Octonauts Playdough

We love the show Octonauts! It's always teaching about animals under the sea and my daughter wants to take care of wild animals as her career when she grows up, so this appeals to her interests! The Easter Bunny brought her a pack of the figures from the show and today we made Octonauts Playdough! You can find the figures at Toys R Us too.

First I made a simple blue playdough with my favorite playdough recipe:

- 1 cup of flour
- 1 cup of water
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 TBSP vegetable oil
- 1 TBSP lemon juice
- several drops of blue food coloring

You just put all the ingredients in a pot and stir them together with a wooden spoon, then put on the stove on medium heat and stir with the wooden spoon continuously until a ball forms. Transfer to a bowl, wash the pot out while it cools, then knead the dough in your hands until it is no longer sticky. Store it in a ziploc bag or airtight container when you're not using it.

After it was made I put it out onto my daughters table, added some of her Octonaut figures, some clear gems and some Animal Planet sharks. This provides opportunities for pretend play and acting out little scenarios which is exactly what you want to get out of all these toys.

I also set out some fish playdough stamps and some other playdough tools in case she wanted to just do some playdough play after a while too.

Play Dough & Loose Parts Ocean

Do you ever wonder how you can spark your kids creativity? Do you ever look for opportunities to introduce loose parts? Well here's a great idea for your toddler or preschooler to do just those things! 

This, like most other great ideas, was inspired by/brought on by my daughter herself. She grabbed her blue cut up straws and I asked if she wanted to use them with play dough and she said yes. So, we set that up. Then, since our play dough was blue I decided we could take it a step further by turning on the sounds of the ocean on our sound machine and adding a few more loose parts. You too can inspire your child to create an ocean with their play dough and loose parts without having a sound machine. I'm sure you could find some good sounds of the ocean on Youtube. Incorporating the sounds was so great!

The other things I added were two colors of green cut up straws, in addition to the blue. I put them in a little plastic bowl that had flip flops on it because I thought that was fitting for the ocean scene. I also gave her clear glass accent gems. You can find these at Dollar Tree or Michael's. She was thrilled by those and decided she wanted a gem filled ocean. This made for a really great sensory/tactile experience when she was done we rubbed our hands over the play dough with all the gems in it.

I also gave her the little sharks and whales from her Animal Planet tube. She decided against using them though. She used a few of the cut up straws. We talked about how the blue ones could be waves, and then she all on her own decided to add some green ones for seaweed. What a little genius! 

The rolling pin was out from the initial smoothing out of the dough.

Seaweed Sensory Bin for Babies

Isn't this bin cute and inviting? What baby or even toddler wouldn't like it? All you'll need for the base material is some Roasted Seaweed Snack from Trader Joe's. I'm sure there are other stores that sell something similar as well. This one is great because it provides a new texture for babies. It's crunchy, very thin, and a bit oily. Definitely some new textures to experience. Then just add in some bath toys that would be in a pond/ocean/body of water.

Seashells and Ocean Animals Oobleck

Oobleck is one of the funniest messy play sensory materials that there is! It's relatively cheap and easy to make as well, which is always a plus. I decided to make an oobleck that would go with our ocean unit. It turned out great!

To make Seashells and Ocean Animals Oobleck you'll need:
- a bin
- cornstarch
- water
- neon blue food coloring
- some seashells
- some small ocean animals. We used this tube from Animal Planet

Step 1:
Fill up your bin with some cornstarch, then slowly add water. Mix it with your hand until you get the right consistency. You want to be able to grab a ball of it in your hand like a solid and then have it immediately start to turn into a liquid and run off of your fingers. It's about a 60% cornstarch, 40% water mixture.

Step 2:
Add in a few drops of the food coloring and mix it around with your fingers or a spoon if you don't want to get a little stained up!

Step 3:
Add in the seashells and the small ocean animals for ocean play presentation. The kids can play with them in the oobleck ocean for a while like a small world, and then take them out to really get into the hands on oobleck play.

Note: above I mentioned staining, your hands would only get stained if you choose to mix in the food coloring with them. If you use a spoon to mix in the food coloring, and only put your hands in after it's mixed the color will not stain your skin at all. It won't stain the kids skin either. It's a good idea to put on some play/paint clothes though in case of anything getting on the clothes. This is really easy to clean up, and washes right away with water.

Finding Nemo Name Matching Tot Tray

 This tot tray was part of our ocean theme. It's very simple, great for babies, and a fun way to make toddlers feel proud to complete something all on their own. It also helps toddlers to learn some literacy skills, and labeling.

To make this tot tray you need to print out this tot book (or at least the part of it with the names of the characters). You'll also need to purchase the Finding Nemo characters from Dollar Tree. Set up is easy once you've printed the tot book. You lay out the cards with the names of the characters, and you lay out the characters as well. Then you show it to your child and tell them to match them up.

Once they've got them all in the right places, read the names to them and point out the letters to your toddler. Spell the names out to your child and have them tell them back to you.

Finding Nemo Sensory Bin (Baby Safe)

For our ocean theme we've been doing lots of fun things! We had a movie time where we watched Finding Nemo. My little cutie only watched the first 20 minutes and then asked me if we could read instead. Makes me proud! BUT she does love the Finding Nemo characters, so I put together this adorable sensory bin.

This bin is totally baby safe, provided of course you're watching your baby while they play. Nothing in it is edible, but I consider it totally appropriate for babies to play with. It's even great for honing fine motor skills!

For the base material, I actually used three different materials. They were all blue though to represent the ocean. Pom poms of different sizes/textures/shades, cut up plastic straws, and hair rollers. You probably have most of this stuff around the house, could easily obtain it for cheap, or can substitute something else for it.

Then I added toy characters from Finding Nemo that can be purchased at Dollar Tree. It's adorable and sure to delight!

Ocean Water Play

My daughter, like most children, LOVES doing water play. If you haven't tried it with your little one yet you definitely should. It's always a hit here! Water play indoors is always okay if you have towels and such nearby, water play is the summer months is a good idea too as a way to beat the heat outdoors. For this water play session I went with an Ocean theme.

To start I got out one of our sensory bins and filled it up with water, then mixed in some neon blue food coloring until I got the color I wanted. Then I added in some seashells and the contents of our Animal Planet Animal Head Tube - Sea Life tube. 

My daughter played and played for a while. At first she delighted in looking at all of the sea animals. The great thing about the ones from the Animal Planet tube is that they all have the names written on their bottoms so you can work some knowledge in during play.

After a while I gave my daughter a plastic cup so she could pour the water, or collect sea animals in it.