Tot-School Oceans

Ocean Book List

Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae

Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert

Baby Donald's Day at the Beach by The Walt Disney Company

Oscar Otter's Colors by Maurice Pledger

Baby Beluga by Raffi

At the Seaside by Jenny Millington

What do you See in the Sea? By Little Green Footprints

1 2 3 Beach by Puck

Max at the Seashore by Kate Pope
Little White Fish by Guido van Genechten

Ocean Songs

FIVE LITTLE FISHES

Five little fishes (hold up 5 fingers)

Swimming in the sea (put hands together and move back and forth like a fish)

Teasing Mr. Shark (put hands on each side of face and wiggle fingers)

You can't catch me

Along comes Mr. Shark

As quiet as can be... (put finger to lips)

SNAP! (clap hands)

Four little fishes (hold up 4 fingers)

Swimming in the sea (put hands together and move back and forth like a fish)

etc... 

Ocean Tot-Tubs

Tot-Tub #1 (top left) Ocean Coloring

I gave T some fun ocean coloring pages and some crayons and markers to use.

Tot-Tub #2 (top right) Whirlin Twirlin Sea Turtle

I gave T his Whirlin Twirlin Turtle with the roll-a-round balls to play with.  He has finally mastered pushing down his head to make the balls spin.  He also likes to push the turtle around on the floor.

Tot-Tub #3 (middle) Ocean Animals

We went through the Ty Beanie Baby animals to find all of the ocean animals.  We talked about each one and the color that they were.  Then I put them in the Tot-Tub for T to play "ocean" with.

Tot-Tub #4 (bottom left) Ocean Lacing Cards

I found these ocean lacing cards at the Dollar Tree.  T hasn't quite mastered lacing them all the way yet, he just puts the string in and out of a few of the holes then he's done.

Tot-Tub #5 (bottom right) Sea Shells

I got out our sea shells and put them into an organizing container.  T could sort them by size or color, but mostly he just liked to look at them.

Sandpaper Starfish

Materials:

• sandpaper
• blue paper
• scissors
• glue
• glitter
• googly eyes

Directions:

1. cut some starfish shapes out of sandpaper
2. cover the front of your starfish in glue and sprinkle your starfish with glitter
   
3. glue starfish on some blue construction paper
   
4. glue on some googly eyes and put on a glitter glue smile
    

Goldfish Crackers Snack

I gave T some colorful goldfish crackers to sort and eat.

Animals of the Sea

I printed out the Animals of the Sea Layer Book for T to color.  We reviewed his colors for this project.  I asked him what color he wanted to color the Jellyfish and we used that color, then we did the Lobster, and so on.

Ocean Toys

I found these ocean toys with different sea creatures in them. T liked the way he could squeeze them.

Snickerdoodle Sand Dollars

Materials:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• Almond Slices
• Straw
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Mix butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar and eggs thoroughly in a large bowl.
3. Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.
4. Blend dry ingredients into butter mixture.
5. Chill dough, and chill an ungreased cookie sheet for about 10-15 minutes in the fridge.
6. Meanwhile, mix 3 tablespoons sugar, and 3 teaspoons cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. Roll 1 inch globs of dough into balls and roll them in the sugar/ cinnamon mixture (sand).
8. Coat by gently rolling balls of dough in the sugar mixture.
9. Then flatten the balls out on a greased cookie sheet.
10. Use the almond slices to form the star shape on the sand dollar.
11. Use the straw to poke out 5 holes in the sand dollar.
12. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. And repoke the holes while they are still warm.
    
    
    

Sack Whale Craft

Materials:

• Lunch Sack
• Newspaper
• Yarn
• Paint
• Googly Eyes
• Markers

Directions:

1. Stuff the sack with crumpled up newspaper.
   
2. Tie a piece of yarn around the open end, spread the end out to look like a tail.
3. Paint the whale gray, blue or black (T insisted on having a white whale so I guess his is a Beluga).
   
4. Let the whale dry completely. 
5. Glue on the googly eyes and draw a smile with a marker.
   
   
   
   

Crab Prints

Materials:

• Paper
• Red Paint
• Paper Plate
• Google Eyes

Directions:

1. Pour the red paint onto the paper plate.
2. Dip palm of your hand and 4 fingers into the paint and place it on the paper facing the edge, then do it again placing the palm of your hand on top of your previous palm print, but facing the 4 fingers in the opposite direction.
3. Use your finger tip to add the feed onto each leg.
4. Add google eyes to your crab, and let it dry.

Shell Snack

I found these Snack Well's cookie snacks that were shaped like sea shells.  And they were delicious too!

Paper Plate Fish

Read:  The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Materials:

• Paper Plate
• Tissue Paper Squares
• Scissors
• Marker
• Glue
• Paintbrush

Directions:

1. Cut a triangle out of one side of the plate for the fishes mouth and glue it to the other side of the palate for the fishes tail.
   
2. Mix a little water in with some glue and pour it onto the fish.  Spread it with a paintbrush and then stick the tissue paper squares to the fish.
   
3. Let it dry and then cut the extra tissue paper off that is sticking out from around the plate.
   
4. Use your marker to add a fish eye.
   
    

Sea Shell Play

I gave T a jar of sea shells and he played with them in the sand by the play ground.

 Jellyfish Lunch

Materials:

• Hot Dogs
• Spaghetti Noodles
• Boiling Water

Directions:

1. Cut hot dogs into 1 inch sections.
2. Break spaghetti noodles in half and stick them into one side of the hot dogs.
3. Boil them for about 8-10 minutes.
4. Eat with ketchup or spaghetti sauce.
   
   
   
   

Bubble Fish

Materials:

• Bubbles
• Food Coloring
• Fish Outline

Directions:

1. Mix a few drops of food coloring in the bubbles (we used red).
2. Blow bubbles onto the fish.
   

   

   
3. Let it dry and add an eye and mouth, then cut it out.

Sand Dollar Symmetry

Discuss:

Like other echinoderms, sand dollars have fivefold radial symmetry. They also have a front and back symmetry line.

Materials:

• 2 Paper Plates
• Cotton Balls
• Glue
• Dry Beans
• Hot Glue

Directions:

1. Glue the cotton balls onto one of the paper plates. 
   
2. Sandwich the 2 plates together with the cotton in between them. 
   
   
3. Hot glue the circles together.
4. Glue on a star shape of dry beans. (remember 5 symmetrical points)
   
   
   
   
   

Flip Flop Cookies

Materials:

• Nutter Butter Cookies
• Blue Frosting
• Plastic Baggie

Directions:

1. Put the frosting into the baggie and twist the top closed. Clip a tiny piece off the corner of the baggie.
2. Make a half circle with the frosting on one end of the nutter butter, then do another half circle opposite the first one on the same half of the nutter butter.

The Beach

We had to fly to the coast for a wedding last week so we spent a day at the beach.  At first T was afraid of the loud waves and the cold water, but then he saw the bubbles (sea foam) and played a little.

Oceans Day 9 -The Beach

The Beach

Read: Clams all Year by Maryann Cocoa-Leffler

Discuss: Walking along a beach you can find lots of different kinds of shells that have been washed up. The shells once belonged to animals.

Paper Place Beach

Materials:

• Paper Plate
• Blue Tissue Paper
• Sand
• Sea Shells
• Construction Paper
• Glue
• Scissors

Directions:

1. Glue sand onto the bottom half of the plate for the beach.
   
2. Glue the blue tissue paper to the top half of your paper plate for the ocean.
   
3. Glue a few small shells to the beach.
4. Cut a sail boat, beach umbrella, fish, shovel and pail out of construction paper and glue them on.
   
   
   

 Ocean Riddles
I had these Ocean Riddles in my files.  J liked to figure them out.

 
 

Beach Pudding

Materials:

• Butterscotch Pudding
• Graham Crackers
• Blue Sugar Sprinkles
• Paper Umbrella
• Teddy Grahams
• Shark or Fish Gummies
• Fruit Roll-ups (for a beach towel)
• Peachy-O's Gummies (for an inner tube)
• Clear Plastic Cup

Directions:

1. Make pudding according to directions and place it in a few little cups.
2. Crush up the graham crackers in a plastic baggie.
3. Use a spoon to cover half of the pudding with blue sugar sprinkles (for the water) and the other have with the graham cracker crumbs (for the beach).
   
4. Cut a small rectangle from the fruit roll up for a beach towel and place it in the sand.
5. Place Teddy Graham on the beach towel and add the umbrella.
   
6. Add a Peachy-o gummy for the inner tube and put a Teddy Graham in the water too.
7. Add some fish gummies to the water.
   
   
   
   

Sandpaper Sandcastle

Materials:

• Sandpaper
• Markers
• Scissors
• Craft Stick
• Construction Paper

Directions:

1.  Draw a sandcastle on the sandpaper.

2.  Cut out the sandcastle.

3.  Cut a flag out of the construction paper and glue it to the craft stick, then glue the craft stick to the top of your castle.

 

Sea Shells in the Sand

I gave J a jar of sea shells to play with in the sand by the play ground.

  

Sea Shell Addition

Materials:

• Sand
• Sea Shells
• Black Marker

Directions:

1. Write a number between 0 and 10 on the bottom of each shell and bury the shells in the sand.
2. Child chooses 2 shells and writes the addition combination with his finger in the sand.
   
   
   
   

Observe a Shell

I had this packet for shell observation in my files.  J had fun doing some shell science.

 Listening to the shell.

 Measuring the shells.

 

Sand Dollar Fives

Discuss:

Sand dollars have 5 holes, and a 5 point star. They are hard and spiny shaped like a coin. They live on sandy sea floors about 30-40 feet under water. Sand dollars partly bury themselves under the sand with an edge poking out. If you break open a dead sand dollar you will find many hard white pieces that were the sand dollars teeth. Their hard skin is made of calcium carbonate plates. The bottom side is where the mouth is. They have tiny tube feel that are used as gills. The holes on the top side are for reproduction. They eat tiny particles of food that floats in the water.

Materials:

• Sand dollars (real or paper)
• Smaller sea shells (or dry beans)

Directions:

1. Make a number line by place sea shells in a line for numbers 1-4.
2. Place a sand dollar next in the line for number 5.
3. Then more sea shells for numbers 5-9.
4. And another sand dollar for number 10, etc..
5. After you have built your number line ask addition and subtraction problems like “what is 10+3? or what is 2 less than 5?)
   
    

Paper Plate Oyster

Materials:

• 2 Small Paper Plates
• Paint pink and blue
• White Pom-pom
• Scissors
• Glue

Directions:

1. Paint the back of one paper plate blue.
2. Cut the second paper plat in half and paint the back parts pink. Let them both dry.
3. Bend the gray on in half so the painted part is on the outside.
4. Glue the pink parts inside of the folded plate.
5. Glue the white pom-pom pearl inside the oyster.
   
   
   

Painting a Sun Catcher

I found this palm tree sun catcher clearenced at the end of the summer.  J likes to paint them, but this time he decided to try glitter glue on it.  It turned out nice.

 

Zuma Beach

When we were on the west coast we spent a day playing at the beach.

 Our little family!

 Crab

 Lobster

 Dolphin