by Rachel Wells

Summer is synonymous with spending time in the water – and the beach is always a great place to spend a summer day splashing around.

From cooking, to crafts, to science and more, these beach themed activities are tons of fun before or after a trip to the beach or for when you just feel like bringing to beach to your own home!

 

Under the Sea Graham Crackers

Supplies

• Graham crackers
• Gold fish crackers (you can also use Swedish Fish for this)
• Blue frosting
• Long sprinkles
• Ziploc bag
• Knife

 

Step-by-Step:

1. Use a knife to spread blue frosting on the bottom 2/3 of your graham cracker.
2. Place a graham cracker into a Ziploc bag and have your child crush into a powder. Sprinkle the crushed graham cracker on the bottom of the cracker to look like sand.
3. Attach goldfish crackers and sprinkles to decorate your ocean however you choose.
4. Enjoy! (Even though it’s almost too cute to eat)

 

 

How Do Sharks Float Experiment

Shark are heavy and large! Some great white sharks can weigh more than 2,000 pounds. So how do they float? One of the reasons is that their oily liver takes up 30% of their mass, and since oil is less dense than water it gives them a natural buoyancy.

 

Supplies Needed:

• 2 different colors of balloons
• Oil
• Water
• Funnel
• Black sharpie
• ¼ cup measure
• Large bin or bowl for water

 

Step-by-Step:

1. Pour ¼ cup of oil into one of the balloons. Make sure no air is inside and tie it shut.
2. Pour ¼ cup of water into the other balloon. Make sure no air is inside and tie it shut.
3. Use the black marker to draw shark faces on the balloons.
4. Fill your bin or bowl with water, and place both balloon sharks into the bowl.
5. Watch as the oil filled shark balloon floats and the water filled balloon sinks.

 

 

Salt Paint Aquarium

 

Supplies

• Blue construction paper
• White glue
• Salt
• Watercolor paints
• Paintbrush
• Pencil

 

Step-by-Step

1. Use a pencil to lightly sketch out the sea creatures you want to put in your aquarium scene – fish, jellyfish, seaweed, etc.
2. Cover and fill in the ocean animals with a layer of white glue.
3. Sprinkle salt over all the white glue, shake off the excess, and allow time for the glue to dry.
4. Use watercolor paints (the more water the better) to paint over the salt. You can press the paint brush in one area at a time and watch as the colors spread out making a cool tie dye effect.

 

 

Summer Lego Build

Supplies:

• Lego bricks and baseplates

 

Challenge:

To build summer related items out of Legos (lighthouses, sailboats, sharks… oh my!)

 

 

Ocean in a Bag

Supplies

• Bowl
• Small plastic ocean creature toys
• Hair Gel
• Blue liquid watercolor/food coloring
• Ziploc ba
• Scissors
• Duct tape (optional)

 

Step-by-Step

1. Pour hair gel into a bowl and mix it with a small amount of blue watercolor or food coloring (make it very light blue!)
2. Put the blue gel into a Ziploc bag, and add a few plastic ocean animal toys.
3. Seal the bag (you can add Duct tape to make sure the bag stays sealed) and enjoy. Kids will love squishing the animals around in the water!