I prepared Little Bee for a visit to the ocean by introducing these 10 Montessori inspired ocean activities. This collection of ocean activities includes painting and washing seashells, fine motor work, a Montessori fish puzzle, a pre-reading letter S mystery bag, ocean matching work, counting work, and sensory play.

Art - Painting Seashells

This is a simple painting art project involving seashells, finger paint, and a paintbrush. Little Bee worked on holding the paint brush in his one hand and steadying the seashell in his other hand. You can see his look of concentration as he painted each seashell a beautiful color (or mix of colors.)

Montessori Practical Life - Washing Seashells

After Little Bee painted the seashells, he enjoyed washing them clean in a bucket of soapy water. This Montessori practical life activity encourages the development of fine motor muscles with the fun sensation of using soapy water and a dish brush for scrubbing. It also re-enforces the concept of cleaning up.

Fine Motor Work - Transferring Marbles

Little Bee loves to use various sized tweezers and tongs for fine motor transfer work. In these photos he is transferring marbles with tongs to his fish and starfish bath mats. Little Bee carefully transfers each marble and then balances them on the little suction cup parts on the back of the mats. This is wonderful hand-eye coordination work.

Montessori Fish Puzzle

We love the Montessori puzzles and use them in every zoology unit study on the blog.

Turtle Unit Study

Bird Unit Study

Frog Unit Study

Bee Unit Study

Little Bee is challenged by the intricate pieces of this fish puzzle and he rotates each one to see how they fit together. Little Bee is 2.5 years old in these photos.

Language - Letter "S" Ocean Mystery Bag

This was a fun pre-reading mystery bag to put together for Little Bee. It was easy to find five ocean items that start with the letter S. Inside the bag, I placed a sea turtle, starfish, seahorse, small jar of sand, and a seashell. As Little Bee took each item out of the mystery bag, I named the object and emphasized the beginning "sss" sound. Little Bee LOVES exploring mystery bags.

Montessori Inspired Matching Work

Matching work is always a favorite in our Montessori homeschool classroom. These beautiful ocean printables are from the blog, "Imagine our Life." We used the Ocean and Dolphins & Whales Safari Ltd TOOB figurines to match to the picture on the cards. This is fabulous pre-reading work for a toddler or preschooler as they learn to identify an object to a picture. If the child is not able to read yet, the adult can read the name of the object to the child as they do the matching work.

Seashell Matching

I bought a bag full of seashells and picked out five matching pairs that were distinct in their various shapes. Little Bee loved finding the pairs and lining them up on his tray.

Fish Counting Work

Little Bee is learning his numbers and that each number represents a quantity of items. We used these adorable mini fish erasers as counters and our Montessori wooden numbers for a counting activity.

Ocean Sensory Play

I set up a fun tray full of ocean themed sensory items for Little Bee to explore and glue to a paper plate. The tray contained play sand, seashells, small rocks, tin foil fish, and cut out green paper grass. Please visit, Sensory Play Ocean Art for Kids to see the finished masterpiece.

Real Life - Observer of Nature

After all of our explorations of these ocean activities at home, we enjoyed a vacation trip to the beach. Little Bee was mesmerized by the rolling waves and endless amount of sand to play with. We were both completely happy and at peace. I can't wait to return...