Toddler Art: At the Beach

This was a good Toddler Art program with a smaller, cozier crowd. The group listened to the story, Sea, Sand, Me! by Patricia Hubbell  very well and I explained our two crafts.

Our first craft was painting our own sand pail made out of card stock, construction paper, and yarn. Moms were able to write their children's names on the pail with marker and they had a choice of finger painting or using a paint brush.

Our second craft was making our own beach scene using construction paper, sand paper, and tissue paper. We used construction paper for our backdrop and our die-cut suns, sand paper for our sand castles that I cut out, and light blue tissue paper for our water. I told moms to make sure that their child feels the sand paper and the difference between that and the other paper.

Both crafts provided some sort of sensory experience and everyone seemed to have enjoyed the sand paper element in the one craft.

Other books on beaches:
Beach Day Karen Roosa
All You Need for a Beach Alice Schertle
Noni the Pony Goes to the Beach Alison Lester

Preschool Picasso: At the Beach

This time around, I had quite a bit of drop-ins mixed with those registered. I always make extra crafts for this reason and I had enough for everyone.

I started by reading To the Beach! by Linda Ashman. This is a fun, rhyming story about a family who wants to go to the beach but can't seem to get there because they keep forgetting things to bring. This book has a good flow to it and entertained the group and made the group laugh. 

For our first craft, we made sandcastles using sand puffy paint. I had each glue their cutout sand castles onto light blue construction paper, glue a die-cut sun on the top of their construction paper, and paint their sand castle with puffy paint. The paint was a mixture of shaving cream, play sand, and a dab of brown paint. Everyone really enjoyed the idea and liked the sensory aspect of the grainy sand feel and the light, fluffy shaving cream.

For our second craft, we painted beach balls on card stock. I printed out beach ball templates on card stock and they were given red, blue, and yellow paint. Some just had fun painting the ball and blending colors, while others tried to stay in the lines with their paint. It worked for the older and younger ones in the group. 

Other possible beach books:
Beach Day by Karen Roosa