For Ocean Week (June 1-9th) this year, we tried 5 sensory and play-based learning activities. It’s an ideal time of year to learn about the ocean and even more relevant to us because we’re moving to the east coast of Canada next month, where we’ll be fortunate enough to experience the wonders of the ocean ourselves.
1. Ocean Fizzy Play
To start the week off, we took our Tuff Tray outside on a beautiful day for some ocean fizzy play.
I filled the Tuff Tray up with water and some of our resin and acrylic ocean-themed pieces. In our round, metal spice box, I added Kidfolk and Co.’s scented potion powder and some small add-ins. The Potion Powder is activated with water so as soon as the kids put it in the water, it fizzed and bubbled away. It was the perfect ingredient for some experimental science and small world fun. We played with it all day.
Materials
- Magic Potion Powder and Resin Conch Shell (left) – Kidfolk and Co.
- Resin Octomama and Conch Shell (right) – Olive Eve and Co.
- All acrylic pieces (coral reef pieces, shells, sand dollars, Kraken legs) – Stars and Sensory
- Yellow Door Education Rustic Pourers – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Resin ocean loose parts – Readymade Play Canada & Playspiration (Instagram)
- Metal Spice Box – Amazon
- Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice
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2. Rock Pool Sensory Play & Learn
Next, we explored rock pools with the help of some of my favourite small shops. The Bathymetric Pond made a perfect rock pool. I filled it with some left over sensory mix I had from a previous activity (our Dino Search and Count Tray) and some rock pool critters. In the other bin, I used some ready-to-use sensory mixes to make a rocky beach and wooden waves and pool.
The Usborne Rock Pool Life to Spot book is the perfect companion for this little sensory activity. It has pictures of creatures to look for in rock pools and even little stickers to match to a chart in the back of the book. The kids had a great time searching the bins for rock pool inhabitants and life and matching them to the book.
Materials
- Bathymetric Pond – Aurora & Holly Children’s Accessories and Play
- Crab Wood Tray – Carved Together
- Beach Beans & Shimmering Seaweed Sensory Mixes – The Creative Mix Shop
- Ocean waves from Storyboard Great Outdoors Pack and Ocean & Sea Play Pieces – Eye Spy Club
- Wooden crabs, starfish, shell and seagull toys – Tiny Fox Hole
- Grapat Wonders pieces – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Usborne Rock Pool Life to Spot book – Amazon
3. Small World Beach Play
We love our Maileg beach collection toys. These little mice and their accessories are so adorable.
The kids and I wanted to give them a real trip to the beach, so we used the Wonderie Coral Reef Play Cloth and spread some Sandy Seascape sensory mix over top. We also gave them an island the mice could swim to or walk to, by turning over the Bathymetric Pond. The finishing touches were the felt palm trees. This small world play scene has definitely made us ready for the beach!
Materials
- Maileg beach collection – Simply Green Baby
- Wonderie Coral Reef play cloth – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Sandy Seascape and Tidal Treasure sensory mixes – The Creative Mix Shop
- Felt palm trees – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Bathymetric Pond (upside down) – Aurora & Holly Children’s Accessories and Play
- Wood crabs, starfish & shell – Tiny Fox Hole
- Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice
4. Ocean Small World & Sensory Play
One we’d played with a beach we thought we’d explore the ocean depths. On hot day, there is nothing better than some small world ocean and water play.
The basis of this small world play was the Coral Reef Play Cloth. It is the perfect size for the Tuff Tray and works so well in water play. I thought it would be fun to have some different textures in the tray, so I added acrylic and plastic coral reef pieces, artificial anemones (aquarium accessories I found on Amazon), some small rocks and glass pebbles.
This was such a soothing and peaceful play. The kids especially loved the feeling of the anemone’s and were content moving the sea creatures around in the water for a very long time.
Materials
- Wonderie Coral Reef Play Cloth – Sewing Seeds Play (save with code HOUSEOFPLAY10)
- Acrylic coral reef pieces – Stars and Sensory
- Large blue and yellow anemone – Amazon
- Large white and pink tip anemone – Amazon
- Small pink artificial amenomes – Amazon
- Orange artificial anemone – Amazon
- Blue anemone – Amazon
- Plastic artificial coral – Amazon
- Terra by Battat Tropical Fish & Crabs – Amazon
- Terra by Battat Sea Animals – Amazon
- Tuff Tray – Scholar’s Choice
*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
5. Whales Play-Based Learning
In honour of World Ocean Day on June 8th, we learned about the different methods whales use to eat with the help of this wonderful hands-on activity I found on the Marine Mammal Center website.
Last summer, we took an amazing trip to see the whales in Tadoussac, Quebec. And ever since, the kids have loved learning about whales. We saw whale skull with baleen at a museum in Tadoussac, so they understood a little about how whales feed. I liked that this activity reinforced that concept and extended the learning about different types of whale hunting and feeding methods.
Did you know there are a variety of ways that whales hunt and feed? I learned a few things here too.
- Skimmers – feed by skimming the surface of the water (e.g., right whales)
- Gulpers – dive down and swim to the surface with their mouth open (e.g, blue whales and humpbacks)
- Bubblers – trap prey by swimming in a circle and releasing a ring of bubbles (e.g., humpbacks)
- Biters – bite individual or small groups of prey (e.g., orcas and belugas)
This a simple and fun play-based learning activity using materials we had around our house. We used dried herbs to represent the krill and plankton, small pieces of felt to represent small fish and a comb, plastic bag, straws and tongs to imitate the whale’s hunting and feeding behaviour. Full instructions can be found here.
We plan to continue our ocean-related play over the next week so stay tuned for more ideas.