschooler's vocabulary. But I came up with six for this activity, and printed off a clip-art image for each. Then Honey Pot and I took turns creating a story, using all six each time! This actually went on for longer than I expected. She really got creative with these!

Math and Cognitive Skills

Z is for Zigzag - Giant Dot-to-Dot

We went out to the driveway and created a giant dot-to-dot with chalk. The final result was a zigzag shape. Honey Pot loves connect-the-dot activities. I love how this worked more on large motor skills, instead of fine motor skills. And she enjoyed it too!

Z is for Zero - Pennies Game

This fun idea comes from Preschool Alphabet. I printed off the large Z, and filled each circle with numbers from 0-5. Then Honey Pot had to put that number of pennies into each circle. It really emphasized the meaning of the quantity of zero, which turned out to be incredibly beneficial for her. Fun game, and she loved stacking those pennies!

Craft - Z is for Zebra

This idea originally comes from Play Create Explore, though we had done a shaving cream painting before. (Remember our beautiful Earth craft for Earth day?) This time we used only black paint, and Honey Pot swirled it around with a large skewer.

Then she placed her paper on top and pushed down gently.

While letting the paint set for a minute, Honey Pot asked to put her hands in there. She loves sensory bins! After a few minutes, I scraped the excess shaving cream off of the paper with the back of a butter knife.

Later, once it had dried, I cut out the zebra. Honey Pot practiced her scissor skills and made grass while she waited.

Then she glued it onto a blue background.

And glued her zebra to her landscape. Add a googly eye too!

We stepped over to the refrigerator to sound out and spell the word ZEBRA with her magnets, so she could write it at the top of her paper.

All finished!

Science

Cooking - Z is for Zucchini

Despite the large variety of desserts you can make with zucchini, I wanted to take a break from baking sweets for a moment. Instead we made Cheesy Zucchini from How Does She? Honey Pot helped with the mixing, and the adding of cheese! I took two process photos, but forgot to take a picture of the finished dish. Oops! In any event, the kids liked it enough to take a few bites. It's a vegetable, so I'll take what I can get! Next time, we make the zucchini brownies!

Social Studies and Social Skills

Z is for Zoo - Habitat Game

For our social studies day today, we created our very own zoo, and Honey Pot was the zookeeper! First I printed off four landscapes, and glued them into a shoebox. I used a hole-punch to create holes along each side. Then Honey Pot created the animal cages by threading string through them.

I taped each end of the string so it would stay in place. Then it was time to play! I hid images of animals throughout the room, and told Honey Pot that the animals had escaped from their cages. As zookeeper, it was her job to go find them, and return them to their habitats. She took her brother's safari truck, and went in search of the animals.

Then we came back to the zoo cages, for her to match the animals to their habitats. She identified each one correctly as dessert, jungle, ocean and arctic. And then she put each animal in its cage.

Here they are! Such fun!

She was so pleased, she wanted her picture taken with them!

Z is for Zipper - Skills

Honey Pot has known how to pull zippers up and down for a while now. But when it came to getting them started, she hadn't had much practice. We worked on that today. She put on a sweater and we went over the correct method. She did it without a problem!

Sensory + Music

Sensory - Z's in the Salt Tray

For a quick sensory activity this week, we pulled out Honey Pot's salt tray and she made Z's and zigzags.

Z is for Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!

We learned a new song today, and fun movements to go along with it. It is called Zoom, Zoom, Zoom and here is where I learned it. It goes like this:

Zoom, zoom, zoom! We're going to the moon.

Zoom, zoom, zoom! We're going to the moon.

If you want to take a trip, climb aboard my rocket ship.

Zoom, zoom, zoom! We're going to the moon.

In 5...4...3...2...1...BLAST OFF!

Honey Pot loved it, and learned it very quickly. We did it a few times together.

And we have finally finished our alphabet! Shame on me for allowing it to take so long, but we did get so many other themes throughout that time too. Now we can take our new preschool curriculum and move onto other things!

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