Shell Pets

We had a lot of fun playing with shells this week. The book Marcel the Shell with Shoes on Things About Me was a great way to introduce our shell pet activity. Marcel has a very unique look and the book is funny to read as he explains what he does around the house. After reading the book Little Bit painted her shells. Originally I planned to paint 2 but she wanted to paint more. That night while we were out on a date she talked the babysitter into painting even more! So we have a several painted shells.

The shells turned out great! Little Bit only wanted two of the shells to have eyes. Little Bits babysitter showed her how to add sand to the shells after painting them, which added a fun texture. I love our babysitter! We also have a box that Little Bit decorated as a house for our shell pets.

 Painting our shells was Little Bits favorite thing we did all week. What fun things have your done with shells?

Ocean Animal Play

 

A few weeks ago we went to the beach and ended up on a section of beach that had tons of shells of all sizes. The teacher/mommy in me was so excited and spent most of the morning filling sand buckets with shells. It was worth it because we now have a wonderful collection of shells that Little Bit can play with.

 

Our next theme will be water, ocean, rivers, ice, rain, etc. I ordered a pack of ocean animals to go with the theme and have been excited to pull them out.  Even though I had not planned to use them yet I decided to setup a ocean play area. To setup I filled the water table with water and added a few shells. Then placed all the ocean animals on Little Bits new buggy board.

 

 

 

We spent some time talking about different animals and if they lived in the water only or lived on land too. Our set of animals had three of each animal and Little Bit decided that all the animals should be with their family. All the animals were put into groups (sharks, fish, whales, etc) by the time we finished. Little Bit used several bowls and cups along with the water table as homes for the animals.

 

 

 

 

There are lots of fun stories about ocean animals, these are a few of the ones that we like.

 

1. The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler

2. A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

3. How Deep is the Sea? by Anna Milbourne

4. Don't Eat the Teacher! by Nick Ward

5. Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae, David Wojtowycz

6. Tickly Octopus by Ruth Galloway