Smart Summer: Beach Days and Under the Sea

I decided to combine week nine and ten of our Super Smart Summer Plan because you know, we all needed a break from the usual!  If you're new here, start here to read about our laid back learning plan.

Super Smart Summer... "Beach Days and Under the Sea" Weeks

Movies:

-Disney's Little Mermaid

Outings:

-Beach
-Aquarium
-Pool

Books:

-"The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister
-"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss

Activities:

-Shell creatures- This is one of our favorite activities to do at the beach!  When I was a little girl, my grandmother introduced me to her beautiful collection of tropical shells from all over the world then handed me a glue gun and let my imagination go to work.  We created all kinds of silly creatures together with those shells.

A couple of years ago I let Owen decorate a treasure box and try his hand at it.  This is what he came up with, and this is Martha Stewart's rendition.

-Sink and float activity- Collect a bunch of little items around the house and test each to see which sink and which float.  

-Paint shells-

-Shell sorting- Sort shells by color, size shape, texture

-Message in a bottle- What a great way to practice handwriting... write a message and send it out to sea or bury it in the sand.  (You can always pick it up during nap time so you're not littering.)

-Shark attack- These were made using paper plates.  Chomp!

-Other activities and ideas for things to make and do at the beach can be found on my DIY at the Beach Pinterest page.

Snacks:

-Goldfish crackers
-Tuna salad on fish-shaped bread
-Blue jello with floating Swedish Fish- "Shark infested waters"

You can find links to more ideas and coloring pages on my "Smart Summer" Pinterest board.