Ocean Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers
We have been having so much fun this summer following my friend Alison’s summer reading program. She created a free printable with a different theme for each week. There are 5 stars leading up to each theme and kids get to color in a star for each book we read for that theme. You can check out the post I shared for the zoo theme here! This last week the theme was OCEAN. We had so much fun with it that we had to extend it into a second week.
Since the play theme was based around reading books, I wanted to share some of the books we read and enjoyed here throughout the week. For previous themes, we’ve been checking out books from the library along with reading any books we already had that fit the theme. With the ocean-theme, we already had enough books in our home that we didn’t even need the library. I will say, though, that there are lots of other really great ocean books out there that we do NOT have- so be sure to check your library, too- these were just the ones we had! :)
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links which means I would earn a small commission if you were to purchase through those links. All opinions are my own, and I only link to products that I truly recommend.
Ocean Book Recommendations:
- Ten Tiny Tadpoles
- On My Beach
- A House for Hermit Crab
- Chomp
- Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea
- Poke-a-Dot Who’s in the Ocean?
- Curious George Discovers the Ocean
- Pelican’s Bill (link can’t be found on Amazon right now and I’m SO bummed because it’s such a cute one!)
In addition to some really great books, we had a couple ocean puzzles that were fun to bring out during the week that I wanted to share. One of the puzzles was more Tatum’s speed (she’s 2), and one was more Kade’s speed (he’s 4). The one I had Tatum doing is actually not specifically “ocean” animals but it does have four puzzles with ocean animals that I pulled out.
I laid out the puzzles and the animals that went with them, and she had to match each animal to the correct puzzle. Here is the link for the Animal Picture Matching Boards. Tatum got these puzzles for her 2nd birthday this month and they’ve been so fun for both of my kiddos. Each board is actually double-sided each with a different animal to match- very cute and great for hand-eye coordination, problem-solving, learning/identifying animal names (and sounds) and fine motor skills!
Here is the ocean/underwater floor puzzle that Kade and I worked on together. I think he got this for Christmas this last year (just before he turned 4) and it’s perfect for him! We work on separating out corners, straight edges, and middles first (discussing what each of those mean and what they look like), we build the border of the puzzle, and then we fill in the middle. The picture itself is beautiful and it’s such a great way for Kade to practice doing some critical thinking and problem-solving.
One thing we have especially loved doing for each of these different summer reading themes, is journal activities that go along with them. Kade is always excited about new journal activities and they have been really fun for me to create (added bonus). You can find the post I did on our zoo-themed journal activities here, and I actually did a full separate post on our ocean-themed journal activities as well.
I wanted to at least share a photo of each journal activity in this post but if you want to read more details on each journal activity you can click here! I also recently created an Amazon Affiliate Storefront where you can find a list of all our go-to, most commonly used activity supplies (journal activity supplies included) because I’d had lots of people specifically asking about journal recommendations and materials we use most. The journal activity post has specific links for each page but if you want a full list of supplies, you can check out the Amazon shop!
Ocean Puzzle Sensory Play:
Hiding puzzle pieces in a sensory bin is ALWAYS a hit over here! You can find an activity similar to this one here and also in our zoo-themed activity post. It is FUN and engaging but also covers a lot of different skills. Kiddos are exploring their senses, engaging in pretend play, building social skills, developing language/vocabulary, and also working on fine motor and gross motor skills.
For this specific version of the activity, I chose to dye uncooked pasta as our sensory bin filler. I used a pasta called cavatappi because I saw it in the pasta aisle and thought it looked fun and ocean-like. ;) I mixed about 1/4 cup of vinegar with several drops of food coloring- the more food coloring, the more vibrant the color but you can always add more! I poured the vinegar/food coloring mixture into a ziplock baggie and then dumped in about 2 cups of dried pasta and sealed it tight. This is the best part- mix and shake it all up until the pasta is completely covered- if it’s not coloring it the way you’d hoped, add more food coloring!
Continue these steps until you have the amount of pasta that you want- I ended up doing an entire box because I wanted quite a bit. You’ll want to lay some parchment paper out on a large baking pan for the dyed pasta to lay on while it dries. I try to leave it to dry over night just to be sure but I would bet it only actually takes a few hours. I cannot find this specific ocean puzzle on Amazon because we got this one at a Carters store- but this one is super similar and just as cute!
Seashells in Blue Water:
SO SIMPLE you guys but so fun. We actually paired this water play activity with the “Frozen Sea Creatures” activity coming up next. It kept the kids busy on and off the whole morning, we kept things super open-ended, and they just ran with it however they wanted.
We love anything water and/or ice related especially when we can do it outdoors, in the summer! To set this up, I put our entire seashell collection (if you don’t have a seashell collection, you can buy some here) in a clear plastic storage bin along with some of these vase filler gems, and filled the bin up a little less than halfway with water. I added a few drops of blue food coloring at a time until I got the color I was looking for. We added things like tongs (we also love these), scoops, cups, and tupperware containers for grabbing, scooping, dumping, and transferring (building fine motor and gross motor skills)!
Rescuing Frozen Sea Creatures:
This is the activity we did alongside the last one (Seashells in Blue Water). The kids kind of tackled this challenge first, by spraying the frozen sea creatures with warm water from squeeze bottles and spray bottles, and then they started using some of the blue water to either pour onto the ice, or transferring the ice into the blue water. Eventually all the water was freezing cold so it wasn’t really helping to melt much but it was more about the process. ;)
Once the sea creatures started melting away, then we had seashells, gems, AND sea creatures all in the blue water bin for loads of open-ended, sensory play fun. I put a couple sea creatures into our baby food storage containers (you could also use an ice cube tray) and froze them over night before popping them out into a small storage container for play. They also used a lot of the same scoops, cups, and containers as they last activity since we were doing them both at the same time.
Sea Creature Letters:
I told you- we kept the water and ice play open-ended and then we completely ran with it. One activity turned into another, and then another, and another- so much extended play! As the kiddos were playing with the sea creatures (once they melted them all), I quick brought out our sidewalk chalk and wrote the letters of Kade’s name. I told him to use the sea creatures to make each letter! Great, fun, and hands-on way to practice letter formation and recognition while also using fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. :) You could also choose random letters, numbers, or a couple short sight words that need extra practice.
Seashell Shapes:
This is the same concept as the last activity, but I had Tatum (2) use seashells instead of sea creatures, to make shapes, instead of letters. She needed more help than Kade (4) with this, but he was busy working hard to build his name so I could focus on modeling what to do here for Tatum. We talked about what each shape is called and what it looks like as she “helped” me build each one with the seashells!
Goldfish Cracker Shapes:
Here is another, indoor version of the last activity! Both of my kids (4 and 2) did this activity during snack one day this week. They were having goldfish crackers (and apple slices), so I quick drew up some shapes and had them build the shapes with their crackers.
Here’s another fun, simple activity to try with your goldfish crackers at snack time!
“Ride the Waves” to the Letters:
We were playing outside one day when I thought to draw this one up with our sidewalk chalk. Unfortunately, I made it so big that you can’t really see all of it in these pictures. I drew some fish, and then a blue line from each fish to a different letter. I had Kade start by the fish, and then I would tell him either a letter name, or letter sound, or I would say “I want you to ride the wave to the letter you hear at the beginning of the word ‘F-F-FISH’” emphasizing the “F” sound at the beginning of the word.
He loves riding his scooter (and typically wears a helmet but I didn’t make him for this little activity just in our driveway- he wasn’t going very fast) so this was a great way for him to do what he loves but also practice some important skills! Using your whole body to practice an academic skill is a great way to make connections and help ideas to really stick.
Invitation to Create Rainbow Fish:
Just realized I didn’t link this book at the top of this post with the rest of our book recommendations- oops! We read Rainbow Fish & Friends: Lost at Sea which is based on the popular book Rainbow Fish. After reading this story, we did an invitation to play/create activity with some fish-shaped cookie cutters (okay ours were actually shark-shaped and they came from our baby shark play doh set BUT they were the closest thing I could find to a fish so we improvised), googly eyes, crafting jewels, and vase-filler gems.
Kade’s fish turned out awesome and Tatum was just super into the googly eyes. Her fish had a lot of eyes…. which is fine! The idea of an invitation to play and/or create is that it is open-ended for kiddos to do what they want with it. Playing with play doh is always a great way to build fine motor skills!
Feed the Shark:
We did a counting journal activity like this with goldfish crackers, but I wanted a larger version that was more focused on fine motor skills than the numbers and counting. I did end up using these felt fish with numbers on them that we had from a game I scored in the Target dollar section a couple years ago. You could just make fish out of construction paper, or felt, or you could buy some like this. If you make your own, or buy some like the ones I linked, you could put letters on them, numbers, shapes, names, or sight words for older kiddos!
When Kade (4) played with this activity, I had him focus on the numbers- “feed the shark a fish with the number 10 on it,” “feed the shark the number that comes after 2,” etc. When Tatum (2) played with this activity, I would tell her what number she picked and we would talk about what colors we saw on each fish.
I made the shark out of an empty cereal box- I cut off the tabs on the top so it was just open (easier to dump the fish out and start over), and then I covered the front and the back of the box with black card stock paper using double-sided tape. I drew a shark on white paper and colored it with crayons. I used the double-sided tape again to tape the shark onto the black card stock and then actually had my dad help me cut out the mouth because I’m the firs to admit I am not great with sharp objects. ;)
Dot Sticker Fish:
I actually did a full write-up of this activity that you can find here! This was perfect for Tatum at age 2 as we are still working on mastering colors- naming/identifying them, sorting them, matching them, etc. Peeling stickers is also a great fine motor activity- read more about this, benefits of kids working at a vertical surface (taping an activity up to a wall, painting at an easel, etc.), ideas for activities similar to this one, and links to materials we used all in the other post!
Here is another activity I have shared about that’s super similar but works on learning the letters in your name. :)
Tin Foil Painted Ocean Scenes:
Have you (or your kiddos) ever tried painting on tin foil?! It’s such a fun sensory experience! The way the paintbrush slides around on the shiny foil is just the best. I cut some cardboard off of an amazon box we had kicking around and wrapped both pieces in some tin foil. I taped it on the back just to be sure it was secure, and then set out some blue, washable tempera paint for the kiddos to use to paint. I told them that they were painting the ocean and that once it dried, they would get to add some stickers to create their very own ocean scene!
They painted away, and enjoyed every minute of it. The foil took a couple hours to fully dry (because they used a lot of paint- ha), but then they had so much fun picking out ocean stickers to add to their ocean scenes. This activity not only is a great sensory activity, but also allows for creativity, imagination, vocabulary and language development, and then they’re peeling stickers again which covers fine motor skills!
Bubble Wrap Starfish:
Here is another art project that doubles as sensory play- painting on BUBBLE WRAP! Another super fun surface to glide over with your paint brush. I definitely could have chosen darker colors to paint with, but I was going for bright and fun so this is what we got. Here is a link for some similar, bright, neon, washable tempera paints. I drew a starfish on white card stock- which was honestly the hardest part of prepping the activity… harder than it looks, folks. I cut that one out and used it as a pattern for tracing another one.
I cut two sheets of bubble wrap for each kiddo and had them paint whatever colors they wanted all over the bubble wrap. When they decided it was covered enough for their liking, I helped each of them place a starfish down on the painted bubble wrap and we made sure to lightly press down all over. When we peeled it up, it left the coolest painted texture on the star fish!
So much fun with this theme and hoping to have inspired a little ocean fun into your lives as well! If you enjoy doing themed activities with your kiddos, or do themes at your daycare/preschool, and are looking for more play themes, be sure to check out the activities in these posts, too!
Zoo Activities
Frog Activities
Bug Activities
Apple Activities
