Tag: beach

Beach-Toddlers

Books

Note: I like to separate out the beach from the ocean. The books below just have to do with the beach although you can certainly use ocean animal books if you wanted to branch out.

My Ocean is Blue by Darren Lebeuf
Noni the Pony Goes to the Beach by Alison Lester
Sandy Feet! Whose Feet? Footprints at the Shore by Susan Wood
Sea, Sand, Me! by Patricia Hubbell

Flannel Boards

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Shell

Five Pretty Sandcastles

Music

Baby Beluga by Raffi
I take out the shaky eggs for this song to accompany singing along.
Octpus by Charlotte Diamond
slippery fish just put palms together, glide thru the air
octopus, hook thumbs, fingers as tentacles
tuna fish, two hands, fingertips touching, impression of bigger fish,
shark, flat palms at right angles, open & shut
whale, whole arms, open & shut motion
Swimmy Swim by Rachel Buchman
Swim right along to the song!

Five Pretty Sandcastles

Ocean and beach related storytimes are some of my favorite since there is such a rich variety of materiel to select from. I got the verse for “Five Pretty Sandcastles” from Katie at Storytime Katie. I did alter the words slightly from “the tide came in” to “the wave came crashing” since I though it would be a bit more accurate and understandable for preschoolers. I took my cue for the sandcastles from Stephanie at Imagine Our Life. She had designed a quiet book page about sandcastles. The seashells are all buttons.

Kids can wave their arms for each whoosh to simulate the sandcastles being washed away.

Five pretty sandcastles standing on the shore,
The wave came crashing (whoosh!) and then there were four.

Four pretty sandcastles standing by the sea,
The wave came crashing (whoosh!) and then there were three.

Three pretty sandcastles standing by the ocean blue,
The wave came crashing (whoosh!) and then there were two.

Two pretty sandcastles standing in the sun,
The wave came crashing (whoosh!) and then there was one.

One pretty sandcastle just out of reach,
The wave came crashing (whoosh!) but it stayed on the beach!

Five Pretty Sandcastles PDFDownload

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell

The beach and the ocean are a favorite storytime topic with my co-workers and myself. There is so much material to pick from that we have split the topic into two themes: ocean animals and the beach.

This is actually the first round of “There Was An Old Lady…” I have made. I’ve never really like the old ladys that I have seen. This version was written by Lucille Colandro. I recently came across an Etsy seller that had an old lady that I liked so I took my cue from her. All of the beach items came from clip art I got from Shutterstock.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell