The Oceans-Expanded

Check out our new and updated “Ocean” unit!  We’ve added a few new printables, which you can download. 

Just click the image above to download a single zip file of all the printables from Google Drive. (Can’t unzip it. Try Hamster Free Zip Archiver approved by Amber’s husband. Remember to download carefully.)

You will need to be able to view pop-ups to download the unit, as it will appear in a pop up window from our site!

Here are the printables included in this unit:

• Roll & Graph
• Beginning Writing/Cutting Practice
• Patterns (ABAB and AABB)
• Letter Puzzles
• Number Order Puzzle (1-10 and 11-20)
• Spelling Pages
• Counting Clip Cards
• Which is Different? 
• Shadow Match Activity
• Size Sort
• Beginning Letter Clip Cards
• Letter O Octopus Craft
• Fishing for Letters and Letter Sounds
• Shell Observation Sheet
• Counting Cards
• Memory Verse and Printables

Products We Use with Our Units
The following are affiliate links. Read our full disclosure policy here.

Looking for more ideas?

• Virtual Ocean Field Trip (Power Point)
• Devotional & Memory Verse
• Ocean Learning Center Ideas
• Ocean Sensory Tub
• Shell Observation
• Recommended Books
• Family Night and Muffin Tin Meal
• Last Year's Post

There are also TONS of ideas, units, printables and crafts available on this theme.  Check out our Pinterest Board for some of our favorites!

We hope you enjoy these printables and please let us know if you have any issues with downloading or using the items provided. 

Special thanks to Just So Scrappy for graphics.

We’re linking up to: Preschool Corner.

Please do not sell or host these files anywhere else. You MAY link people here. When leading others to these printables, please link to THIS page, not to the file page.  Thanks! (See TOU)

Observing Seashells

My son is a big fan of doing science activities.  His favorite at the moment is observing different things.
 

Click to Download.

Since this week is all about the ocean, I thought observing seashells would be perfect for him.

Materials:

• shells (You can purchase them at craft stores.)
• observation sheet
• crayons or markers

Directions:

• Before digging into the observation activity I let the boy explore the shells.  He spent a good 10 minutes just looking at them.  While he looked, we talk about how different animals live in shells and that shells help protect their bodies.

• Then we decided to sort them by similarity. I love how he referred to the ones pictured below as tornado shells.  I thought that was pretty clever.

 

• Finally, after he seemed to have his fill, I asked him to pick just one shell that he wanted to observe more closely. We basically just went down the worksheet together. (He had a tough time deciding on the shell color – orange or yellow. So, I told him he could color it both colors.) 

 

Special Note: When observing the shell’s texture I tried to use clip art that your child could relate to and that would be around everyone’s house.  I used a mirror to represent smooth and a cheese grater to represent rough.  So, if you child doesn’t know the term smooth have him/her touch a mirror and say, “This is smooth.”  Do the same with the cheese grater. Then have him/her touch their shell and compare it to both objects.  You can then ask your child, “Is your shell smooth like the mirror or rough/bumpy like the cheese grater?”

And that was it.  The boy really enjoyed himself and I was glad to bring a touch of the beach to him. Especially since the last time he visited the beach he was 6 months old. 

Pictures and printables are nice, but when it’s possible the real thing is so much better!

Isaiah 40:12: In His Hands

Here are some extras to help your kiddos memorize this weeks verse, Isaiah 40:12. 

You can download all of the printables, including the devotional here.  If you would like to download individual files, click on the image below. 

Memory Verse Card: Use this card daily during your calendar time to work on memorization. 

Memory Verse Puzzle and Cutting Practice:  This puzzle fits together to form this weeks memory verse. 

Memory Verse Color Order and Cutting Practice: Using color order arrange the verse.

Memory Verse Writing Practice: With this you can practice parts of the whole verse, or just work on starting a single letter. 


 

You may also re-visit this verses devotional from last year. 

Ocean Exploring

Since we are updating our ocean unit this week, I decided to try my hand at implementing an ocean sensory bin.  I didn’t consult the internet for ideas, because I figured, how hard could it be, right?  I could have had something like this:

 

Beautiful, right?  No…I got some sand and water.  You know, like the real thing, and I got this…..

   
Its like the muddy Mississippi, or a visit to the water treatment plant. 

That being said, I started a little better.  We separated sand and water initially, it just didn’t take too long for the things to get mixed together.  I did add these things, too.

You just couldn’t see them.  :)

Now I put this sensory bin out on the back porch and let E play.  I figured I might get 15 messy minutes out of this if I was lucky.  No, my kid played in it for a whopping 45 minutes!  Was she messy?  YES.  Was it worth it?  Without a doubt!

Here is what we did: 

1. We counted the things we found onto our counting mats (which I made for you!  Just print and laminate!)
   
2. We talked about the way things felt in the water and under the sand
3. We observed the animals we had and talked about them
4. We played pretend and helped dolphins run from sharks and count sea shells

The sensory bin is good fun.  If you are wanting a safe and semi-mom free activity, skip the water and go with one of the bins above.  However, if you’re brave and cheap this method is sure to be rich on memories!

Ocean Centers

This week we are updating our Ocean Theme printables.  I can’t wait for you to see our fun new clip art!! 

To get you started, I’ve found some fabulous resources that can be use in independent centers or even as additional supplement to our printables.

Pattern Blocks
PreKinders has quite the assortment of FREE pattern block designs.  She offers them in color and black and white.  Just scroll down, almost to the bottom to download the fish templates.

 
Please note that not all pattern blocks are the same size, therefore not all might fit perfectly with the template provided above.

Use these templates to create your own pattern blocks.  You can also purchase them through Amazon or other various educational websites.



Puzzles & Games
We have a few ocean puzzles the boy received as gifts or that I found in the Target $1 bin, so that it what I will be using for our 3rd center idea.

Hope these ideas are helpful.

Tots in Action-The Ocean Unit

Here are the activities in our Ocean Unit and how they look in action! This gives you a little heads up on what to expect.  Also below is our new Grab and Gather list!  This list will let you know the items that you need to “Grab” (go out and buy) or “Gather” (find and set aside) to complete the lessons in our unit.  We hope it helps you out! 

The Ocean

This unit has been expanded. So, make sure and check out the additional printables here.

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Here is what we’ve been doing this week. Let us know what you think.  We hope by providing these materials to you free of charge, it will make your life easier! 

Lesson Plan: The lesson plan includes all the lessons for the week, as well as optional ideas. Items following the lesson plan are just the printables or links to websites we used to teach these plans.  (Please note: On top of our lesson plan we are reading books daily that relate to our theme throughout the week.)Memory Verse: This memory card is for daily use during our calendar time.  You can learn more about calendar time at 1+1+1=1 or Homeschool Creations.  Our weekly devotional is an object lesson that will help your child apply the meaning of the verse to them.
Day 1:

O is for Octopus-

 

Goldfish Measure- This activity will help your child gain experience in measurement by using a non-standard measuring tool.

Float & Sink Salt/Fresh Water-

Check out this science experiment from Preschool Rock.

Day 2:

Fish for Letter Sounds- Create this fish activity as seen on No Time For Flash Cards, but instead of an eyelet just staple each fish once and you’ll be able to catch it with a magnetic fishing pole.  We used this activity to review letter sounds, but you can easily use it for a letter recognition activity.  Here is a fish template for those that would like one.

Sea Shadows Match Up- This activity was designed to be used with a file folder, but it is not necessary.

Ocean Wave Bottle- You can create this two different ways.  You can create it using baby oil or vegetable oil.  After doing it both ways, we think the baby oil provides better results.  So, you can make your own call.

Day 3:

Ocean Writing Bag- You can use various ingredients in your writing bag and get the same results as using paint, such as tinted pudding, shaving cream, etc.

Toothpick Sea Urchins- Work on as many numbers as you think your child can handle.  If you already downloaded our counting cards from last week, don’t worry about printing these (unless you want a set without dots.)

Ocean Animals Tot Pack- Download and Print the Ocean Animals Tot Pack from 1+1+1=1.

We hope you enjoy these lesson plans and please let us know if you have any issues with downloading or using the items provided. 

 

Questions?  Post questions or comments on our Facebook Page.  You may have the same question as someone else.  If you don’t have a Facebook account, feel free to email us.

Tots Around Town-Make Believe Ocean Trip

Our goal at 2 Teaching Mommies is to give you ideas that are easy to do, but fun for everybody.  Our field trips section will provide ideas for places you can go or, extra things to do with your kiddo and take the whole family along.   Our unit this week is all about the oceans.  We happen to live quite far from the ocean, so some other type of trip is order for our little family!  I scoured the internet for a pre-k friendly interactive field trip about the ocean.  Alas, none was to be found.  So, you get to create a field trip for your little one with a little help from me and your imaginations! 

Materials:

• A map of the world (you can color this one!), or a globe
• Ocean Alphabet Power-point

• Swimsuits (optional)
• Goggles (optional) 

Directions:

• Get out the map of the world and show your tot where all of the oceans are.  If you printed mine, then you can let them color the oceans. 
• Explain to your little one that there are so many things to see in the ocean, and tonight you’re going to go see some!
• Let your tot pick which ocean of the world they would like to go see! (It really won’t matter, but your tot will like picking!)
• Tell your tot that you have to get dressed to go to the ocean and have them put on their swimsuit.  You can put on yours too if you’d like-it would make this MUCH more convincing!
• Get out your goggles and tell your kiddo that you need your goggles on to go underwater!  Tell them that once you’re there you can take them off!
• Pull up the Ocean Alphabet Power-point and start exploring.
• Talk about the animals you’re seeing, and ask you tot what they think of  them!

  Extra Ideas:

• You can combine this evening and Family Night for this week if your crunched for time.  Use Madonna’s Muffin Tin Meal and make this an awesome evening!
• If you’re wanting to keep things really easy then you can watch an ocean movie, like Finding Nemo, after “exploring”.
• We played hide and seek as “fish” and swam to find one another.  E really liked this one, as she is currently going through a “hiding” phase! 

  

Questions?  Post questions or comments on our Facebook Page.  You may have the same question as someone else.  If you don’t have a Facebook account, feel free to email us.

In His Hands

The verse you will be working on with your child in the next unit, The Ocean, is Isaiah 40:12.

 

 “Who else has held the oceans in his hands?”

 

Materials:

• Memory Verse card for Isaiah 40:12 
• A small tub
• A bucket
• A cup
• Your hands
• A baby pool (or you can use the bath tub)

Directions:

• Fill the baby pool or bath tub with water.    
• Tell your kiddo that you are going to play a game to figure out how big God is.  Ask them to pick up one of the items and fill it with water.
• Ask “Do you think God can hold that much water?”    
• Regardless of what item you tot picks, or their answer, tell him that God can hold even more water than that.  Ask him to pick up another item and fill it with water. 
• Tell him again that God can hold even more water!   If you have been to the beach remind your little one of how big the ocean was.
• Take your hands and fill them with water.
• Talk with your child about the devotion
• Afterwards, if your brave, you can continue to let your kiddo play in the water. :)
  

Talk with your child about the following: 
We know that the ocean is VERY big, isn’t it.  It holds more water than this bucket, than this cup, and even this pool (or bath tub).  Our memory verse this week talks about the oceans.  It comes from the book of Isaiah, and Isaiah asks us a question.  He asks if we know who can hold the oceans in his hands?  Do you know the answer?  Its God!  See even though the ocean is very big, God is much bigger.  He made the oceans, and all the animals in them.  He was able to hold all the water in the oceans the way mommy is holding this water in her hands!  God is very big, and he loves us very much.  We need to remember that no matter what happens we have a very big God who loves us very much!

Questions to ask:

• How can we glorify God?  By loving Him, His commands and His creation!  

 Additional Resources:

• Sing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
• You may want to review last weeks question with your tot
• Mommy Devotional on the memory verse

Family Theme Night- The Ocean

For our Family Theme Night we “partied” ocean style! Below you will find a list of suggestions and choices to create your own unique Family Theme Night.  Pick and choose as you please…remember this isn’t about all the stuff it is about spending time with your family. 

Meal:

We were inspired my Muffin Tin Mom and all the ideas that were shared during her Muffin Tin Meal – Under the Sea theme.

To re-create the one above, you will need to gather the following:

• milk with a couple drops of blue food coloring (ocean)
• hot dog (octopus)
• cheese (starfish)
• peach (boat)
• pasta shells sprinkled with parmesan (shells covered in sand)
• green beans (seaweed)

But don’t be limited by my muffin tin.  Go check out all the other ideas and get your own inspiration, if you have some time.

Decorations:

• Put a blue tablecloth or sheet on your table (water) and add a few shells on top.
• Cut out some fish of various colors and sizes Then tape them to the wall around your table or hang them on string above the table. 

Craft/Game:

Paint or color a beach scene together.  We used finger paints to create our picture.

OR 

Get out a deck of cards and play a few rounds of Go Fish!

   

 

Movie:

Have a great time enjoying your family and making new memories.

Questions?  Post questions or comments on our Facebook Page.  You may have the same question as someone else.  If you don’t have a Facebook account, feel free to email us.