OCEANS

OCEAN ART
FRIENDLY OCTOPUS
You will need gray construction paper and grey tissue paper, glue and a black marker for this activity.
Draw and cut out large 8” circles from the grey construction paper.
Then, cut the grey circles in half.
Cut the grey tissue paper into 1” x 4” strips.
Give each child one grey circle half and eight tissue paper strips.
Show your children how to glue the tissue strips along the bottom of their half circles.
Then, have your children turn their octopus’ over and draw large black eyes on their octopus’.
Hang your children’s octopus shapes around the room.
 
OCEAN WAVES
Give your children large sheets of white construction paper.
  Place a dollop of blue finger paint on their papers.
Show children how to spread the finger paint all over their papers with their fingers.
Show children how to make waves across their papers with their fingers or the side of their hands.
Let papers dry.
Octopus pictures can be glued to these ocean backgrounds if desired.
 
OCEAN PICTURES
Provide your children with white construction paper and crayons.
Invite them to draw pictures of undersea life, such as fish, shells, an octopus or a shark, and seaweed.
Encourage them to press down hard while coloring.
When they have finished, let them brush a thin wash of blue tempera paint and water over their pictures to turn them into underwater scenes.
 
OCEAN DIORAMA
 Find a cardboard carton, cut off the flaps and place it on one side.
Have your children paint the inside of the box blue.
When the paint has dried, help them glue or tape green crepe-paper seaweed onto the painted back and sides of the box.
Let them decorate paper fish shapes to hang with thread as if swimming inside their diorama.
To complete, help them spread sand on the bottom of the box and add small rocks, shells and clay or playdough sea creatures.
 
OCEAN GAMES
 
FISH GAMES
Cut fish shapes of various sizes out of three different colors of posterboard.  Let your children use the shapes for these games.
Sort the fish by color.
Sort the fish by size.
Count the fish.
Line up the fish from smallest to largest.
 
SHARKS IN THE SEA
 Use masking tape to outline a large circle on the floor.
Choose a child to be your “shark”.
Have the shark stand in the middle of the circle (which is now the sea)
Ask the other children to stand on the outside of the circle. 
When the shark says, “Swim in the sea,” the children must quickly step in and out of the sea while the shark tries to touch as many of them as he or she can.
Any child who is tagged is now a shark.
Repeat, until everyone is a shark.
 
SAME AND DIFFERENT
 Find pictures of three different sharks.
  Show the pictures to your children.
Ask them to name three things that are the same about the sharks in the picture and three things that are different.
Repeat the game using other sea animals such as fish, whales, and jelly fish.
           
ON LAND OR IN THE OCEAN
Invite your children to stand in an open area.
  Then start naming different animals, including such undersea creatures as fish, octopuses, crabs, seastars, sharks, whales, and oysters.
When the children hear the name of an animal that lives on land, have them walk in place.
When they hear the name of an animal that lives in the ocean, have them make swimming motions with their arms.
Continue the game as long as interest lasts.
 
OCEAN LANGUAGE
 
UNDERSEA PUPPETS
Here are some suggestions for sea creature puppets, you can make and use with your children while reading stories or singing songs.  They are also great for encouraging your children to make up their own stories and songs.
 Octopus Puppet – Use a paper half circle for a body and draw on eyes.  Glue or tape eight ribbon pieces hanging down from the straight edge for arms, and add a craft stick handle.
Seastar Puppet – Cut a seastar shape out of paper.  Using a marker, add a face and cover the shape with dot “spines”.  For a handle, tape on a plastic straw.
Oyster Puppet – Paint a hinged, burger carton gray (add a drop of dishwashing liquid to help the paint stick).  Draw on a face and glue a small plastic-foam ball inside for a pearl.
 
OCEAN WRITING
 
FINGER PAINTING LETTERS
Give your children plain pieces of finger painting paper.
Place a dollop of blue paint in the middle of each paper.
Have children finger paint with the blue paint.
Show them how to create a clean slate by pushing the side of their hand across their papers.
Then have them draw letters or words on their papers.
 
OCEAN DISCOVERY
 
SALT WATER EXPERIMENT
Use this experiment to show how salt water, the kind found in the ocean, makes it easier for objects to float.
You will need two large, see-through measuring cups for this experiment.
Pour 1 ¼ cups water into each measuring cup.
Let your children observe as you add 3 tablespoons of salt to one of the cups.
Stir the salt until it dissolves.
Place a hard cooked egg in the plain water for the children to watch as it sinks.
Then remove the egg and place it in the salt water.  What happens?  (The egg floats because the salt has made the water denser.) 
Continue by letting the children try the experiment, using a bar of soap.
 
FISH OR MAMMAL
Explain to your children that not all of the creatures that swim in the sea are fish.  Many of these animals are actually mammals.  Tell them that fish can breath underwater through their gills and lay eggs.  Where as, marine mammals give birth to live young and must surface to breathe in air.
 Collect a variety of pictures showing fish and marine animals.
Let your children take turns sorting the pictures.
 
OCEAN SNACKS
 
OCEAN SNACKS
Try one of these ideas at snacktime.
 Make blue gelatin and add canned fruit bits for pretend sea creatures.  Serve in clear-plastic cups.
Tint white frosting with blue food coloring and spread it onto cupcakes.  Place gummy fish or other gummy sea creatures on top of the blue “ocean waves”.
 
OCEAN MUSIC & RHYMES
 

LET’S GO DIVING DOWN
Tune:  “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”

Let’s go diving down
In the ocean blue.
See us swimming with a fish
And with an oyster, too.
                        Liz Ryerson

Each time you sing the song, let your children substitute a different undersea creature, such as “crab” or “shark, or “fish”

 
MORE OCEAN SONGS
More ocean songs can be found under summer songs at the Music Station.
 

 

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