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 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 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.

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 "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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Your comments make my day ! 
(Please note : comments won't be visible until after my approval!)

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Today, I'm happily linking up to

Montessori Monday, The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase, Sun Scholars's For the Kids Friday, Stress-Free Sunday, Thursday Toddler & Preschool, Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, Money Savings Monday, Serenity Saturday, Virtual Montessori Sharing Fair, and Artsy Play Wednesday, Monday Kid Corner, Kids in the Kitchen, We Made That.

If you would like me to link up with you, please don't hesitate to ask, it might take me a week or two, but I generally do!

By the Seashore for Preschoolers - Part 1

The beach is without any doubts my favorite place in the entire world. I've been very blessed so far in life and got to see some amazing beaches in the Caribbean, North America, Europe and even Africa. If you happen to be going to the beach this year, please enjoy it on my behalf! :)

Art in the Sandbox - Sand Combs

Originally made these for little Zahavah back in September I believe after stumbling on a post from StoriesandChildren. Sand combs, if you haven't used any yet are quite cool for the beach and since we have a huge sandbox at our local playground, I thought we'd pretend it was a beach. Made our set from thick box cardboard and designed different "teeth" for each so they'd made different "tracks" when dragged on the sand. Of course, cardboard is flimsy after a while, so if you think your kids will be rough or will use them often, I recommend cutting those out of plastic lids like it was done by the lady on StoriesandChildren.

Pouring Coconut Milk

I have very fond memories of drinking a sweet, non-alcoholic, drink from a coconut while in Mexico. Don't know what it was to this day but it sure tasted good and that will forever make me associate coconuts with the beach. Well, that and the fact that lots of sunscreens smell like it too. :) Here, I put out two small pitchers, one with coconut milk,  and one awaiting the milk transfer. Later, the coconut milk was re-used for making some Thai food. Yummy!

Sifting Sea Glass from Beach Sand

Quite the easy work here for an almost Kindergartner but not something he really liked. Although he knew how many pieces of sea glass to look for in the beach sand, he got tired of sifting quickly. I prepared the activity with 15 pieces of small 1/2inch polished sea glass (purchased off an Etsy seller), beach sand and a small mesh spoon usually used for powdered sugar decorations. After sifting all the glass out, the activity was further extended into sorting the different colors of sea glass (we had clear, brown, green and white) and counting.

Writing in a Beach Sand Tray

Visited my Tedi Bargain Store to see what was new and saw a jar filled with "beach sand". How convenient! Poured it in a smaller "tray" for Adrian to practice writing letters. Used a smaller tray this time because I'd like Adrian to be able to produce smaller letters and to take his time in forming the letters.

Math - Fresh fruit fractions

Another good memory of my beach days is eating fresh fruit on the beach. (My mom always brought a cooler filled to the top with fresh fruits and juices for the entire family). Of course, limes and lemons were usually not part of the picnic but for this activity, they were perfect and well, Adrian doesn't see these as often I'd say so I knew it would pique his curiosity. I simply thought fruits would be a good way to introduce him to the world of fractions. We looked at whole fruits, half fruits and quartered fruits. We did the same with slices of fruits. My presentation was originally done with the blueberry. Then I cut the lime in front of him to reinforce the blueberry presentation and asked him as I cut if it was a whole, half or quarter lime. Finally, Adrian proceeded to put the toothpick fraction numbers on the lemon slices to show me if he had understood...which he had. A beautiful and yummy "3 Period Lesson" with Fruit Fractions! :)

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Your comments make my day ! 
(Please note : comments won't be visible until after my approval!)

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Today, I'm happily linking up to

Montessori Monday, The Kids Co-Op, Show-and-Share Saturday, Link & Learn, TGIF, Share it Saturday, Mom's Library, The Sunday Showcase, Sun Scholars's For the Kids Friday, Stress-Free Sunday, Thursday Toddler & Preschool, Tuesday Tots, Preschool Corner &5K, Hammock Tracks' Look What We Did, Money Savings Monday, Serenity Saturday, Virtual Montessori Sharing Fair, and Artsy Play Wednesday, Monday Kid Corner, Kids in the Kitchen, We Made That.

If you would like me to link up with you, please don't hesitate to ask, it might take me a week or two, but I generally do!

By the Seashore for Toddlers - Part 2

By the Seashore has been a tremendous success with "baby" Zahavah. She goes in short spurts though and is VERY picky when it comes to choosing an activity. Some don't get her attention as much and that's ok. She may be almost 2 but I'm still getting to know her likings! :) We usually do only 3-4 different "school activities" each day and leave the rest to self-interest play and outdoor fun.

Stacking sand "biscuits"

Mmm. While I loved this idea, she didn't so much. :( She did stack the sand dollars though.

Fishing magnetic fish...or taking a break from it

This little fishing game took a while to make and I thought it would be a big hit but it wasn't so much. I showed her how to use it and she was actually pretty good at it but didn't really like the activity overall. Oh well!  Maybe another day it will be the favorite! :) In the meantime, if you wish to make your own felt fishes, here is what I used: brightly colored felt, sequins for the scales, thread, goggly eyes, a metal washer and polyester stuffing. To complete the game, use a magnetic wand from a magnetic puzzle if you have one. I cannot remember where I found the pattern but drawing a fish is pretty basic anyway. The idea for the game came from Counting Coconuts by the way.

Caught a fish!

It's biting!

Sifting sea glass from sand

Zahavah loves playing the sand so it was no surprise to see her enjoying this activity, done at home in our small sandbox. I must admit the sea glass pieces we have are so small that they took a while to find (even in this small box) but Z's face when she'd find a "gem" was of such pride that  it was still worth hunting them down (although I did give up on finding the last piece for now...). ;)

Collecting seashells "on the beach"

Until we head to the beach for real, the gigantic sandbox located in our local playground served as a pretend one. I scattered 10 big seashells on the surface, gave baby a pail and let her do the picking. We repeated over and over again. Her big brother even joined in.

Sorting seashell pasta by color

Another " bah" activity. She sorted all three colors into the little ramekins but didn't seem to particularly enjoy it. It gave her fingers a good fine motor workout though; not just her math skills were involved.

Sand Combs

An artistic take on playground time. I made these four differently "Teethed" cardboard combs and showed her how they made different "tracks" in the sand. After that, she just had to try it by herself. I stumbled upon this idea on storiesandchildren. Hers were made of plastic lids though but as I did not have any of these lids, I went with box cardboard. It just made the teeth a bit more flimsy at the end (the sand was slightly wet) but once dried, they were as good as new.

Coloring a Crab

As silly as it may be, it was Zahavah's first time coloring with crayons. I always used an aqua doodle before so I wasn't sure how it would go. She did great and loved it. I bought the Crayola Triangular Crayons which are supposed to her develop the right grip (although it never helped Adrian, one can always hope for this little one). I taped the sheet to the floor to avoid frustrating paper movements and tears as well. You can print your own Kawaii crab at HelloKids. 

Last but not pictured was a fun game of beach ball. We threw the ball, practiced catching the ball, kicked it and even rolled on it. It was a blast.

By the Seashore for Toddlers

I am most certain that I was meant to live by the sea. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to make that happen yet and haven't even gotten to a beach in years. As such, I brought the "sea and beach" to us with a unit named "By the Seashore" for little Zahavah. 

Learning Ressources' Jumbo Ocean Animals

No fish here sadly (and strangely if you ask me) but still a nice variety. Whale, dolphin, octopus, seal, tiger shark and turtle though. By day 2, Z already could show me which was was which so she learned these quickly. (On the first day, she already knew "turtle" and learned "octopus" right after.) To reinforce the name after presentation, I scattered 3 animals and asked Z, "Where's octopus?"She quickly mastered the three animals and the rest were reinforced the same way the day after. She also quite enjoyed watching 30sec. videos of each animal on YouTube (the seal playing ball and dolphin playing with bubble rings were the biggest hit). She is now getting to pronouncing the name of each creature.

Melissa & Doug's Ocean Life Jumbo Knobs Puzzle

Melissa & Doug's puzzles are all awesome to me. For toddlers, I especially like the jumbo knobbed ones like the one pictured above. It's only three pieces and they are quite big ones at that but it can still require a lot of patience and coordination for a toddler.

Scooping starfish with a net

A favorite. Most toddlers love to play in the water and mine is no exception. I had intended on presenting this tub outside in the yard but due to sudden weather changes, I had to revise my plans and            present it inside on the tiled kitchen floor. If you are hesitant towards water play, don't be. Yes, it's messy but it's just water and any spills can be wiped down with a towel. Toddlers can even be dressed down to their diapers to avoid wet clothes. In this water activity, Zahavah had to scoop up the little starfish with her net. It was quite easy for her and after fishing out the little ocean life twice, she simply went in with her hands to play in the water, grab the starfish and put them back. After 10 minutes, I took away the tub (A Sterilite Storage container) but she could have kept going.

Sand molding with sea creatures

Kids love playing in the sand and I got these Melissa & Doug sand molds a while ago with our Huggies Rewards Points (yeah! Finally a prize for years of diaper changing!) knowing we'd use them soon. It so happens that our local playground has a HUGE sandbox so we used those there. Zahavah loved filling each mold with her hands and shovels but I had to of course turn the mold and show her the results of her hard work.

Finger painting blue waves

Another mildly messy activity that took place this week is finger-painting. To avoid most of the mess though, I contained the finger painting sheet into a finger painting tray (found at Michael's) and taped the sheet to the bottom of it. Then I squeezed a small blob of Crayola washable finger paint on the sheet and let little Z make "waves". As painting with fingers can be a death sentence for clothing and carpets, I dressed down baby Z to her diaper and made sure the tray would be above wood floors! :) As you see, it's a good thing she was shirtless! :)