Beach in a Bottle

With beach week nearing it's end it was time to pack up the sensory/exploration area.  In order to continuing enjoying all our cool beach finds, we made a beach in a bottle.  It has all the fun of the beach without the sand everywhere!  To start, I rinsed out a 2 liter pop bottle and Eva helped scoop the sand from her tub into it via a funnel.

Then we sorted the sea shells into two piles- big and little.  To take the sorting a step further, Eva then had to sort the small ones into two more categories- fit into the bottle and don't fit.

We added the sea weed and sea gull feather from our beach trip along with some rocks, pompoms and gems (you never know when you'll find treasures at the beach!).  I squirted some hot glue into the top and screwed it on tight.  Now Eva can roll the bottle around and rediscover all the great beach finds.

We also made a simple beach dessert.  I put a graham cracker in a baggie and let Eva go to town breaking it up into crumbs.

I scooped some vanilla pudding into a cup and poured the "sand" over it.  The beach never tasted so good!

Sea Shore Scene

We set out today to create a beach scene using some scrap book paper I picked up a few weeks ago when JoAnn's had it on sale 5 sheets for 99¢.  I cut three different sheets to be layered and Eva set to gluing them together.

We started with the sky and then added the water and sand.

To embellish it Eva added some sea shells I punched out of scrap paper using a hole punch I picked up at the Dollar Store (gotta love cheap craft supplies!)

Some sea animal stickers and our beach scene is complete.

Shells A-Plenty

We found some more shells.  I forgot I had these back in my old bedroom but Eva was thrilled to inherit them.

She loves examining them with her magnifying glass,

deciding if they are heavy or light,

and counting them.

We also played a new game with the alphabet shells I made that were inspired by our friends at Along the Way.  I found 26 clam-type shells and wrote a letter of the alphabet in each.  I arranged them on a cookie sheet with some pebbles to keep them upright.

Eva tosses little pompoms into the tray and names the letters that they land in.

She also found the letters in her name and dropped a pompom in each.

We also discovered that the starfish can't stay on the window seat because our dog keeps trying to eat them so they now reside on the window sill.  Is there anything dogs won't eat?

Beach Blanket Babe

It was the perfect day to go to the beach.  Not too hot, not too sunny, no rain in the forecast- who could ask for more!  We had a blast digging in the sand,

looking for sea side treasures,

feeling the sand between our toes,

and Eva's favorite beach activity, chasing sea gulls.

They weren't too happy about that!

We took in the sights and we even managed to cool off a little in the lake (but Eva insisted on being held the entire time so no pics of that).

We found a few things to add to our exploration center too- a piece of driftwood, a stick, some shells and even a bit of seaweed!

Eva's favorite is a shell she says came from a snail.  She stuck it on the end of the stick to make it a "shell flower"- I just love how creative little ones can be!

Sandpaper Sand Castle

To practice for our beach trip tomorrow, we made some sandpaper sand castles today.  To prep, I cut sheets of sandpaper into varying shapes and sizes and spread them out on Eva's art table.  I also taped down a piece of paper from our paper roll for her to make the sand castle on.  She used white glue and a paint brush to apply glue to the back of the sandpaper.

Eva decided to make a sand tower instead of a castle.  Then she added some water nearby and a yellow sand toy with crayons.

I can't wait to see what we end up making tomorrow at the beach with real sand!

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Seaside Sensory

Eva awoke this morning to a new sensory/exploration area.  We have a window seat in our dining room that I usually have paper on for her to color and decorate with stickers.  Lately she has been using it less and less so I decided to transform it.  She noticed as soon as she came down this morning (hence the bedhead!).

This week we have sand in the sensory tub along with some rocks, shells and a shovel.  She also has a real starfish to examine with her magnifying glass and a variety of sea shells for sorting.

So far it's a big hit.  Hopefully we will find some new things at the beach to add to the area when we go later in the week.

Beach Bums

Summer just isn't complete without a trip to the beach.  This theme will be spread out over the next two weeks (my dad is having his hip replaced so we will be spending a lot of time traveling back and forth between cities) so sit back, pour yourself a cold drink and relax to the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore while we learn all about beaches.

Activities

Sea Shell Alphabet Games- check out these awesome ideas at Along the Way; we have our sea shells ready!

Beach Sensory Tub- the tub is filled with sand and lots of fun beach things to uncover and explore

Sea Shell Sorting- say that five times fast; we'll be looking for similarities and differences among our collection of shells

Crab Walk- can you skitter like a crab?  I wonder if Eva can?

Sink or Float- the kiddie pool will be a perfect place to experiment

Field Trip

Beach- it wouldn't be right to talk about the beach without taking a trip to one- we'll check out one our local beaches along the shore of Lake Ontario

Crafts

Sandpaper Sand Castle- Eva will build a sandcastle using shapes cut out of sandpaper

Beach Scene- I found some cute beach-y scrapbook paper that we'll use to make a seashore scene

Ice Cube Painting- using ice cubes colored with food coloring, we'll make a refreshing painting

Beach in a Bottle- a way to bottle up the beach and keep it with us year round

Cooking

Sandy Dessert- we'll combine vanilla pudding and crushed graham crackers to make this edible beach replica

Books