Pre-K Ocean Theme Unit

~ Pre-K & Preschool theme ideas for learning about ocean animals ~

Books

Fairy Tales: The Fisherman and His Wife and The Little Mermaid

Rhymes

Songs

Amazon.com Widgets

Ocean Waves Nature CD

Activities

Crab Walk

[Large Motor]
Children crawled like a crab from one point to another. Next, they had to figure out a way to carry a bean bag while crawling like a crab.

Sea Shell Prints

[Fine Motor Skills]
Children used seashells in the play dough area 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

[Art]
Children traced and cut a fish out of paper. They tore off pieces of colored masking tape and stuck them on for the fish's gills. Then, they glued on a wiggle eye.

Wax Resist

[Art]
Children drew an ocean scene or one ocean animal with oil pastels. They painted over the whole paper with blue watercolor paint to create the water. The wax in the oil pastels resists the water, so the picture shows through the paint.

Sea Salt Art

[Art]
The children mixed their own salt paint, and then painted 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.

Rhyming Bingo

[Literacy]
We used plastic fish counters to cover the rhyming pictures on rhyming bingo game cards.

Story Retelling

[Literacy]
Choose an ocean-themed book that you would consider good literature (good characters, plot, beginning, middle, end, etc.) Show the book to the children and tell them to think about what happened in the story, and the people (characters) and places they saw in the story. Think about what each character said. Give each child a piece of paper and ask them to draw something they remember from the story. Remind them that this should not be a picture of their cat or their friends, but only pictures of things from the book. After each child has illustrated the story, have them retell the story in their own words. Either record each child with a voice recorder or write their dictation on the page.

Fish Stamping Game

[Math, Literacy]
Write a letter or numeral on each fish, and make a copy for each child. Children will draw a number or letter card from a stack (or roll a die), find that letter/numeral on their mat, and stamp it out. You can use rubber stamps or bingo daubers. As an alternative, you can have children draw an "X" over the fish if stamps or bingo daubers are not available.

Fish Game
Printable

Fishing Game

[Math]
Our "ocean" was a blue shower liner on the floor. Paper fish had 0-10 dots on them, with a paperclip attached, and were tossed onto the "ocean". Children caught a fish with magnetic fishing pole, counted the dots, and wrote or stamped the numeral on a fish cutout. The magnetic fishing poles were made with a magnet wand tied to a rhythm stick with string.

Beach Grid Game

[Math]
To play a grid game, children roll a game die, identify the numeral and count out that amount of manipulatives. Each manipulative is placed over one picture in the grid. Children play until the whole grid is full. This grid game uses mini seashells which can be purchased in a bag at craft stores, or collect your own on the beach.

Beach Grid Game
10 Spaces

Beach Grid Game
20 Spaces

Counters: Mini Seashells

Sorting

[Math]
Children sorted a pack of ocean animal gummy fruit by color, then counted how many they had of each color.

Ocean Math Story Mat

[Math]
I made these mats with construction paper and drew the umbrella with markers. I read out some directions to the children and they placed colored counters on the mat. For example, "Place 2 orange crabs on the sand. Place 5 green fish in the water." This is great for assessing listening skills and following directions (using anecdotal notes or a checklist).

Fish Flop

[Math]
Children used spray-painted beans (one side yellow, one side blue) as pretend fish. Ten fish were placed in each child's cup. The children dumped the cup onto the table and counted to see how many fish flopped on the blue side and how many flopped on the yellow side.

Tuna Fish Sandwich

[Cooking]
With this snack, we got to taste something that comes from the sea. We used a fish cookie cutter to cut two pieces of bread. We made tuna salad by adding mayonnaise and sweet pickles to a drained can of tuna. Then, spread the tuna on the sandwich.

Ocean Snack

[Cooking]
We put three vanilla wafers in a ziplock bag and crushed them to make sand. We poured the sand in the bottom of a clear cup, and scooped blue Jello on top. Last, we added gummy fish.

Shark Hunt

[Science]
Sharks have excellent sense of hearing. Two or three timers were set and hidden in the room. Children use their sense of hearing, like a shark would, to find the timer before it went off. -- From Totline Exploring Water

Wave Bottles

[Science]
Children used a funnel to fill a plastic bottle half full with water. They filled the bottle the rest of the way with baby oil. We gave the liquid a chance to settle, then added 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 added plastic "fish" (sequins), and made waves by turning the bottle sideways and rocking it gently.

Float & Sink

[Science]
children worked in pairs to test the items (cap, penny, marble, feather, toy fish, Unifix cube, etc.) in the water. Each child got their own item to test in the water, but each pair shared a tub of water. Before handing out each item, I asked them to make a prediction whether they thought the item would float or sink. Then, we checked our predictions to see which ones we guessed correctly.

Science Center

[Science]
Sea shell collection
Preserved Seahorse, Starfish, Sand Dollars, Coral, and Sea Sponge
Shark teeth
A Slinky for making waves
Live hermit crab (borrow)
Wave bottle
Sand & water bottle
Baking Powder Submarine
Miniature replicas of ocean animals with fact cards (Lakeshore)

Beach Prop Box

[Dramatic Play Center]
Suntan lotion bottles, Sunglasses, Flip flops, Radio, Swim fins, Face mask, Beach hats, Beach ball, Towels, Ice chest, Juice cans, Cassette tapes of beach songs, Buckets, Pails, Sand molds, Beach chairs, Mini umbrella

Educational Videos

[Technology]
From United Streaming Videos:
"Seahouse: A Drop to Drink"
"Seahouse: Amazing Rays"
"Seahouse: Shark!"
"Seahouse: Birds of the Sea"
"Seahouse: The Dolphin"
"Seahouse: Breathing Underwater"
"Seahouse: Colors and Patterns"
"Seahouse: Crabs, Lobsters, and Shrimp"
"Seahouse: Partners"
"Seahouse: The Manatee"
"Seahouse: Something Fishy"