It’s always nice when children can explore the real thing during any theme. While we couldn’t take the children to the beach, we did have opportunities to visit the fish aquarium in our preschool’s building. There is so much learning taking place when we have our toddler and preschool beach theme! Over the years we have acquired a nice collection of various shells and pretend ocean animals. These allow us to create several learning centers where we explore textures and sizes, as well as small world activities that invite the children to have fun with pretend play. We have bins with water, fish, and nets. Our dramatic play area has been turned into a beach scene, with hats and sunglasses and ice cream. There are fiction and non-fiction beach and ocean books displayed in our reading area and seahorses to color at the writing table. (Scroll down for free printables!)
We filled the bin with water, added the ocean animals, and provided nets for catching and releasing them. You can see more here: Super Simple Toddler Ocean Sensory Bin We had sunglasses and beach hats, ocean stuffed animals and puppets, and our brand-new ice cream cone set. This tied in nicely with the beach day we had that week when we made real ice cream! Grab our ice cream shop packet! I cut and laminated paper that were the same colors as the fish. As the children pulled the fish out of the water, they placed them on the matching colored rectangles. The children then stamped paint onto them using empty thread spools. You can read more about how we made these fish here. Easy Toddler Fish Craft Hanging Jellyfish You can read more about how we made these here.
Toddler and Preschool Ocean Lesson Plans
I helped create these lesson plans along with a talented group of early childhood educators and home schoolers. Math: Ocean Count and Clip Math: Ocean Counting Cards Literacy/Math: Ten Little Fish Activity Literacy: Fish Alphabet Cards Circle Time: Plain and Numbered Fish Props Easy to follow lesson plans include activity modifications and adaptations to meet the needs of all learners. These activities come in a digital format. That means after you make a purchase, the links to the activities will arrive in an email. For more information, click on the graphics below: Here is my Privacy Policy
