The summer months are filled with ocean and beach time in our family and we do a lot of beach and ocean themed play to reflect on those experiences. These plays have helped my kids (now 4 and 5 years old) voice their questions about ocean creatures, expand their imagination on ocean topics and just have fun. Here are a few more ideas for some ocean themed play. For even more inspiration, check out my other post on ocean plays.
1. Ocean Playdough Invitation
I had some play dough colours that my kids had mixed up into a swirly ball. It was still super squishy and soft and the colours looked a little like the ocean so I put in in a quick tray with some Dollarama brand kinetic sand that I’ve had for years.
The kids dove right into this playdough tray. I think they liked that the materials were all out of their containers and easy to access.
They made a pretty big mess with this, but also had a great time. So I call it even.
Materials
- Play Dough – Readymade Play (save with code PLAY10)
- Resin Octomama and Large Resin Conch Shell – Olive Eve and Co.
- Yellow Door Education Ocean Life Rollers – Scholar’s Choice
- Acrylic coral and shells – Stars and Sensory
- Round metal tray and tablecloth – Dollarama
2. Ocean Water Play
A simple water play with scoops and treasures is one of my kids’ favourites. They love searching through all the treasures and collecting their favourites. This Ocean Water Play was right in their wheelhouse.
I put our Wonderie Amongst the Corals Play Cloth in the Tuff Tray with water and added anything else waterproof I could find. This play features the fillers, magic pack pieces and resin from many of our favourite small shops.
Materials
- The Wonderie Amongst Corals Play Cloth, Glopals Under the Sea Fun Fillers – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Under the Sea Magic Pack – Kidfolk & Co. (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY15)
- Resin mermaid halves, turtles and tail – Readymade Play (save with code PLAY10)
- All other resin – Olive Eve and Co.
- Mini Mix-in Iridescent Shells – Stars and Sensory
- Eco Friends (whale, hammerhead shark and octopus) – CJ Eco-play
- Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice
3. Jellyfish Sensory Play
July is jellyfish season at our cottage in Nova Scotia and we’ve seen many jellyfish at the outer beaches around us. I wanted to give the kids a fun and messy activity where they could safely touch the ‘jellyfish’. The jellyfish are jello I poured into bowls and put in some string for tentacles to harden in the jello.
Then I put Glo Pals Light Up Cubes under each jellyfish to make them glow. The jello did start to fall apart when I took it out of the bowls – if I do something like this again I need to find a better mold.
Materials
- Glo Pals Light Up Cubes and glitter from Under the Sea Fun Filler (I’ve really gotten a lot of mileage from one pack of Fun Filler!) – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice
4. Ocean-themed Bathtime
We also take our ocean play into the bath! Ocean themed baths are some of my favourites because many of our bath toys are already ocean related. I also brought in the Guidecraft Coral Connections. I love that this toy is waterproof and works both indoors and outdoors. My daughter put all the coral pieces around her and said she was in a mermaid castle. She wouldn’t get out of the bath.
I also like to add a little bath foam soap whenever I can, so the kids unknowingly get clean while they’re playing. They are usually too busy to be interupted with boring washing from mom.
Materials
- Glo Pals Guppy Grips and Light Up Cubes – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Guidecraft Coral Connections
- Munchkin bath submarine – Amazon
- Bubble Whoosh (just a little for colour)
- Floating Pool Light – Amazon
- Bath Foam Soap – Amazon
5. The Little Blue Cottage Book and Sensory Play
And finally, we did some beach cottage book play. My kids favourite bedtime story right now is The Little Blue Cottage by Kelly Jordan. It’s a sweet story about a girl who forms an attachment with her summer cottage and continues to return to it year after year. I can see why the kids have identified with it, since we also spend summers at our cottage.
We used some old playdough, water and decorative sand for a slightly messy, bookish play.
Materials
- The Little Blue Cottage by Kelly Jordan – Amazon
- Within and Co Signature 55 mat – Sewing Seeds Play ✨save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10
- Turquoise Tray, decorative sand, wood cottage – Dollarama
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