Ocean Themed Learning Activities for Younger Preschoolers
Every summer we try to either go to the beach or the aquarium as a family. That tradition led us to spend the summer learning about oceans while we were at home. Something about the hot, humid days just makes me want to dream about the ocean- even if I am hundreds of miles away from one. So this summer I made an “ocean discovery box” for my young preschooler full of ocean themed activities for us to do together at home as we dreamed about our end-of-summer beach trip. This ocean-discovery box is full of ocean-themed learning activities that are so great for older toddlers or younger preschoolers.
If you also want to make an ocean-themed discovery box for your little learner, read on for materials and activity ideas! Plus, at the end, download a free printable activity choice board!
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Materials for an Ocean-Themed Discovery Box
- Glass beads- I found a set at the Dollar Tree
- Ocean themed counting cards- FREE digital download available here.
- Sensory bin materials
- bins, sand, rakes, scoops, etc.
- Toob Ocean Animals- available for purchase on Amazon:
- Ocean Animal Language Cards- can download a set on Teachers Pay Teachers. I found mine here.
- Books: check out my post “Favorite Beach Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers”
- World Map (I found mine at Michael’s for $2!)
- Ocean Dot Activity Book and Dot Stickers
- Melissa and Doug Ocean Floor Puzzle
- Toy Gems
- National Geographic Kids Find It! Explore It! Ocean
A note on materials: Obviously use judgment if your child is ready for these items- particularly if you’re concerned about them being choking hazards. My oldest rarely put things in her mouth once she became a toddler. I watched her closely, and it was never an issue. My second one on the other hand- I may not trust her with anything smaller than a baseball until she’s seven. She’s definitely got that “second-kid energy.” And if you don’t feel like getting some of these materials, don’t stress about it! Choose what’s right for your family!
Activities in an Ocean-Themed Biscovery box for Older Toddlers/Younger Preschoolers
Geography Activities
I’m a social studies teacher, and I LOVE introducing geography as early as possible. (A post with easy ways to introduce geography and the importance of it is coming soon!) So if I can easily incorporate geography into our discovery boxes, I eagerly do!
Placing Ocean Animals on a map
At this age, one of the best foundational skills to work on is the concept that maps represent real places. I started off with just teaching my daughter that blue tends to mean water on a map, while other colors tend to mean land. There’s several ways to reinforce this idea, but using ocean animals is a great one.
I spread out a large map (I found one for 2 dollars at Michael’s, but I also used a large map quilt that was gifted to me by a student) and she placed the ocean animals in the water. That’s it.
It’s simple to put together for me and highly interactive for her. It really helped her with getting more familiar with a world map.
If you want to make it more challenging, you could try and have them place the ocean animals in a more precise location. Call out instructions like “place the whale near Antarctica” or “place the star fish near the equator.” Make it fun, hype it up, be silly with it. Get them laughing and giggling and you’ll both have a blast. This activity is so easily adaptable for different challenge levels.
Matching Animals to Correct Ocean Using National Geographic’s Little Kids First Big Book of the Ocean
If your preschooler is ready to start learning their oceans (mine was at about 3.5 years old), this is an added challenge AND incorporates the concept of using a book as a reference aid in an activity.
National Geographic’s Little Kids First Big Book of the Ocean is organized by ocean, so you could pick one ocean at a time, have your child find the matching animal figurines, and then place them on the correct place on their map.
You could also pick only one animal that represents each ocean and have them work through that.
To keep it from being overwhelming, just pick one ocean at a time or pick one animal from each ocean. Add in more animals or more oceans as they’re ready for more of a challenge.
Science Activities
Sorting Ocean Animals by Type
At this age, children LOVE sorting. It helps bring order into their world and is something you’ll see them do almost instinctively.
Additionally, being able to categorize different items is a necessary academic skill.
One easy activity you can set up for your little learner is with Toob Animals. Have them sort the figurines into different categories. You can make these categories as complex or easy as you want. Focus on challenging your child without them becoming overwhelmed.
For my two year old, I had her sort animals based on if they are able to come onto shore or if they have to stay in the water. When she was three I made it a bit more challenging by adding in categories like “mammal,” “fish,” and “reptile.”
I set up baskets with pictures that represented the category that they were sorting into, modeled it for her, and then turned her loose.
National Geographic’s Little Kids First Big Book of the Ocean can also be a great resource to pair with this activity.
Language Activities
Language Cards with Toob Animals
Children of this age love matching. Language cards give a great opportunity for children to not only match animals, but to increase their skills in phonics.
There’s several different ways you could language cards and a post will be coming soon on that, but for now, here’s some ideas:
- Have them lay the matching animal on top of the card
- Discuss phonics with them as you go
- Have them sort animals by beginning letter sounds and place with the language cards (you could also add sandpaper letters into this)
- For a real challenge, cut the bottom of the word off and have your child try and match the word to the appropriate animal based on starting letter sounds.
Beach Themed Story Time
There’s nothing like reading on the beach. But if you’re not actually at the beach, bring the beach to you! There is just no substitute for reading aloud to your child. Make it extra fun by playing up the theme- set up beach chairs or beach towels, grab a popsicle, and dive into some great beach-themed books- even right in the middle of your living room.
If you’re looking for beach-themed books that are my family’s personal favorites, check out this post here.
Included in this list are both delightful picture books and engaging non-fiction.
Sensory/Fine Motor
These are always some of my favorite activities at this age. I love setting my toddler or preschooler up with a fun sensory activity and then just sit back and watch what they do with it. Or I dive in right with them because sensory activities are fun at any age!
The ocean offers so much inspiration for sensory activities. Here’s some of my daughter’s favorites:
- Pouring, scooping, and transferring with ‘ocean beads.’
- I found these glass beads at the Dollar Tree and my daughter LOVES them. The colors, the smoothness, the sounds they make as they clink together- it’s just such a fun sensory experience. Toddlers and young preschoolers LOVE to practice pouring and scooping, and if water is involved- all the better.
- I’ll fill a bowl or two with water, give her the ocean beads and a variety of scoops (measuring cups, spoons, slotted spoons, mesh strainers, etc.) and let her play to her heart’s content.
- When she was much younger I’d let her do this in her high chair so that if water got everywhere, it was ok. As she got older we moved this activity outside.
- Pouring, scooping, and transferring with the Toob Animals.
- Same deal as the ocean beads- pour water into bowls, hand over the Toob Animals, and let them dive in.
- Digging in the sand for buried treasure
- I got a cheap bag of sand at Home Depot, poured it into a bin, and buried colorful gemstones and gold coins in it. I gave my daughter a shovel and a bucket and told her that it was buried pirate treasure to find. She loved digging in the sand for the treasure and this has provided HOURS of fun. (This also is a great chance to reinforce counting skills!)
Math Activities:
Early math skills really focus around counting and understanding the idea of a 1:1 ratio (each number represents a concrete number of objects)
One thing I love about creating discovery boxes for my preschooler and toddler is that we can work on the same skills repeatedly, but it feels FRESHER just because it’s in a different discovery box.
So to keep this one simple, I created counting cards (available to download for free here) and gave my daughter some glass beads I picked up at the dollar tree to practice counting and to visually see how abstract numbers represent concrete objects. Easy peasy.
These number cards are also self-correcting, so this is something they can work on without you hovering over them if they already can recognize their numbers.
Problem Solving/Quiet Time Activities:
Ocean Puzzles and National Geographic’s Find It! Explore It!: Ocean
Once my daughter stopped napping (even though she still desperately needed to nap), we started implementing “rest time.” During rest time, she has the freedom to choose from a variety of quiet, independent activities. She has the chance to work on building her independence, self confidence, and problem solving skills, while I get a chance to catch my breath and maybe even drink a cup of hot tea.
If I can find good quiet time activities that correspond with what we’re currently working on, then I add those to her room. She loves that they tie in with what we’ve already been doing throughout the day.
For ocean themed activities, I gave her the Melissa and Doug Ocean Floor Puzzle as well as the National Geographic Kid’s Find It! Explore It!: Ocean book. I particularly love offering Seek and Find books during rest time because they are books she can fully and independently interact with even though she can’t read yet.
This puzzle is pretty tricky, so oftentimes I will help get it started with her and then leave her with just a few pieces left to figure out. Once it’s completed, she’s also used it as an ocean scene to play with her Toob figurines on. If you find this puzzle is too frustrating for your toddler, Melissa and Doug also makes simpler ocean animal puzzles- we just haven’t tried them out ourselves yet.
Arts and Crafts
I’m not a super crafty mom. I like having easy crafts available that my daughter can work on when she feels like it, and I tend to leave the messier crafts for places like the library and community events.
So to keep it simple, in her ocean-themed discovery box, I just tossed in some sea animal stickers, construction paper if she wanted to create an ocean sea, and an ocean dot activity book. Instead of having dot markers (because I’m just not ready to have markers in my living room yet), I gave her multi-colored dot stickers to use with it.
(Dot sticker books are also a FANTASTIC road trip activity)
I’ve also printed off free coloring sheets with different ocean animals (another GREAT road trip activity.)
Family Activities/ Experiences
If we can incorporate family activities into what we’re studying, we absolutely do! For the ocean, you can definitely pick from a variety of activities based on what’s available to you.
On an easier scale- blow up a kiddie pool in the backyard! Toss in the Toob Animals and let your kiddo splash around.
Go to a local aquarium if that’s a possibility! (And if you’re in the Atlanta area, you can check out my post on the Georgia Aquarium.
And if you really just want to see the real thing, take a trip to the beach. Check out my post here for tips on making a beach trip with little ones easier.
If you’re looking for tips on a specific location, check out my post about activities in the Florida Panhandle with little ones.
Closing Thoughts
I hope this list gives you some ideas to make learning about the ocean fun and easy for your little ones at home! If you would like a FREE downloadable choice board full of these activities to hang on the fridge or place in your own ocean discovery box, add your email here for one to be sent to you:
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