Preschool Day Beach Theme

We did another preschool day today- Beach theme!!! We did this one last year, and the kids loved it, so we repeated it, since repetition is so good for them! We meant to go to the swimming pool and pretend that it was the beach, but it was snowy and sleeting today, so the kids just pretended to be mermaids and sharks in the bathtub instead, and used bath crayons to draw seaweed and crabs.

·        Movie- We watched the Super Why episodes “Beach Day Mystery” and “Swiss Family Robinson”. Normally, I put subtitles on all the movies they watch so they get a little extra literacy exposure, but not for this show.

·        Stories- Just Grandma and Me, Franklin Goes to the Beach, D.W All Wet, Curious George Goes to the Beach, and Water Animals

·        Songs- Part of Your World, Slippery Fish, and Baby Shark

·        Letters- Rhyme with “Sea”- bee, me, tea, free, plea, knee, P, fee, glee. I also had the kids play the iPad app “Alphabet Aquarium”. It is an app set on a beach where crabs scuttle over with parts of a letter to build, objects that begin with the targeted letter, etc. Here is the link to that app:

·        Numbers- We counted their plastic animals, sorting into “lives in water” and “doesn’t live in water” and seeing which had more and which has less.

·        Gross Motor- Last time, we did this in summer, so did water balloon chase. This time it is super cold, so with played tag with mini beach balls. We would run all around trying to throw and tag other people with a beach ball. I made sure to scatter large objects around that the kids had to climb over or run around. It helps Chelsea gain exposure to wider variety of motor plans, and she has to really think about what to do next

·        Snack- This was my favorite part! We made a beach scene to eat! We had rice krispie treats as sand next to blue jello for water with Swedish fish, with an airhead extreme (towel) laid out and a teddy graham on top with mini umbrella. HOW CUTE!!!! I wanted to put more teddy grahams in Peachie-Os floating on the Jello, but that just seemed like way too much sugar all at once. This is a picture from pinterest that I used as my example

·        Science- Sweet/ sour/ salty – taste “ocean” salt water and sour lemon juice, and sweet sugar water versus regular water! Work on labeling each flavor and associating tastes. My little guy was fascinated how things that look the same taste different

·        Colors/ Shapes- Use modeling clay or playdough to shape shapes and animals. Discuss colors and shapes, and try to make sea creature animals. We aren’t artists here, but we tried to make Ursula. Chelsea then freaked out and squashed her, haha.

·        Art- Ocean in a Bottle- use old peanut butter jars (or glass if you think it won’t get broken) and put in sand, rocks, plastic sea creatures, and water. I recommend either pouring water in very slowly, or putting water in first. Otherwise you end up with a beach-hit-by-a-hurricane scene!

·        OT activity- Use kinetic sand for sensory input. Mold, cut and shape it. This is one of Chelsea’s very favorite sensory activities, but she usually wants to explore the sand at some point with her mouth, so I have to watch close to make sure she is being safe.

·        Interactive Game- Beach ball towel volleyball and catch with beach ball. This was good for Chelsea’s response time and motor planning, but it mostly ended up with playing catch with the beach ball, which is also really good, because Miss C struggles with throwing and catching.

·        Vocabulary- beach, sand, gritty, water, frigid, beach ball, volleyball. We worked on saying these and remembering definitions (for son) and doing the signs for them (Chelsea), attempting those words, and identifying them by pictures.

·        Receptive Language- Play “I Spy”! Give clues about what I see/ am thinking of, and have the kids guess, then switch roles. We used the beach vocabulary page. It is an awesome activity for reasoning and sorting through things in your mind, and Chelsea has finally started getting this, after more than a year of practice!