Ocean Theme

It's finally feeling like summer, at least with the weather. Schools out and I would love to be on a beach somewhere. Currently in my state we seem fairly slow to open up compared to the rest of the US. Although honestly I haven't been keeping up to much with other states. All I know is I don't foresee a summer vacation or trip to a beach in our summer plans. The ocean though is a fun theme to explore.

These Ocean Sensory Bags mean some clean sensory fun. They can feel and squish and the mess is contained. They can squish and find the fish or shells in there. You can talk about the colors of the fish or hide the fish. Find the starfish, find the blue fish. It may be helpful for kids that don’t like to have the mess on their hands. Fantastic Fun and Learning have other Mess Free Squishy Bags as well. Maybe work your way up to getting messy, or maybe you can if you’re the one that doesn’t like the squish or mess.

If you and your child don't mind the mess, you can make an ocean sensory box with sand, water, and fish toys. Although that sounds more like an outside activity to me. If you're really adventurous or want to pretend you're on a beach vacation, you could put sand at the bottom on the kiddy pool, add water, but your chair outside the pool so you feet can pretend you're sitting on the beach with your feet in the ocean. The kids will probably like playing beach too. Too bad most of us are therapists doing teletherapy these days. Although I could see a few of my fun families doing this when we had face to face therapies. Maybe next year.

I saw this Shark Footprint project and I just love doing cute little footprint projects. One day you’ll look back at them and not believe your big teenager was ever that little. Also, who doesn’t just love sharks, Baby Sharks doo doo doo doo doo doo. Putting their foot in paint may also be kind of a sensory activity as well. It’s probably cold and squishing through their toes.

On Vooks there is Slumberkins Presents: Narwhal. Her serves his community, solves problems. It can open up a conversation with some preschool or school age kids about helping others. Vooks also has Peanut Butter and Jellyfish.

Get Epic has a lot of great books about different ocean animals. Over in the Ocean in a Coral Reef is cute too. Ocean Creatures made by National Geographic is great. I love a book with real pictures. If you’re on Get Epic, just search “Ocean” and so many books come up. You will definitely find one for your child's age level. I love Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. Here is a cute little Playdough Rainbow Fish activity to go with it too. Man I'm really missing playing with my kiddos face to face.

Since it's finally getting hotter, at here, water play is great outside. You can play in a pool, a sprinkler or just a tub of water. In a pool, kids can jump in to you. You can count, "1,2,3....go" and they can jump in the pool or run in the sprinkler. they can splash in the water.

I'm pretty sure the zoos in my state are still closed right now, but if you are somewhere where they are open or are lucky enough to live by ocean. Go see some ocean animals. Maybe comment with some pictures, some of us aren't so lucky to live by the ocean. I would love to sea a sea turtle in real life. This picture will have to do.

You can count fish in the sensory bags, or count to go in the water. Other words to work on "fish, water, wet, sand, shark, splash, beach." Just have fun.