Preschool Ocean Theme Activities

Here are some hands-on Pre-K & Preschool Ocean theme activities for learning about ocean animals. This page includes Ocean Activities for Math, Literacy, Science, and more.

Find more Ocean Activities for Pre-K

Preschool Ocean Theme Activities

Your little learners will enjoy these preschool ocean theme activities! You will find ideas for teaching math, literacy, fine motor, science, and more. Read more to find activities for art, letters, counting, songs, and how to make wave bottles.

Ocean Books

Click here for a complete list of books about Ocean Animals

Preschool Ocean Large Motor Games

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.

Preschool Ocean Fine Motor Activities

Sea Shell Play Dough Prints

Children use 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.

Preschool Ocean Art Activities

Ocean Art: Colored Tape Fish

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

Colored Tape Fish, Preschool Ocean Theme Activities

Wax Resist Ocean Art

Children draw an ocean scene or one ocean animal with oil pastels. They paint 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.

Ocean Wax Resist Art, Preschool Ocean Theme Activities

Ocean Art: Sea Salt Paint

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.

Salt Paint Art, Preschool Ocean Theme Activities

Preschool Ocean Literacy Activities

Ocean Bingo

Use this for Literacy or Math. Use plastic fish counters to cover the letter/number/shape on the bingo cards. We use these to play alphabet bingo, number bingo, shape bingo, or rhyming bingo.

Ocean Roll & Write Game

Children love this game to practice writing skills! Print and find directions here: Roll & Write Games

Ocean Bingo Stamping Game

Use this for Literacy or Math. Read about and print the Ocean Bingo Game here.

Ocean Story Retelling

This is an activity that goes with any theme. Choose a book that goes with the theme, and have the children retell the story.
Read the blog post here for details: story retelling

Ocean Alphabet Activity

Children can match letters or match letters to beginning sounds with this ocean alphabet activity: Purchase the Ocean Math and Literacy pack here.

Ocean Rhyming

Children can match rhyming pictures on the starfish to the rhyming word pictures in the tide pool with this ocean rhyming activity: Purchase the Ocean Math and Literacy pack here.

Preschool Ocean Math Activities

Ocean Math Game: Fishing Game

Our “ocean” is a blue shower liner on the floor. Paper fish have 0-10 dots on them, with a paperclip attached, and are tossed onto the “ocean”. Children catch a fish with magnetic fishing pole, count the dots on the fish, and write or stamp the numeral on a fish cutout. The magnetic fishing poles were made with a magnet wand tied to a rhythm stick with string.

Ocean Math Game: Fish Flop

Children use spray-painted beans (one side yellow, one side blue) as pretend fish. Ten fish are placed in each child’s cup. The children dump the cup onto the table and count to see how many fish flopped on the blue side and how many flopped on the yellow side.

Fish Flop Math Game for Preschool, Preschool Ocean Theme Activities

Ocean Pattern Block Mats

Read about and print here: Pattern Block Mat Printables. (Go to this page and look for the fish mats.)

Ocean Grid Game

Read about about print here: Grid Games

Beach Grid Game, Preschool Ocean Theme Activities

Ocean Roll & Cover Math Game

This roll and cover game can be used to practice counting and numeral recognition. Read about and print it here: Roll and Cover Games

Ocean Geoboards

Children will practice shapes and fine motor skills by creating the ocean designs on the geoboards. Purchase these Ocean geoboard cards here.

Ocean Shapes Play Dough Mats

Children can build the fish shapes with these ocean shapes mats: Purchase the Ocean Math and Literacy pack here.

Ocean Patterns

Use colored manipulatives to practice ocean patterns! Includes AB, AABB, ABC, ABB, AAB patterns. Purchase the Ocean Math and Literacy pack here.

Preschool Ocean Science Activities

Ocean 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), and make waves by turning the bottle sideways and rocking it gently.

Ocean in a Bottle: Discovery Bottle for Preschoolers, Preschool Ocean Theme Activities

Sea Turtle Life Cycle

This Sea Turtle Life Cycle set includes life cycle posters, sequencing cards, mini book for students in black and white, and a full size book in color for a read aloud. Teach your preschoolers about sea turtles and how they grow! Purchase the Sea Turtle Life Cycle here.

Ocean Cooking Activities

Ocean Snack: Tuna Fish Sandwich

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

Ocean in a Cup

We place three vanilla wafers in a ziplock bag and crush them to make sand. We pour the sand in the bottom of a clear cup, and scoop blue Jello on top. Last, we add gummy fish.

More Ocean Activities

Ocean / Beach Prop Box

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

Nursery rhymes that go well with an Ocean Theme:

Rub a Dub Dub
Catch a Floater

Catch a floater, catch an eel,
Catch a lazy whale,
Catch an oyster by the heel
And put him in a pail.

Look for a printable poster of the Rub a Dub Dub nursery rhyme on the Nursery Rhymes Page.

Ocean Songs

Find lots of Ocean Songs for Music and Movement

Find more Ocean Activities for Pre-K

Ocean Activities In My Shop

You might like this Animal Environments Sort & Classify pack, which includes ocean, polar, safari, forest, and farm animals and their environments. Available in my shop.