Our lil sprouts had a whale of a time today learning about the ocean!
We started off with a book about whales, Baby Whale's Journey
We did a little science demonstration to show the lil sprouts how whales use their blubber to keep warm on their long journey to arctic waters.
Our lil sprouts put their hands into our ice bucket to experience the frigid temperatures. Then they slid their little hands into a glove insulated with blubber (crisco) and dipped their little hands back in. Our little ones noticed a definite change in temperature and were able to see how a whales blubber would help to keep them warm and insulated.
Learning Centers
Next our lil sprouts were divided into groups.
They rotated between 3 learning stations to complete 3 different activities. First they made jellyfish, they added tentacles and used their hands to get creative with some finger paint.
The next station was ocean sensory bags. We love encouraging our lil sprouts to learn through sensory experiences. They filled their ocean bags with shells, ocean animals, fish stickers, and fish bubbles (sequins). We then added a little glitter sand and then the fun stuff our blue ocean goo (or dyed hair gel) When the little ones were done we closed them up tight and they had an ocean in a bag. These are great for counting, classifying, and tracing their letters. Our lil sprouts practiced making o's for ocean using their pointer finger tracing it in the gel.
The last activity was painting seashells, our lil sprouts examined some pretty cool seashells and looked at their brilliant colors, then we let their artistic touch take over. they used q-tips to apply paint to their seashells, we had some beautifully colored shells when they were all done.Making an Edible Beach
To finish our activity day our lil sprouts made their very own edible beach. We talked about seashells and how the waves pound them down to make sand. Each lil sprout got their own bag with Nila wafers in it and we encouraged them to crumble, smash and bang them until they were mere crumbs. Like the waves erode the seashells in the ocean. We discussed animals that live in the ocean and they added gummy fish and sharks to their jello ocean. When they were done adding their wildlife they sprinkled their sand on top of their ocean. They added a gummy beach towel an umbrella and some star fish and crabs, some even added a few water toys like a gummy life preserver.
Exploring the ocean with a sensory pool
To encourage our lil sprouts to learn, laugh and play we set up a double sensory pool that had a sandy shore where they could investigate with shovels, seashells and sand toys. And an ocean sensory pool where they could explore with ocean animals, water buckets and other water toys.
These ocean sensory pools are great summer fun for your little ones, they take just a few seconds to set up and provide hours of learning fun for your little ones.
The kids really enjoyed their playtime as well, its always fun to explore and play on a swing set!
We had a whale of a time learning with our lil sprouts today! As favors our lil sprouts took home their very own sea creature we can't wait to hear their observations as they watch them this week! We look forward to comments from our lil sprouts!
Amanda and I love watching our little friends play, learn and explore! We look forward to next month when we explore a new topic and have s'more hands on learning fun! We hope you will join us next month, Saturday, June 23rd in the afternoon, more details will go out via facebook later this week, and as always will be posted on our site.
Be sure to sign up as a follower so you don't miss important dates and new activities!
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