Under the Sea

For more ocean ideas, check out my friend Annie's post!

"Under the Sea"

The fifth theme I chose for my son was the ocean. Here are the activities we did throughout the week. You don't do them all in one day, you space them out so throughout the week you are talking about your theme here and there, a little at a time. This theme was SO FUN for me! Before I changed my major to speech and language pathology, I was a marine biology major. So doing OCEAN themed SPEECH/LANGUAGE activities is pretty much my favorite thing to do in the whole world!!

Field Trips:

1. Unfortunately we didn't have much money left in our budget to go to the World Zoo and Aquarium. Next time! If you can afford it, go to an aquarium and check out all there is to see there!

2. We did see some fish last week at Butterfly Wonderland, so here is a cute picture. We also got to pet sting rays there, so our fish experience just happened partially during bug week. We also checked out some local pet stores to see what kind of fish they had. That was fun and free :)

Activities:
1. We spent lots of time SWIMMING in the pool! We are blessed enough to have one in our backyard, but if you don't, it would be a fun week to go to the local rec center.

2. We played with these swimming fish A LOT this week. I got them at the $1 spot at Target. You wind them up and the swim, they are so fun! Pool or tub, they were very fun.

3. Have you ever seen these? We had "blue" baths this week, just like fish swim in the blue ocean! 

4. We did play doh with sea creature cookie cutters. We love play doh!

5. We didn't play it, but Go Fish would be a great game. Also Let's Go Fishing!

            

6. We did different sensory bins- sand with shells (the same sand I used for the desert unit), blue water with sea creatures (food coloring), and sand dough with sand toys (mix 5 cups flour with 1 cup baby oil... seriously so much fun!)

Food:
Once again, look on Pinterest. We just did a few simple things!
1. Octopus Hotdog

2. Sand Dessert (vanilla or butterscotch pudding, with vanilla wafer crushed on top)

3. Jello Aquarium (blue jello with gummy sea creatures in it)

Songs:

Slippery Fish/The Octopus Song by Charlotte Diamond
Let's Go Swimming/The Goldfish by Laurie Berkner
Baby Shark
Baby Beluga

Books:

Go to your local library and check out all the ocean books they have. The top six were definitely our favorites, but it was hard to choose!
    

    

    
    


Movies:
We watched my favorite, Finding Nemo! The Little Mermaid, Shark Tale, and Planet Earth would also be good ones :)

Creepy Crawlers

For more insect ideas, check out my friend Annie's post!

"Creepy Crawlers"

The fourth theme I chose for my son was insects. Here are the activities we did throughout the week. You don't do them all in one day, you space them out so throughout the week you are talking about your theme here and there, a little at a time.

Field Trips:

1. We went to Butterfly Wonderland! It is a little pricey, but a great hands-on experience with some beautiful insects. My son could have spent hours more in the atrium!

 Scorpions!!

A functional beehive

2. We didn't go to an insect museum as the Phoenix one closed a few years ago, but if you are in an area that has one, go check it out!!!

3. Go for a walk in your yard or neighborhood and I bet you could find lots of different insects. Talk about what they are doing or where they are going. Describe what they look like! We do this on a daily basis, as my son loves bugs.

Activities:

1. We "caught" toy bugs with our bug net, and studied them in the bug jar. Hide the bugs inside or out, and have your child find them all and catch them with the net! You can sort by color, size, or type of bug.

2. We got a bug identification book at the library and identified all of our plastic bugs. I thought this would be a little over my son's head, but he was fascinated by this and wanted to find out the names of all the bugs. Days later he still remembered them all, even though I didn't!!

3. Bug sensory bin. We played with the bugs in the beans, as well as in some sand.

4. We got this bugs that have sticky feet and "crawl" down windows. They were really fun and provided a lot of entertainment!!

They are window walker bug toys, similar to these on amazon:


5. Act out the metamorphosis of a butterfly- we had to do this SO many times throughout the week, it was a favorite activity for sure.

Caterpillar

Chrysalis 

Butterfly! 

Super easy and cheap. The wings I just cut out of one posterboard, and I put thick ribbon through two holes on each wing (towards the center) to make two arm loops! The antennae I made out of 4 pipe cleaners.

6. Painting fingerprint bugs! I added the finishing touches once the paint was dry.

7. Play COOTIE! One of my favorite childhood games, and only $5 at Walmart.

Food:

There is a lot on Pinterest, we did a few basic activities. We didn't end up doing "ants on a log" (raisins on a peanutbutter celery stick) or ladybug crackers (ritz crackers with cream cheese and half a cherry tomato on top, with olive slices as eyes), but those were some cute ideas I had originally planned on doing.

spider cookies                                                             spider sandwich (carrot legs)

           

butterfly pasta!

Dirt dessert!!!

Songs:

Baby Bumbleebee
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Beehive
Ugly Bug Ball

Books:

Go to your local library and check out all the bug books they have. Once again, we got a ton. Some we already had, too! The Little Squeegy Bug and The Bugliest Bug were our favorites!!

    

 

    

  

Movies:
We had popcorn and watched A Bug's Life one night. We got busy, but I had also planned on watching the Bee Movie and some more Planet Earth to learn about insects.

This was a fun theme. As adults we often think of all the bad things about bugs, but really most are very useful and don't hurt us. What a fun way to learn to appreciate all critters (except maybe scorpions and mosquitos...)!