Ocean in a Bag

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Our Ocean in a Bag

Had enough of ocean animal posts yet?  Well,  my three year old hasn't!  He just can't get enough of ocean animals and when I saw the Ocean in a Bag craft in the book, Crafts for Kids Who Are Wild About Oceans by Kathy Ross and illustrated by Sharon Lane Holm, I knew we had to try it! It is a good thing we tried this on a day that my husband was home because there is no way I could have gotten pictures on my own!

 For our Ocean in a Bag we needed
a bottle of blue hair gel
colorful foam for ocean animals
small shells
glitter
beads (bubbles)
2 plastic bags without labels (the generic brands were what worked)
clear packing tape

 Before we started I traced a shark cookie cutter so we could add a shark. I also drew an octopus on purple foam and cut it out. The rest of our ocean animals were from a pack of foam ocean stickers that I found at the store this weekend. I just removed the paper on the back before we added them to the bag.

First we added the blue hair gel to one of our gallon sized bags. This was fun (can you tell by his smile?), smelled great, and wasn't too messy!   We wanted enough gel in it so that when we squeezed the air out there was a small layer throughout the whole bag.  We used the whole 22 oz. bottle.

 Next we added glitter. My son loved this part. He has a new found love of glitter after our projects this week. After the glitter we added animals to our ocean. Little Guy added a shark, turtle, starfish, crab, shells, and bubbles. He would have had his ocean COMPLETELY filled with fish if he had his way.

 The last step was for me to get the air out of the bag. I closed it up, folded the bag down about an inch and taped it down with clear tape.

 I put that bag in another bag with the sealed part at the bottom. No ocean explosions allowed in this house!

Finally we get to play!

The hardest part of this project was keeping my son from playing with it while I closed it up.  He was so eager to play and I don't blame him. It has been sitting on our kitchen table tonight and every time I sit down I start chasing the fish around with the shark.  What a great sensory activity for the Little Guy. My kindergartner wanted to play too, but my three year old loved it so much that sharing wasn't really a part of his vocabulary tonight.

Soon after our project it was time for bed and we read Under the Sea by Anna Milbourne and Cathy Shimmen.

I adore these Usborne picture books!  My son loves the pictures in this book.  They are so inviting and colorful.  He couldn't get enough of the "grumpy" whale.  There is an especially great picture with a view from above of a boat and beside it is a very large whale.  We had to stop and stare at that picture for a while!

This book uses very vivid language while teaching little ones about the ocean.  The book starts above the water, but then follows the animals until they are at the deepest part of the sea and then back up to the surface.  While reading this book my son learned about submarines, sea cows, underwater mountains, and fish that clean turtle shells, all while listening to great vocabulary words like slinks, skulks, gentle, and nibbling!  We have many of these Usborne books and absolutely love them!