Discovering an Ocean

During the Canada Day long weekend our daughter, son in-law and grand daughter came home for a visit.

It was the first time we could take Our Little One to the beach. 

Not just a sandy beach but an ocean beach where we find crabs, fish, barnacles and more.

We found little crabs, hiding under rocks, as soon as we got closer to the water's edge.

Then we found the waves and the sandy shore.

These little waves were a challenge for her little legs.

Good thing she had help from mom and dad.

Time to explore the shore.

The sand is so much fun to grab with little fingers and transfer to the bucket.

And fun to splash it all off.

Dad found a little fish as he was combing the edge of the surf.

Opa found our Little One as she was running across the sand.

Back at the Little One's home I created an ocean discovery bin for her.

I started with real and toy shells, fish, snails, crabs and more.

I covered those with strips of blue and green, thin vinyl tablecloth.

I stuck in these little plastic trees, that look a bit like floating seaweed, and more shells, fish and shiny flat pebbles.

Time to explore.

Her favourite was the shiny flat pebbles.

The bin is fun but nothing compared to the real live ocean and tide pools.

Pirating at the Beach

Here are some of the activities we did on our day as pirates.

Flip the shells to find two that match.

In the water were toy ocean creatures.

Around the water were pictures that matched most of them.

They could use the nets to catch a creature then

put it on the picture.

One of the favourite activities was finding 20 gold rocks that we had

spread around the beach.

Captain Hook's Ring Toss was a challenge.

And searching for jewels in the rocks.

Searching for Treasure

I love my job!

I get to spend a lot of time exploring my community with the families 

that come to the program.

One of my favourite outings is to the ship wrecks.

It's fun to pretend that they are pirates' ships wrecked on the beach.

Could there be treasure here?

We went hunting.

We found a clue hidden in a stump.

It was in a glass bottle sealed with a cork.

Once I read the clue the children figured out where to go.

The next clue took us out to the rocks where we found jewels.

Still no treasure but the hunt got us running all around the beach.

Off to find clue number 4.

By this time, as I read the clues, the children were thinking carefully

about the words and where they might go next.

Our last clue - where is the wall?  Can you see any roots?

They found it under the roots of a big tree marked with an 'x'.

They pulled it out and we gathered around to open the box.

Happy pirates sharing the loot.

Happy pirates on the beach, so much fun.

Stay tuned to learn more about the activities that inspired our 

treasure hunt clues.