Toddler Preschool Beach Ocean Theme Ideas -1

It my turn in the rotation for Tot School so here are 6 ideas.

Day One!

Sand Dollar Discovery

I made lab sheets, for them to document what they saw.  If you want a copy email me or leave a comment with your email address.

I had a sand dollar from when we went to California last time and pulled out my kid sized Magnifying Glass.

We talked about what a Sand Dollar is:


The sand dollar is a marine invertebrate, a living animal, closely related to the starfish, sea lily, the sea cucumber and the sea urchin. Sand dollars come from the Echinoids class, which means "spiny skinned creature."
Sand Dollar, invertebrate having a flat, circular outer shell. The common sand dollar of the northeastern United States is found on sandy bottoms in comparatively shallow water.
The size of the adult shell is about 8 cm (or 3 inches) in diameter on the average and has many small perforations that form a symmetrical petal-like design. You can find larger ones, and tiny little baby ones as well as any size in between.
The entire shell is penetrated by many small, brown spines that give the shell a velvety appearance and enable the animal to move about.
By the time a sand dollar washes up on a beach, it is usually no longer living, and only its shell remains.
Sand dollars obtain food by using their spines and tube feet to engulf sand from which they extract minute plants and animals.
Sand dollars belong to a phylum (family) of marine animals known as echinoderms, which inhabit all the world's oceans and can live in both the shallow and deep-ocean floor.
Scientific classification: Sand dollars belong to the order Clypeasteroida of the class Echinoidea. The common sand dollar of the northeastern United States is classified as Echinarachnius parma.
I believe the Western Sand Dollar to differ from the "Keyhole Sand Dollar" found on the Eastern shores. It tends to not have the five "keyholes" in the shell, and is round, rathers than having those decorative little indentations around the edges.
Though each one has it's own beauty.
*

So it was time to DISCOVER!!!

The 2 year old was TOTALLY into this!

We talked about the texture and shape and color...

Everyone had different answers.

They thought it was neat that it used to be living.

They also compared the veins on the back to the lines on our hand.

This took up a lot of time.  They liked that we were doing "Science"

Earth Day Activity #2 - Learning about the Earth

I bought this Atlas Book for Kids at Barnes and Noble during Christmas time and it was $5.  I have never showed it to the kids until today.

We talked about the Earth, where we live on it and then flipped through and learned about the other continents.  Remember they are toddlers so it wasn't too indepth but it was a great learning day for them!

So we made Earths. First we painted the blue ocean.

Then we tore up some green paper and added it to the Earth.  I glued shapes to the Earth and they glued the paper on.

Then we looked at the USA, my kids spotted Grandpas house!

Aboriginal Clap Sticks

Here's a twist on the rhythm sticks that Australian aborigines use in ceremonial dances: decorated paint stirrers that let your kid be a one-man percussion section, clapping along to his favorite music.

What you need: Paint Stirrers and paint and Q-tips.
Time needed: About 2 to 3 Hours. To make a set, paint one side and all the edges of the 4 sticks with a base color, then let them dry.

2. Next, use other colors to paint on decorative bands and squiggles. Use Q-Tips to add dot accents.
My sister and I used the back side of the paintbrush to scrape the paint and make cool designs too.

3. Once all the paint has dried, clap them together and dance around.

I found the story of Dot painting online:
The indigenous people of Australia, or Aborigines, use dot painting as a form of storytelling. With dots of paint traditionally made from natural pigments, they create patterns and images of plants and animals that represent their culture's creation myths, which date back tens of thousands of years.

Zen Garden

We had the cousins over so my bro and sis in law could go on a date. We decided to do an all Asian night at our house. So...

I read about the different countries that we consider Asia.

They painted on Rice Paper.


Here is my son's finished picture.

We labeled it for hanging and then went outside to hunt for rocks.

I filled 2 8x8 glass casserole pans with salt.

They put their rocks in it.

Then they raked and scooped.

We made Zen Gardens.

They played for about 45 minutes and then ate lemon cookies and watched Mulan.
You know, for the full effect.

I then dumped everything into a gallon ziploc bag so they could do it again anytime.
It was very calming.

Original post 2/23/08