As the weather warms up, preschoolers will love learning about the ocean and everything that lives under the sea with this exciting preschool theme.

Preschool Under the Sea Circle Time

Under the Sea Wall – Cut out pictures of animals that live under the sea from magazines and have preschoolers help you glue the pictures to a piece of poster board during circle time. Each circle time you could practice naming the animals on the poster.

Feel bag – Create a feel bag using a brown paper bag or an empty tissue box. Place various objects in the bag that you would find in or near the ocean. Have preschoolers reach into the feel bag one at a time and guess what the hidden object is. Some objects you could place in the feel bag are a star fish, shells, or a sea sponge.

Preschool Under the Sea Arts and Crafts

Sand Painting – Give preschoolers a glue bottle and have them use it to create pictures on construction paper with the glue. When they are done, cover the glue with sand before it dries and dump the excess off the paper.

Textured Art – Add a little bit of sand to your paint and allow preschoolers to create their own artwork.

Wax Paper Art – Have preschoolers color an ocean scene on a piece of wax paper with crayons. When they are done, place a second sheet of wax paper on top of the first and iron just until the crayons inside have melted.

Under the Sea– Give preschoolers fish stickers and have them decorate the bottom half of a piece of construction paper with the fish. Have preschoolers draw any additional sea life or sea vegetation that they want. When preschoolers are done, help them glue blue saran wrap to the bottom half of the page to show that the scene is under water. The saran wrap can be glued in a rippled pattern to give the page some texture.

Paper Plate Fish – Preschoolers will love making this paper plate fish. This simple preschool art project teaches preschoolers important small motor skills. The bright colors will make this preschool art project a great addition to a preschool fish theme or a preschool bulletin board.

Preschool Under the Sea Math and Science

Wave Bottle – Fill a clean plastic bottle with water. Tint with a few drops of blue food coloring. Add vegetable oil or baby oil to the jar. Seal the jar by placing a little bit of super glue on the inside of the lid and closing tightly. When preschoolers shake the bottle they will have their very own wave machine.

Shell Counting – Include a collection of shells and cards marked 1-10 in your math center. Instruct preschoolers to choose a card and count out the same number of shells as the number listed on the card. When preschoolers have counted out the correct number of shells have them place the shells on the number card.
Learn about different animals that live in the sea

Preschool Under the Sea Music and Movement

Sing Row, Row, Row, Your Boat

Parachute Fun – Place plastic fish on the parachute and have preschoolers create waves by gently shaking the parachute. Preschoolers will enjoy watching the fish “swim” on the waves.

Preschool Under the Sea Pretend Play

Sand Table Fun – Fill your sand table or sand box with little plastic fish and let the preschoolers search through the sand to find them.

Day at the Beach – Set up a beach umbrella and a beach towel in your pretend play center and give the preschoolers buckets and shovels to enjoy a pretend day at the beach.
Preschool Under the Sea Language and Literature

Fishing for Letters – This fun preschool alphabet activity uses items found around the house and it an exciting way to teach preschoolers to recognize the ABC’s. Preschoolers can learn about reusing materials as they save the lids from frozen juice containers while preparing to make this game.