Beach'in it!

This past week, our theme was the Ocean! While Norfolk boasts many things, the one thing it cannot offer us (besides lunch delivery) is salt water, sand dunes and the many splendors that come with ocean life.

Fortunately for us, we were able to hit up the lawn & garden section of a local superstore and purchased a couple of bags of sand for $3.19 a piece! Here are some of the magical ways we incorporated sand into our curriculum during Ocean Week.  It  looked and felt like real beach sand and the kids loved making mini sand castles using applesauce containers, sifting through to find ocean creatures and so much more.  Here's a peek at our week here at NELC Beach!

Sandy Dough

One of the best things we did with our trusty bag of sand, was test out this recipe for Sandy play dough.  While we honestly weren't sure it would work out (a tad crumbly at first), once we added a bit more oil and water, it turned out to be the most amazing sensory activity!

Here's the Recipe:

4 cups of clean sand
3 cups of flour
1 cup of water
1/4 cup of oil

Sand Art

We have a plethora of empty baby food jars and decided that making those pretty sand creations using layers of colored sand would be a fun activity for the children this week.  After scooping some clean sand into an empty shaky cheese container, we were able to drop some food coloring in and let the children shake it up until we received the desired shade.  From there, they each chose their colors and scooped them into their jar! 

And last but certainly not least...Our new hermit crab friends!

We knew we needed a fun surprise for the kids, since we had no big field trips planned to the ocean! We decided to bring the ocean to NELC.  They were very excited to see not one but two pet hermit crabs whom, upon receiving many suggestions, were ultimately named Shelly and Pearl.

Some other fun activities included literacy activities, learning about ocean creatures, designing our own bathing suits and since it was the hottest week thus far, hanging out near the octopus sprinkler!