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Ocean & Sea Creature Activities for Kids

There are a great many activities that you can plan while teaching children about the ocean and its many sea creatures. Hands-on activities give the children an exciting way to learn about the life and characteristics of the deep blue sea. Activities, such as crafts and games, will build kids' fine motor and social skills. All you need are a few supplies, some kids with a creative imagination and activity ideas to get started.

Fish Crafts
- There are many different fish-related crafts for kids. In one, have children tear pieces of construction paper into pieces and crumple them up. Give each child a plastic zipper bag, and tell him or her to fill the bag completely with the crumpled paper. Zip the bag shut and tell the kids to put a rubber band around the zipper end of the bag, about 1/2 inch from the zipper. This makes the fish tail. Give each child a googly eye to glue to each side of the bag. For an easy fish craft, print coloring pages of fish, or let kids glue colored fish-shaped crackers to the inside of fish to "color" them.
Ocean Creature Hunt Ideas
- Hide several plastic ocean creatures around your childrens' play area. Give the children paper sacks and have them hunt for the ocean creatures. The player who finds the most ocean creatures wins a prize, and all the children can keep the ocean toys that they find. For a variation, mark special dots on some of the creatures and award extra prizes to the children who find the specially marked ocean creatures. Or, fill a small plastic swimming pool with shredded, blue paper. Hide plastic animals in the paper and have the kids hunt for them.
Ocean Crafts
- Give the children large dried pasta shells, the kind that you might use for stuffing. The children can use markers, paint and glitter to decorate the "sea" shells. For another ocean craft, give each child a sandwich-size zipper bag. Help the kids fill the bags half full with blue Aloe Vera gel. The kids can add small plastic ocean creatures and small seashells to the bags, in order to resemble the ocean. Remove all the air, zip the bags tight and seal with masking tape. The children can squeeze the bag to make the ocean creatures and seashells move around.
Memory Games
- Fill a tray with ocean-themed items, such as a large seashell, a gummy shark, a snorkel, a fish squirt toy, plastic whales and plush jellyfish. Show the kids the tray for a certain amount of time, then take it out of the room. Remove one item from the tray and bring it back in the room. The first child to tell you which item is missing from wins a small prize. For a variation, give each child a sheet of paper. When you take the tray out of the room, they must write down the items they remember from the tray. The player who remembers the most items wins the game.

Kids Games