Wednesday, June 19, 2013

By the Seashore for Preschoolers - Part 2

Last week of preschool...or is it? Technically for Adrian, preschool with mama is finished now (By the Seashore was the last unit) but because I'm around, it's a bit hard to grab the concept that "school is out for the summer". I knew it would be and that's why I "planned" a light "Summer Enrichment Program" for him which is due to start anytime soon. I should be posting my themes and "schedule" soon. Until then, here's to the last week of Preschool! :) How my little baby boy is growing! :(


Collecting Sea Shells in Sandbox
Collecting seashells "on the beach"

Well, it wasn't really at the beach but as mentioned before, our local playground has a very big sandbox so I scattered 10 seashells on the sand, gave Adrian a pail and let the fun begin. It's good practice for when we decide to book a trip to a real beach. :) With the warm and sunny days finally here  (what say you to 32 Celsius today from 12 last week?) it's nice to be outside more and leave our shelves and trays behind sometimes. Then again, once the shells are collected, there is more fun to be had. I created shapes with the seashells and Adrian decided to do the same and then decided to make letters. After a while, the shells were filled with sand by his little sister while Adrian decided to use them for digging purpose. Endless possibilities. By the way, these were purchased two years ago in an American Dollar Store.

Sandcastle Art Collage
Sandcastle Art with Beach Sand

Making a real sandcastle (decorated with flags, seashells and all) was in our plans and was accomplished, but my camera was unfortunately left at home the day Adrian worked on that artistic project. :( On the other hand, the day we decided to make another type of sandcastle, my camera was right by me; as such, I give you : the beach sand collage sandcastle. First step: draw a sandcastle with a pencil. Second step, brush some liquid glue inside the lines of your sandcastle and third step, scoop some beach sand onto the glue. Finally, shake off the excess back into the bowl you scooped the sand from. Tip: Use a "finger painting tray" under the drawing when doing this activity or do it outside to avoid sand spills. :) You can, like Adrian did decorate the sandcastle. I thought it looked a bit bare once it was "finished" so I told Adrian we'd add seashells, flags and all the next day when the glue would be set.


Play Dough Sandcastle Play Dough Beach Mosaic Play Dough Beach Fossils
Beach Play Dough

Counting Coconuts had the cutest beach-inspired play dough but having no such small accessories, I had to face the sad reality: my beach play dough would have the be adapted to what I had on hand. Using seashells, beach glass, and sand dollars, Adrian created "mosaics" in the play dough, mini sandcastles, and eventually "fossils" as we had during our Dinosaur Week. Not bad considering we didn't have many small beach objects. (Note to self: hunt for small beach-inspired objects for next year!)


Giant Ocean Floor Puzzle
Giant "Underwater" Puzzle by Melissa & Doug

I debated for a while before adding this one to our "Seashore" week. I feel like these beautiful tropical fish are not by the seashore but rather in the sea...In the end, I still went with it and told Adrian that if he  snorkels in the sea, he might get a glimpse of these little beauties! :) I decided to keep all other sea materials for our "Ocean Life" unit but if you want to get a head start on me, feel free...A hint on what's coming? I'm already eyeing the Marine Invertebrate and Marine Life Cards from Montessori Print Shop! :) By the way, did you know they are having a HUGE giveaway that includes ALL of their materials? I'm keeping my fingers crossed on that one...Oh and if you like Montessori giveaways...there's another going on right now on one of my favorite Montessori websites; Living Montessori Now, so hop on by to get a chance to win 5 Safari Ltd. Toobs! :)


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4 comments:

  1. love the paper sand castle. Going to the beach next week and plan to take some supplies with me to do some beach activities especially if it rains!

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    1. I hope you'll have good weather. The beach is the beach no matter what but I always hope for sunny and warm weather! Glad my beach posts reached you in time for your vacation! :)

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  2. Love the imprinting idea. Thanks for linking up at Artsy Play Wednesday. Pinned to our group board.

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    1. Thank you for pinning Kristen. I hope you will have some fun with it as well! :)

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