Shooting Stars dive into the ocean and the Dragonfly room is besieged with pirate fun!

The Shooting Stars have been exploring the ocean the past couple weeks and the Dragonflies have been rowdy bunch of pirates.  To keep the ocean fun going this weekend, my boys and I made windows into the ocean. This activity was fun as I was able to hear from my kiddos all about the new sea animals they are learning about as well as what they would do if they were pirates (get all the chocolate chip bars in case anyone was wondering).  The activity consists of making essentially a ship porthole but I told my kiddos that they were windows to the ocean.

Materials:

Paper plates

Construction paper

Tape and gluesticks

Plastic wrap

Markers/Paints

Any additional bling you may want, we used some black sequins and white paper confetti

Directions:

To make the porthole I prepared some of the pieces without my children. Taking scissors cut out the inner circle of the paper plate and lay the paper plate upside down on the background paper and trace the outside and inside, remove paper plate circle and set aside. Now cut out around the larger of the circle tracings. This will be the background piece to the port hole as well as let your child see the area they have to fill in. Let your child create a world of ocean fun. We cut out little fish from construction pare and used markers to add color.  While your kiddo is filling in their idea of an ocean, this is the time to create the “glass” port hole cover. Tape a piece of plastic wrap to the paper plate that has been cut into a circle. You will be attaching the plate upside down onto your child’s picture so tape the plastic to the inside on the plate.  Once your child is done their scene, have them run along the outer edge of their paper with a glue stick. Place the paper plate over the top of the image and secure with tape at 4-5 points around the plate. My boys did not want to decorate the plate itself but encourage your child to let their imaginations soar…or should I say swim? We taped ours to a sunny window and pretended to be peering out into the oceans that they had created.

This activity opens up a lot of space for talking and sharing with your child. I was pleasantly surprised at the knowledge that my children have about the ocean and the animals that live within it. I am not sure that would have surfaced had I not continued the ocean themed experience here at home. I encourage parents to try and connect school curriculum with home projects/activities. It shows our children that we care about what they learn and that we support and encourage learning...not just at school but everywhere! If I had not been taking photos throughout the process I would have ended up making a port hole for myself!