Activities for Learning about the Ocean

Learning about the ocean is always fun, but it’s a nice thing to do in the summer, especially if you have any vacations to the beach planned. But even if you don’t, these ocean animal activities are lots of fun for kids of all ages.

These fact sheets about ocean animals from 3 Boys and a Dog are a great way to learn about animals including crabs, clown fish, dolphins, jellyfish, octopus, orca, sea turtles and starfish.

Little kids will enjoy the dot marker printable pages from The Artisan Life. There are seven options including an octopus, dolphin, lobster and whale. Turner Tots has a week long ocean unit study for preschool including books, sensory bin ideas and lots of cute printable activities you can buy.

This shell alphabet printable from NurtureStore would be fun to print as a matching game, or laminate the letters and use them to practice spelling basic words, ocean or otherwise.

Pull out your pattern blocks to make the ocean animal designs from Life Over Cs. There’s a fish, octopus, whale, stingray and shark for kids to build. And practice cutting with simple ocean life shapes from Homeschool Share.

Learn about the layers of the ocean and assemble your own diagram of the ocean layers with the printables from Teach Me Mommy. Simple Everyday Mom also has a good ocean zones activity using colored water and little ocean animal toys.

If you’re willing to spend a little, this printable ocean diorama from 24 Hour Printables is so pretty and would be lots of fun to color and assemble.

Play ocean bingo with the printables from A Dab of Glue Will Do. You can even use Goldfish crackers as your markers. (I would totally lose if I did this because I would eat them all before the game was over.)Or color, count and graph the sea creatures with this printable from Sarah Chesworth.

Need more resources for learning about the ocean with kids? Check out this marine biology unit study and this huge collection of beach and ocean themed printables, perfect for using in the car on the way to the beach or in the home or classroom.

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Ocean Unit Studies and Activities

The celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is important throughout Mexico and other parts of the world. Her feast day is Dec. 12, and the celebrations honoring her appearance to Juan Diego in 1531 begin a few days before that.

Whether you celebrate yourself or just want to share about the celebration at home or in your classroom, Las Mañanitas: The Beautiful Celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good place to start. The book, by Ernesto Joel Vega Rosales and Jeanette Gonzalez Seneviratne, with illustrations by Dana Sanmar, tells the story of a family’s celebration of the feast day in both English and Spanish.

They prepare with a novena, which is nine days of prayers and preparations. The children, Lucia and Pablo, are given special outfits made by their grandmother that look like what Juan Diego might have worn when he saw Our Lady. The book describes the prayers that are made each day, such as a prayer for respect for life, for families and for the indigenous people of the Americas, to name a few.

As told in the book, Juan Diego was a native Mexican born near modern day Mexico City. His given name was Cuaauhtlatoatzin, which means “He who speaks like an eagle.” When he converted to Christianity his name was changed to Juan Diego, and as he walked to church he passed a hill called Tepeyac. One day he heard the birds singing especially beautifully and a voice called him to go to the top of the hill.

There he saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, who asked him to tell the bishop she wanted a chapel built in her name at the foot of the hill. The bishop asked for a sign that Juan Diego really saw her, and later she had him collect flowers that she blessed and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego dropped the flowers, an image of Our Lady could be seen on his cloak, which is still on display in her basilica to this day.

The feast day is celebrated as mañanitas, which includes singing, indigenous music and dancing, and children presenting flowers to Our Lady. Juan Diego is remembered today as being humble, brave and faithful, and was the first indigenous American made a saint.

The book is colorful and tells the story in a clear way, and it’s fun to have it both in English and Spanish if you teach Spanish or speak Spanish at home or in the classroom. It’s a great way to learn the basics of the celebration and the story of Juan Diego and why he is still remembered today.

About the book: 40 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Loyola Press. Suggested retail price $14.99.

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