Preschool Ocean Themes - Under the Sea Room

My kids absolutely love it when we use preschool ocean themes for classtime. They have a fascination with the water--ocean, lakes, rivers, etc and the sealife that lives there.

Below is an idea that I do on the first day of the week when we are going to use preschool ocean themes for our lessons. The preschoolers enjoy making their own special place to have circle time, to look at books and to admire their art work.


The idea for the Jelly Fish was sent to me recently by one of my readers. Thanks so much for sending this in. Give it a try and your kids will like the feel and the lifelike creature they have created for their under the sea room.

Under the Sea Room
create an undersea area in the room by attaching blue and green crepe paper streamers to the ceiling with fishing line. Turn on the classroom fan or air conditioner to make a streamers wave like water. Hang some of the week’s undersea decorations including the mermaids from the “Mermaid Me” craft in the under the sea room, and mime swimming around the area. Add other decorations like spongers, sea shells, and seaweed.

Jelly Fish
Cook some Bean Thread or cellophane noodles according to directions (about 5 minutes in boiling water) Drain and rinse with cool water. At this point you can put them in the fridge until you are ready to use. (noodles can be found with Asian food or if your lucky at the 99 cent store, which is where I found them.)

For the "body" of the jelly fish, have the children take a piece of cellophane, or plastic wrap, scrunch it up so it looks like a jelly fish body and glue to paper. Now take the cooled noodles and let them hang from the body like tentacles.

The extended activity would be to paint a blue background on paper first so the jelly fish will show up. The noodles will stick to the paper, but because they are wet the paper does shrink some when it is dry.

The tactile stimulation of the noodles is great!


If you like these preschool ocean themes, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.


Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


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