Week of 6/15

Hi Bunny Friends, 

Your Bunny Teachers are sending you an ocean full of hugs this week, we hope you feel them!!  Adrienne, Linda, Jean, Mary, Sara and Sandy have some exciting Ocean activities that we hope you will enjoy diving into this week. Summer ️ is almost here. During the summertime many of us will head to the beach  ⛱  and play by the OCEAN.   With our families we might swim ‍♂️ 🏼‍♀️ in the ocean, collect seashells , build sand castles or just sit and listen to the ocean waves   There is lots to see and do at the ocean. ️ 🏼‍♀️

Here are some activities to help you discover more about the OCEAN .

ENJOY!

STEM

-Ocean Seafoam Sensory play. Grab a bin, dish soap, water, cornstarch and an electric mixer and whip up some ocean sea foam to play with.
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/3 cup Dawn dish soap (you can use whatever you have on hand)- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- A few squirts of food coloring, liquid watercolors or Koolaid in your desired color/colors. (food coloring and Koolaid might cause staining.)
Mix all this really well and completely.  You can even use a mixer to get it thoroughly mixed and bubbly.  Add in to the bin some pebbles, glass pebbles, small plastic toys or aquatic animals, shells, etc… Have fun with this in the warm weather!
Ocean Sea Foam Sensory Play

-Wave Bottles 

Children use a funnel to pour a cup full of baby oil (or cooking oil) into a clear plastic bottle. They fill the bottle the rest of the way with water. We give the liquid a chance to settle, then add a few drops of blue food coloring. It’s fun to watch the blue as it drops through the oil and “explodes” into the water. Last, we add plastic “fish” (sequins), glue/tape cap on and make waves by turning the bottle sideways and rocking it gently.

ART

-Sea Salt Art

The children mix their own salt paint, and then paint a picture of an ocean animal.

Salt paint recipe:

2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Liquid starch

Few drops of food coloring

Mix ingredients together. The salt gives a frosted or sandy appearance to the paint.

-Shark & Octopus craft: Some crafts to make with paper tubes and other basic items you might just have at home … Fun and cute!

FINE MOTOR

Crab coloring page

Fish Coloring (Fine Motor, Comprehension) Want to color some creatures in the ocean? Here is a fun printable. coloring sheet of assorted fish
-Sea Shell Prints

Children use seashells in the play dough or Model Magic to press into the play dough to make prints. You can do the same activity using self hardening clay and the children can keep them. 

-Colored Tape Fish

Children draw a fish or have a helper draw a fish  on a piece of paper. They tear off pieces of colored masking tape and stick them on for the fish’s gills.

GROSS MOTOR

-Crab Walk

Children crawl like a crab from one point to another. After children have had some practice, have them figure out a way to carry a bean bag while crawling like a crab.

SENSORY

-Put sand and water with small shells and plastic fish or similar in a beach pail.  Use the pails shovel, plastic sand sifter as well as your pinchers to pull items out of the water and sand. Guess what it is by the way it feels before you pull it completely out.  You could also do this activity right at the beach with no clean up :). 

LITERACY

Curious George Goes to the Beach

Circle time with Jean

LITERACY

-Story Retelling

Watch the recorded video of SWIMMY Swimmy by Leo Lionni, read by Mary

on the general resource page 

This is an activity that goes with any story that your child has listened to. After listening to a story have your child retell you the story. You can also ask questions, Who?, What?, When?, Where? Here are some more books to go along with our Ocean theme.

SEAWEED SOUP  By Stuart J. Murphy

Sea, Sand, Me!  By Patricia Hubbell

At The Beach   By Anne & Harlow Rockwell

FINE MOTOR/ART

Foil fish art. Design your own fish using aluminum foil, paint or permanent markers. First cut out a fish shape out of paper. Wrap your fish shape in aluminum foil and then decorate.

Paperbag Jellyfish: Find a brown paper lunch bag, paint it or color it with crayons or markers, then cut the bottom to make the tentacles and either glue on eyes or draw them.  You can even make it a puppet! 

paperbag jellyfish craft

STEM/SORTING

Goldfish sorting (Math - comparison, categorizing, counting, graphing, Fine Motor) Have some fun counting or color sorting with your favorite ocean snack: GOLDFISH!   

If you would like more of a challenge for your child print out the following graph

 Goldfish graph mats