We checked off the only thing we had on our “Places We Have To Go While On Vacation List” ~ which was visit the North Carolina Aquarium. The kids were very excited to actually see some of the fish and ocean animals we have been learning about.
Emily and Aiden kept coming back to the touch tank, there favorite thing at the Aquarium, where we got to touch sting rays and a guitar fish.
Some fun pictures!
~Cindy
We made it to the beach and the kids have been having a great time discovering sea life and treasures!
Emily has entertained herself for hours digging up Mole Crabs
and Aiden has discovered how fun it is to chase crabs into their holes.
We have gotten up early to walk on the beach and the kids have found LOTS of treasures. 
Some of our favorites include a mermaid’s purse, which is actually a skate egg case,
a jaw bone
and lots of beautiful shells and rocks.
The kids have also spent lots of time just playing in the water.
~Cindy
Aiden has been having so much fun with the ocean theme that we decided to continue it for another week.
Book of the Week and Craft:
This week we read Starfish: Stars of the Sea and made a starfish out of Crayola Model Magic. I helped him shape the starfish and he used a small strainer, which he pushed onto the starfish, to add some texture.
Alphabet Fun:
I bought some sea shells from the Dollar Store and wrote the letters of the alphabet on them. Here are some of the fun activities we did with them.
I hide the shells in the sand and Aiden hunted for them ~ naming the letters written on the shells.
We lined up the shells, letter side up, and Aiden and I worked on letter sounds and naming words that started with each letter.
Aiden’s favorite activity was tossing a pearl (marble) into the container and naming which letter in landed on.
Lastly we played find the pearl. I took a couple of the shells and hid a pearl under one of them. Aiden tried to guess which shell the pearl was hidden under.
Numbers and Counting:
Aiden is completely fascinated with sharks so I made a shark bucket to use for a counting game. I used a sand bucket and added two rows of teeth and a fin that I cut out of foam sheets.
Aiden rolled the dice and feed the shark fish that I cut out of foam. 
Shapes:
Aiden loves fishing so I added some shapes, cut out of foam sheets, to a container of water and let Aiden fish for them.
After he caught all the shapes he had fun catching his sister! : )
Next week are heading to the beach {insert HAPPY DANCE!}. Hopefully we will see some of the sea life we have been learning about ~ NO sharks please! I won’t be posting a Preschool Corner post next week but I look forward to reading about everyone else’s week while I am kicked backed relaxing!
To check out more Preschool ideas and activities visit Preschool Corner!
~Cindy
Aiden LOVES sea shells! He loves to sort them, hide them and just look at all the different kinds of shells. Since he is loving shells right now ~ I took some shells from the Dollar Store and wrote the letters of the alphabet on them. Here are some of the fun things we did with them.
I hide them in a container of sand.
Aiden hunted for the shells, and we worked on naming each letter written on the shell.
I put all of the shells letter side up and Aiden and I worked on letter sounds and naming words that started with each letter.
We also took turns tossing a pearl (marble) into the container and naming the letter it landed on ~ or close to.
I took a couple of the shells and hide the pearl under one of them.
Aiden would pick up a shell, looking for the marble and name the letter written on the shell.
When we work on activities like this I let Aiden decide how long we play. I am really trying to get him to sit and focus on activities more as he gets older. Keeping his attention is not always easy! After about 15-20 minutes Aiden was ready to move on to something else.
~Cindy
We are still learning about the ocean and all the fascinating creatures that live there.
Book of the Week and Craft
We read lots of books this week, but Aiden’s favorite books were Clumsy Crab and The Magic School Bus Gets Crabby.
I found a cute crab craft here. We changed our crab a little and added toothpicks to the small Styrofoam balls, the eyes, so they would stick up and adding claws cut out of construction paper.
Letters, Numbers and Colors
Aiden still doesn’t understand the difference between a letter and number. He calls everything letters ~ such as “that is the letter 1”. To help him understand the difference between a letter and number we played a Number or Letter ~ Sorting Activity. I added foam letters and numbers to a pan of water and gave him a small strainer to fish out them out.
I printed pages titled Letters and Numbers, put them in page protectors so the letters and numbers would stick, and taped them to the wall.
He would say the letter or number and the color and stick it the correct sheet.
Science:
I gave Aiden a container of dirt and grass and a container of water.
He sorted our plastic animals into the containers ~animals that live on land and animals that live in the water.
Lunch Time
Just for fun ~ we had octopus hot dogs and
clam cookies for our lunch one day.
That was our week! To check out more Preschool ideas and activities visit Preschool Corner!
~Cindy
This is one of those crafts that makes me say ~ why haven’t we done this before? It was super easy and fun!
What We Used:
What We Did:
We added our soap to shells ~ which we are using as a soap dishes.
This is another craft that we are going to give as Christmas gifts. Wouldn’t they be pretty if we used dried flowers?
~Cindy
