During summer months, children transition from school classrooms into vast new learning spaces. These “summer classrooms” can be as massive as the ocean or as minuscule as a sliver of shell in the sand… and the meaningful learning that takes place in these spaces is powerful stuff!
As children explore and play, parents have a unique opportunity to play “summer teacher,” encouraging their young learner to stretch further, ask questions, and engage in meaningful and authentic exploration.
Add a splash of learning to your next trip! Use these fun ideas to beat Summer Slide and take advantage of the world’s sandiest classroom…
Sand Play Not sure what to do? You’re sitting on it! Young children love exploring sand, digging, stacking, burying, sifting, and sprinkling. Challenging themselves to build the tallest structure or collaborating on a construction project introduces physics concepts and gives children practice communicating and cooperating. For a memory challenge, try this fun version of Sand Memory!
Water, Water Everywhere! Children love to experiment with water, and you’ve got a whole ocean full of it! Filling containers and pouring hone coordination and fine motor skills in young children. Watch as water absorbs into the sand, and mix up various concoctions with different ratios of sand/water to compare the consistency. What ratio makes for the best sandcastle sand? With older children, take a container of salty ocean water home and conduct a mini science experiment by boiling the water until only the sea salt remains.
Leave a Trail Take a walk on the beach and experiment with different kinds of movement. How is moving in sand different from water, the boardwalk, the parking lot? Have fun with footprints, and notice when you return from your walk whether your trail is intact or whether new feet have traveled the same path! Can you spot any other trails? Tires, bicycles, bird tracks…? Use a stick or shell to create a new trail, inventing a wacky new footprint or movement pattern in the sand.
Autograph the Beach! Fingers, forks, rakes, shells, and sticks make great writing tools! Practicing writing in the sand can be a fun way to show off letter skills on a large canvas, and pre-writers can develop their control and coordination by drawing sand pictures with sticks. Older writers can sign their names or scrawl other messages across the beach, or play hangman in the sand to hone reasoning skills.
Search for Treasure Bring a bucket and comb the beach for hidden treasure! With your haul, practice sorting and categorizing skills by challenging your child to organize his/her collection in different ways (color, shape, texture, size, type…) Make a list of natural and man-made items you could find on the beach and set off on a pirate-themed scavenger hunt!
Get Crafty! For budding artists, a day at the beach can inspire endless works of art! Search for bits or coral, driftwood, shells, dried seaweed, sea glass, and smooth stones, and bring home sand in jars. These materials can be used to make sand art, a bedroom mobile, a mosaic mirror, or strung into necklaces, and the finished work will be an everyday reminder of family time together!
Become One with Nature… Take some time to watch birds or study fish. Count the different kinds and talk about what they look like, how they move around, and what they eat. Put critters in a jar to observe – just don’t forget to return them to their homes when you leave! For bird enthusiasts, bring binoculars, a bird identification guide, and possibly a camera. Observe and identify species of sandpipers, plovers and seagulls. Children will learn observation skills and may enjoy watching, learning about, and using cameras to document the shorebirds.
Jump In! Challenge your young swimmer to a floating contest. What’s the easiest way to stay afloat? Experiment with different swimming strokes and directions and figure out the easiest way to move around. How about walking on the ocean floor? Can you figure out which way the tide is moving? Jump waves in knee-deep water. How do you know when to jump? Can you count the time between wave crests?
Go Fly a Kite Conduct a wind experiment with a kite. This offers opportunities for trial-and-error learning with older kids, and is perfect for developing a preschooler’s coordination and prediction skills. See how to craft a kite with your younger child.
Make a Fish Face! Have fun with dramatic play by pretending to become the beachy things around you. Can you make your face look like a fish? Walk like a gull? Move like a crashing wave? Encouraging movement play on the beach will stimulate imagination and develop observation skills. Don’t forget to join in!
Follow Up After a day at the beach, take some time to research the answers to questions that arose. Identify the shells you brought home, find out more about waves, look up images of any interesting bird you spotted… exploring deeper will stimulate your child’s respect for nature and pique his/her interest in learning.
Have a great beach-related learning activity? Please share by commenting here!
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Charlotte Fixler, Charlotte. Charlotte said: Planning a beach trip? Check out these great ideas to make fun learning a part of your seaside adventures! http://bit.ly/cPA4mf [...]
Breakfast at the beach! Moving a daily activity like eating breakfast to a new location can make it seem new and special. Even better if you do it at a new time, like early in the morning (groan, I know, but it’s not mandatory. Get some small cartons of milk, some containers of yogurt, some fruit, and/or some pastries (don’t forget the napkins and towels to sit on) and head for the beach as the day begins. Watching the sun rise in the sky, the birds hopping about, feeling the emptiness together while you munch your breakfast creats great moments for conversation and just sharing the moment. Who knows, maybe a school of dophins will swim by.