Hands-on learning is an integral component in early childhood education. The manipulation and experimenting of materials provide a reference of learned concepts, and enables young children to construct meaningful experiences that aid their ability to commit new information to memory.

Your little one learned that a lagoon is a shallow body of water, separated from the ocean by a reef or sandbank. They also learned that these water bodies are quiet, and can vary in length. Using rocks, shells, sand, and water, we created our own lagoon!

We created two bodies of water. The larger of the two was the “ocean”, and the smaller, the “lagoon”. We then used rocks as the “reef”, and then added sand and sea creatures to supplement our play.

There are several species of whale that populate our oceans. These environments can be an exciting and foreign place to most children, and studying this unique biome helps them understand a place different than their own.

For this portion of our ocean theme, we tackled the migration of the blue whale. Your little one participated in a variety of activities to help them learn about this magnificent creature. The first were our gray whale puzzles. Puzzles are an early learning favorite for educators and children alike! By matching the shapes to complete the picture of the whale, students develop important skills such as problem solving and shape, pattern and color recognition.

We then talked about what breaching was. We watched a short video of this action, and then, using plastic whales at the water table, practiced breaching on our own!

Your little ones have a powerful desire to explore and question the world around them.

They couple their imaginations with accessible materials to recreate many of the situations they learn about on a daily basis. They do this as a means to integrate the known with the unknown.

The final component of our whale unit involved looking at a globe and noting the blue whale’s migration from Alaska to Mexico, and then constructing our version of the Arctic Ocean using foam, plastic whales, and crystal beads. We talked about the different animals that live in cold areas, what glaciers are, and explored concepts such as hot and cold, freezing and boiling, and words such as beluga whales, polar bears, seals, flippers, and ice floe (a flat expanse of floating ice).

Seahorses spend their time bobbing in the sea grasses and coral reefs and due to their colorings, are able to camouflage themselves pretty effectively into the aquatic plants and larger coral so as to hide from their predators.

To help your little ones understand the swaying movement of this creature, we created our own version of this underwater habitat, using play dough, pipe cleaners, plastic leaves, and sea horses!