Growing up, I was always intrigued by the ocean and the creatures that lived in it. Mia is no different. It's like a whole new world and we spent this week focused on finding out what's Under the Sea. Not exactly an ocean-themed book, but we read Where the Wild Things Are and it ended up spurring a whole session of boat pretend play. Mia found all kinds of items around the house to assemble her boat and I cut out a little flag for her. Millie naturally fell into the role of pirate, trying to climb aboard the boat and ruining all of Mia's fun. Little sisters...sigh!
Boats have been fascinating Mia lately, so I grasped onto that and ran with it. I found a cool wooden balloon-powered boat at World Market for under $5. We also Googled how to fold our own paper boats. With our two types of boats in hand, we went down to the creek to play. We hiked a bit upstream and launched the paper boats from the edge and ran back downstream to catch them as they floated along. The balloon-powered boat is pretty fun but you'll get the full effect if you try it in a non-moving body of water. We had to bring it back home and try it again in the bath tub. It definitely provided a little learning moment about currents, though! Colorado is about as landlocked as it gets, but I managed to find a little lake beach for the girls to play on one morning. We went to the swimming beach on Big Soda Lake at Bear Creek Lake Park, but Chatfield State Park & Cherry Creek Reservoir both offer good options as well. And we also made a trip to the Denver Aquarium this week. I personally enjoyed the jelly fish tank but I'm pretty sure Mia's favorite was the mermaid show in the big tank.
My husband just bought a GoPro camera for ski season but seeing as though that's not for several more months, Mia and I took it into the pool to play with it. LifeProof sells waterproof iPhone cases that you could also use for underwater photos, if you were interested. The GoPro doesn't have a feedback screen so we just snapped a bunch of little sis Millie splashing around and then shared giggles as we looked through them on the computer later that night.
We also did a more traditional art project this week -- a paper plate mosaic sea turtle. I pre-cut a bunch of green shapes and a turtle head/flippers/legs/tail. I set Mia up with the cut-outs and Elmer's School Glue and let her apply them to the underside of a paper plate. Googly eyes completed the look. Last year, we made a sponge-painted jelly fish during this theme week.
A summary of all Under the Sea week activities with links:
ACTIVITIES: Pretended to sail the high seas with items found around the house, Played in the creek with paper boats and balloon-powered boats
ART PROJECTS: Made a paper plate mosaic sea turtle and a sponge-painted jelly fish, Took funny underwater pictures at the pool with our GoPro camera
OUTINGS: Checked out life under the sea at the Denver Aquarium, Spent the day at the swimming beach at Bear Creek Lake Park
BOOKS: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, If You Want to See a Whale by Julie Fogliano
BIBLE STORY: Jonah and the whale
BABY BONUS: Water sensory play with assorted sponges and foam letters on a cookie sheet
If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).
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