Under the Sea
- Gather your materials. You will need some construction paper, a pencil, scissors, some glue, paint ( glitter paint is perfect for this) and a paint brush.
- Mix up some regular paint with some sparkle glitter paint. It will make the fish look like they are underwater!
- Draw or have your child draw some fish on a piece of construction paper, while you cut out a fish bowl . To cut it out layer 2 pieces ( one blue) of construction paper together and using a cereal bowl trace a circle , then add on a wider brim at top. Cut it out. Cut the top third of the blue paper off and make the edge look like a wave.
- Paint the fish.
- Let the fish dry. Have your child glue the water onto the fish bowl, then onto a plain piece of construction paper.
- When the fish are dry, cut out and glue them onto the bowl!
* Tip for sparkle paint, to save money just buy yellow. it blends into other colors well so you don’t need 5 different tubes of glitter paint !
” Swimmy“ by Leo Lionni is a profound tale about a little fish who tragically looses his family, and is forced to face scary things alone. He soon discovers that if he and other little fish band together they have power against the big bullies in the ocean. Personally I love this author and this book is one of my favorites. Some parents have expressed concern over his family being eaten at the start , so read it for yourself before deciding if it’s right for your child.
” Baby Beluga” by Raffi is a classic children’s song cleverly illustrated into a beautiful book. I grew up on Raffi and am still shocked when moms don’t know who he is, if he is new to you go to your library and check out one of his cds! My son loves this book, there are so many sea creatures to point out, it’s great for toddlers!
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***This is a preschool craft, my toddler helped me with it but I did 95% of this one, don’t be fooled by the picture he was taking the foot OFF! ***
- Gather your materials. For this crafts I used 3 foam sheets in white, black and orange, scissors, a pen and glue.
- Draw the outline of the penguin on the black foam sheet. I eyeballed it. Also you could easily used construction paper instead of the foam sheets.
- Cut the outline out.
- Using the black outline, trace it onto the while sheet, and then when cutting it out do so an inch INSIDE the line, so it’s it the same shape but smaller.
- Cut out small round eyes out of the left over black foam/paper.
- Draw a foot , double the foam so you have two layers and cut.
- Cut out a small triangle for the beak.
- Start gluing! ( can you tell he’s taking the feet off ? ) if you are doing this with little ones I would marker on the eyes and beak, because these small foam pieces are tempting to chew on and choke!
- If you are doing this with an older child , trace the outlines with a good marker and have them cut along it.
One final note to parents, when you are doing cut and paste crafts with your kids, try really hard not to “correct” them on where to glue the eyes, or feet etc… let them put them where they want. Crafts like these are fun but not very creative so let them put their own twist on the craft with a foot where the nose should be. It’s about the process NOT the product.
Song!
I’m a Little Penguin!
I’m a little penguin,
black and white,
short and wobbly ,
an adorable sight!
I can’t fly at all,
but I love to swim,
so I’ll waddle to the water,
and dive right in!
” Tacky the Penguin” by Helen Lester is such a cute and funny story, your kids will love it! Tacky is an odd bird but when hunters come to get some pretty penguins is funny odd ways of doing things turn off the hunters and saves Tacky and his perfectly not odd companions. This is a sweet look at being different and being happy as pie about being different!
” Little Penguin’s Tale” by Audrey Wood is a funny cautionary tale about a curious and wild penguin. When the tale almost ends in doom and gloom the narrator changes the end a little bit, so the readers and other little penguins aren’t too sad. Still the message is clear that you can’t ignore the rules without some consequences!
I am not one to promote movies and videos as educational but ” The March of The Penguins” is worth a look for older children. I popped it on and my son looked at it for a second, said ” Bebe” which is his word for penguin and got down to play with his drum. However older preschoolers and school age kids could really enjoy it. There are some sad parts but the narration is such that kids too young to understand death , will likely not catch it. Still if you haven’t seen it watch it before showing it to your kids.
- Gather your materials. You will need a paper bag, a magazine or newspaper, some paint, a brush and some tape.
- Start by painting your bag, open it up to paint all the sides. I like to use a few different colors to make a fun multicolored octopus!
- Paint the bottom of the bag last and let dry.
- Rip some pages out of a magazine and crumple them into balls.
- Stuff your bag and put a piece of tape tightly around the gathered bag.
- Cut the remaining bag into 8 tentacles. Add eyes by using a marker with younger children or googly eyes with older ones who are less likely to try and eat the googly eyes!
Oscar the Octopus
Oscar the Octopus has 8 legs
Oscar the Octopus has 8 legs
Oscar the Octopus has 8 legs
so swim Oscar swim!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
*Continue to 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 legs
and end it with ” Oscar is a fish!” after zero legs.
” Commotion in the Ocean” by Giles Andreae is a fun look at the different creatures in the ocean. The short rhymes for each creatures are all in all cute and somewhat informative as well! The illustrations by David Wojtowycz are bright , endearing and I think they steal the show! “Super Submarines” by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker rhymes along as it explains to the reader how a sub works, and all the ways we use submarines to explore deep down in the ocean! ” What it’s like to be a Fish?” by Wendy Pfeffer is a fantastic non fiction look at fish and how they move, eat and breath underwater! The text is too lengthy for toddlers and young preschoolers but older preschoolers will love it!
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