Sea Shells

Show children pictures of different types of sea
 shells and discuss the differences in each.

Learning About Shells

Set out books that contain pictures of common shells. Help your children
 use them to try identifying some of their own shells or shells that you
 have on display. Explain that animals once lived the shells and talk
 about those that are familiar. For a creative extension, ask the children to imagine
 that they are small water animals. What kind of shells would they like to live in? Why?

Play dough Exploration

Place a small ball of play dough in a baggie with various shaped shells
 (sea stars & sea horses are especially exciting!) for each child. Allow
 exploration of imprinting their shells onto the play dough to take place.
  Lots of vocabulary words can be built on during the activity,
 as well as  spatial relations explored.

Beach Experiences

Have the children tell about experiences with the beach and finding sea shells.

Beach Ball Starts With B

Use a few extra moments during beach ball day to reinforce the sound of the letter B.
  Just bounce an inflated beach ball to one of your children and say the rhyme below.
  When he/she responds with a B word, he/she bounces the ball back
 to you and you can bounce into letter practice with another child. 

Beach ball, beach ball starts with B.
Can you say another B word for me?