The school year is in full swing and looks a lot different for all of us whether your kids are distance learning, spending some in-person time at school or you’re homeschooling them. It can get tough to keep the kids on track with school while you’re also working from home. It can feel even harder to occupy them when they’re done with their school day and you’re not quite ready with your long list of to-dos.
That’s why having some go-to activities in your back pocket are crucial to keeping your kids entertained when you need to finish up that last load of laundry or the last two pages of a report to your boss. Educational activities are even better since your kids can have some fun while practicing important skills.
Florida Panhandle put together a list of 10 ocean-themed activities for kids from pre-K to fifth grade for any kids who are already missing summer and are dreaming of the beach.
Here’s a sneak peek of a few activities to look forward to:
Sea Friend Connect-the-Dots
Connect-the-dot worksheets are known to be great time killers for kids. However, did you know that they let younger kids practice a multitude of skills?
Connect the dots are great for practicing fine motor skills and improving hand-eye coordination. Younger kids can practice with simple worksheets like this one and older kids can use more complex ones with 100+ points. Kids also practice counting, sequencing and number sense which is great for younger kids who are just learning about numbers.
Seashell Collection Sequencing
We mostly think about sequencing when we’re exploring storytelling and getting the sequences of events in order. Sequencing is also a technical concept that programmers practice every day. They need to write out the exact steps and exact order it must operate for a program to work. A single hair out of place will cause the whole thing to break!
A simple way to teach kids sequencing is to have them practice giving directions for a task. In this activity, we have kids writing down the instructions for collecting seashells at the beach. If you don’t live near the beach or if it’s too chilly to head outside, you can instead have them write directions for picking up other things like toys around the house or rocks in the backyard.
After they write the directions, they’ll have someone execute the task. More often than not, they’ll most likely have missed a step! This practice drives home the concept of sequencing and why it’s important for people like programmers to get their sequencing down to the tee.
Ocean Observation
The scientific method is technique kids start learning as early as fifth grade. However, we’re using parts of the scientific method every day to solve problems and find answers to simple questions.
For this activity, you’ll pick out a couple virtual aquariums for your kids to observe. They’ll spend some time watching the feed and writing down observations, questions, predictions and potential answers to their questions.
Some of these activities can be done alone and others are perfect to do together. Head over to Florida Panhandle’s blog to see all of their ocean-themed activities!
