5 Preschool Ocean Activities to Prep for the Aquarium
Planning a trip to the aquarium? A little preparation can make the experience even more meaningful! In the week leading up to our visit, we explored the ocean through five simple, hands-on preschool ocean themed activities that introduced new vocabulary, built fine motor skills, and sparked lots of curiosity. Then, once we got home, we kept the learning going with a free ocean animal matching game that you can download too! None of it needs a fancy setup, it all fit into our everyday preschool-at-home rhythm.
#1 Ocean Pictorial
This ocean pictorial was the perfect start to our week of ocean learning. It’s also super easy to cater to whatever level your child is at! It’s essentially an informational poster that can live and update as you learn more throughout the week. Here’s how we did it:
- Gather materials: You’ll need a fairly large piece of paper, smaller strips of paper (to make the ocean labels), tape, and markers.
- Prepare yourself: Make the ocean labels ahead of time, putting a bubble of tape on the back of each one and setting them aside. You’ll also want to pre-draw the map of the world, unless you’re some sort of magical being who can draw the map of the world by memory 🧙♂️😅
- Start talking: These pictorials are meant to be filled in as you’re talking about them. I started by talking about the different oceans and having my son stick on the labels as I introduced them. Then a casual question like “what animals do you know live in the ocean?” gets you the second half of this poster. I drew a picture and wrote the name for each one my son said.
- Come back afterwards: After learning about new sea creatures (maybe at the aquarium or even a tidepool adventure!) add them to your pictorial!
#2 Coral Reef Craft
This art project was super fun, super simple, and packed full of insightful conversations! Here’s all it took:
- Gather materials: I used air dry clay, dried pasta, and acrylic paint.
- Make your base: Guide your little learner through making small hills/mounds of clay. They should be deep enough for pasta to stick into!
- Add pasta: Whatever shape you have will work!
- Dry & Paint: Once they have dried, you can paint them a variety of colors.
- Start the conversation: During the painting, I started talking about how corals are living things, and we have to keep our oceans clean to keep them healthy and happy. A small introduction but still good information!
- Keep as a display, or add them to an ocean themed sensory bin!
#3 Wave Cutting Practice
Sneaking in little moments to practice fine motor skills is always a win, and this one was on theme! Here’s how I had my son practice his scissor skills – ocean style:
- Gather materials: You’ll need a large piece of blue paper, a marker, and child-safe scissors.
- Draw the waves: Depending on your kiddo’s ability level, you can draw the waves calm or crazy! My son is still learning how to turn the scissors, so I kept the waves chill🌊
- Remind them of safety protocols: No fingers near the blades, always point forward, etc.
- Have them keep practicing all the way down the paper!
Pro tip: For brand-new cutters, draw the waves as gentle up-and-down zigzags rather than curves. The straighter angles are far easier for little hands to follow, and you can add loopier waves as their control grows.
#4 Ocean Writing & Letter Formation
Did you see all of those awesome vocabulary words we learned during our pictorial? Well instead of letting them be heard and then sit stagnant on a poster, I decided to revisit them during writing! This is a great way to practice spelling, letter formation, and vocabulary acquisition.
I just picked a few shorter words (so they fit on our board) and wrote them to be traced and voilà! He wrote them, said each letter aloud, then we read the word together. A combination lesson that ties in our ocean learning! Here are a few words that I believe are at a preschool level:
- Shark
- Crab
- Ocean
- Wave
- Fish
#5 Yoto Mini Lessons
If you don’t already have one, you should really consider adding a Yoto Player Mini to your kiddos wish list.
There are a ton of different cards, and the pack that we got is full of information regarding the Earth! This ocean card was a great reminder of some of the things we had talked about during our pictorial, while also exploring ocean-specific animals that the characters would encounter.
We brought it outside (it has a pretty good battery life!) and jumped on the trampoline while listening and talking about it. We got some wiggles out while learning, it was fin-tastic 🐠
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After the Aquarium – Ocean Animal Matching Game
I wanted to keep the ocean-themed learning going, so I made this simple ocean animal matching game for my son. He has never done a matching game like this before, but he did an awesome job and was so excited to see some of his favorite-fishy-friends on the cards.
I’ve made it available for you all to download as well, so whether you’re coming back from the aquarium, or just starting your ocean-learning adventures, you can have a fun game to play along the way! 🌊
Final Thoughts
Preparing for our aquarium trip made the experience so much more exciting because my son recognized animals, remembered facts we’d learned, and couldn’t wait to point everything out. Whether you’re planning an aquarium visit or simply diving into an ocean theme at home, I hope these activities inspire your own little learner. Don’t forget to grab the free ocean animal matching game to keep the fun (and learning!) going!
❤️ Until next time
