A week studying the beach!

I knew we were going on a beach vacation so what better topic to study at school than the beach?!  I had some good beach themed books here at our house, so I just decided to use those.  I think my favorite was was the book "On the Beach" that was made by Usborne books.  It's informative, has fun flaps for the kids to lift, and the text is not too long but covers a lot of details.  I think this week we're going to look at some of the shells I collected and compare them to what the book says. 

 On our first day talking about the beach, we did this short math activity.  I saw these pictures available to print...for free!...at this great blog site.  There are links to the cutest math and language printouts that were perfect for PreK/Kindergarten.  I was so excited about finding this.

 I printed these on my computer and just slid them into some page protectors I had.  We were able to count (Isaac) and add (Sophie) with goldfish crackers.  Then we were able to write the appropriate numbers with white board markers in the boxes.  When you want to do a new one, they just wipe right off!  I'm really enjoying page protectors.  Much easier than laminating.

 I saw this cute idea to make paper aquariums on Pinterest.  The link didn't really work, so I just looked at the picture and came up with my own method.  We had some styrofoam plates, so I cut the middle out of one and the left the other one alone.  I let the kids paint the inside of the bottom plate and the bottom side of the cut-out plate.  Then we glued beads, some yellow wooden stars I had from long ago craft projects, some shiny pipe cleaners for seaweed, some sequins for fish bubbles, and then I cut out different pieces from some scrapbook paper I had to make the fish.  Then I taped some plastic wrap to the cut-out plate and then taped it onto the bottom plate that had all the cute stuff on it.  I hope that makes sense! 

 Here's the finished product!  I thought they turned out cute!

 We also tried this other project where you mix paint and shaving cream.  You're supposed to dip your cut out seahorse in it and when it dries it should give it a swirly look.  Well, the kids wanted to paint them.  So I said, "sure, why not?"  But we used styrofoam plates and they didn't do so well.  I ended up throwing them away because the shaving cream kind of got crispy feeling and with the paint mixed with it...well, let's just say there were little paint drops on the floor.  Thankfully they wiped up!  : )

 But it was still a fun craft!  I love the colors!

Here's a link to another great blog site (is it called a blog site? You know what I mean, right?).  It is a great beach unit with lots of great book and activity ideas.  This was such a fun week for us.  Then last week we went to the beach for a field trip...I mean, vacation : ).  I think we still have some activities left that we didn't finish, so we may do the beach for one more week.  There are more activities than I realized...and all of them a lot of fun.

It's hard to believe that it's fall...and we just got back from a nice, warm week at the beach!

Blessings~Stacey