Montessori-Inspired Beach Language Activities

By Deb Chitwood from Living Montessori Now

 

I love to have some fun at the end of the school year, and a beach unit is lots of fun! You can even take your beach unit outdoors. Your child(ren) could carry some trays outdoors. I put these trays outdoors on tables, something easy to do. Trays could be placed on shelves or even lined up on a sidewalk or on the grass. I like to spread out beach towels on the deck or sidewalk along with having some tables and chairs outdoors, although you could use beach towels for all the activities.

Today, I'm sharing Montessori-inspired language ideas using some great free printables I found online with a beach theme. Thank you to the designers who've so generously shared their printables!

Disclosure: This post contains Montessori Services affiliate links.

Ocean Language Matching Activity 

   

The Ocean Flash Cards free printable is from iChild. The objects are from the Safari Ltd. Coral Reef TOOB. I like to use the 40% off coupons available most weeks at Michaels (craft store) when looking for Safari Ltd. TOOBS. There are more coral reef objects and ocean flash cards than I've pictured. The tray is a medium-size tray from Montessori Services.

This activity is for a young preschooler, although it could be easily individualized by using the cards as a concentration- or matching game. These are the only objects from the Coral Reef Safari TOOB that match this set of cards. The Helpful Garden has a free printable Montessori ocean animals matching game with cards to match animals from the Safari Coral Reef TOOB. The objects have lots of other potential uses as well (for example, as objects for alphabet boxes).

J is for Jellyfish Beginning Sounds Activity

 

The J is for Jellyfish Magnet Page is from Making Learning Fun. Since I LOVE glass gems, I used the glass gems I got at the hobby store for the F is for Flower Activity last month. I put the exact number of glass gems for each color in a round candle coaster along with a sugar tong from Montessori Services. This makes a nice language activity and adds interest to a practical life tonging activity.

Instead of glass gems, you could use playdough balls, Power Magnets, pom poms with a strawberry huller, magnetized pom poms on a magnetic tray, or dot markers (if you don’t laminate the activity). 

In Montessori education, we emphasize phonetic sounds rather than letter names. I would demonstrate the activity by placing the printable on a rug and saying, "/j/ is for jellyfish." Then I would show how to use the sugar tong to place a few of the glass gems before returning the tray to the shelf for the child(ren) to use.  

Beach Beginning Sounds Activity 
 

This activity is just one of many from the Beach Pack from 3 Dinosaurs. This is a HUGE pack with lots of fun ideas. The Beach Preschool Pack is literature-based, making it even more fun. I used a small clear acrylic tray from Montessori Services. I use a ¼” round color coding label in the color of the tray on the back of each card to correlate with the correct position of the clothespin. This serves as a control of error (instant self-correction devise). For presentation tips, see my last month's post, Montessori-Inspired April Showers Activities.  

O is for Octopus Sand Tray (photo at the top of this post)

The O is for Octopus card is from Alphabet Flash Cards - D'Nealian Pictures from Have Fun Teaching. I used colored sand from a craft store. I just used the O is for Octopus card, since it was the only ocean-themed card in the printable. I like to have sandpaper letters nearby so that children can trace other letters as well if they wish. 

Real & Nonsense Sunny Reading Activity

This activity uses Sunny Reading ~ CVC Word Game by Kristine Weyher at Teachers Pay Teachers. I thought this activity would be fun on a beach towel. It has 24 cards, although you can use as many or as few as you wish.

This is a great activity for beginning readers. Children could complete it individually or play it as a game. I would typically just show the child(ren) where the activity is and allow them to discover the words for themselves.

I added one color of color coding label to the back of each real word and another color of color coding label to the back of each nonsense word as a control of error.

Summer Sentences Sort

This activity uses Summer Sentence Scramble (free sample from a pack available for purchase which includes 6 sentence scrambles rather than three) from The Teachers Cauldron. There are longer versions of the sentences, although I would typically start with simpler versions as shown. I wouldn't generally present the activity in a group, as I'd like the children to be able to discover the sentences for themselves. Children who are ready could then add the capitalization and punctuation as they write out the completed sentences.

 

Ocean Creative Writing Activity

 

This creative writing activity for advanced preschoolers and kindergarteners uses the Ocean Writing Prompt Freebie from Sharing Kindergarten. It's hard to find a much easier activity to prepare. If you have pencils available, you just need to print out copies of the page and place them on a tray (or on a clipboard if the children will be working outdoors without a table).

Younger children could dictate a short story to you. That's an activity I always enjoyed doing with children as a Montessori teacher.

More Free Ocean Printables and Ocean Activities

I have an Ocean Unit Study Pinterest board with links to many more wonderful free printables and activities of all types.

Are you planning some beach activities for your classroom or homeschool? :)

Deb Chitwood is a certified Montessori teacher with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies. Deb taught in Montessori schools in Iowa and Arizona before becoming owner/director/teacher of her own Montessori school in South Dakota. Later, she homeschooled her two children through high school. Deb is now a Montessori writer who lives in Colorado Springs with her husband of 37 years and their cat of 11 years. She blogs at Living Montessori Now. 

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