Preschool “Ocean” Lesson Plan
Ages 2 – 5
45 minutes
Circle Time
Book – “Guess Who Ocean Friends”
Have children act out the different animals that are hiding in the book…after they guess who they are.
 Discussion Questions:
· Many different animals in the ocean – can you name any that were NOT in book?
· What items do ocean animals call “home” (shells, plants, caves, other animals)
· What is your favorite ocean animal?
Wave Bottle –
Materials: 2 liter soda bottle, oil, water and blue food coloring.
· Fill the bottle ½ way with water and add blue food color
· Fill the rest of the bottle with oil and secure lid tightly
· Gently tilt the bottle back and forth to see the waves
How is a Pearl Made?
Materials: Golf Ball and tin foil pieces (enough for one for each child)
· Start with the golf ball (piece of sand)
· Pretend you are a clam and grab it with two hands and pretend to get irritated b/c you don’t want it in your shell.
· Cover the ball with your piece of tin foil. Then “spit” it out to the next little clam, who does the same thing.
· See how big the small little golf ball gets
Beach Items – objective is to have children determine what items can be used at the beach
Materials: shovels, buckets, umbrella (other beach items) AND mittens, wool hat, sled
· Place items in the middle of the circle and allow one at a time to pick a beach item
· Talk about children’s experiences at the beach…what did they do or what did they see. Do they remember any animals that they saw?
Activities
Water Table
Materials: Bin with water and sand in the bottom
Use straws to show what happens to the sand when waves are made
Sand Table
Materials: Bin with small shells and marbles that are covered with sand
Allow children to search with different toys (shovels, sieves) or their hands. See what different types
of shells and pearls they can find.
Biggest Animal: Blue Whale (should be done outside for lack of space inside)
Materials: String that is 100’ long
Ask the children how big they think the whale is (as big as a car, house, etc.)
Tell the children Blue Whale facts while you are stretching out the string (you will have to end up
yelling facts about the blue whale)
Facts: mammals like us, they eat krill (small shrimp), live to be about 110 years old, weight 100 tons,
larger than dinosaurs, usually live with 2 or 3 other whales.
Crafts
Fish Food
Materials: different flavors of goldfish crackers, gummy fish, shark bites, rice krispies (bubbles)
· Children make their own trail mix with these items for a snack
Make your own school (of fish)
Materials: construction paper…pre-cut pics of fish
· Simply allow children to glue fish to the paper…maybe a whole “blue school” or an entire “large fish” school
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Ocean