If you’re planning an ocean preschool theme, these 20+ free preschool ocean printables are a fantastic way to add some low-prep, hands-on learning to your lesson plans. These free printable activities cover literacy, math, and pre-writing fine motor skills.
My kids and I are lucky enough to visit the ocean every year. I love making our annual trip to our “seaside classroom.”
We explore the beach for sea life such as crabs, clam shells, and seaweed. We build sandcastles and waterways with buckets and shovels and delicately add our collected seashells to our castles to decorate them. We surf and boogy board and jump in the tide, feeling our feet sinking into the sand as the ocean pulls away from the shore.
And we practice writing and drawing in the sand. Lots of that! My kids will find a piece of driftwood and drag it along the beach to make giant pictures that look like spiraling crop circles.
There’s so much natural learning at the ocean.
But if you can’t take your classroom to the ocean, you can bring the ocean to the classroom with these free ocean worksheets and printables for kids.
FAQs About Teaching an Ocean Theme
Teaching children about the ocean is a lot more than just playing with buckets of water and pretending to be pirates. Get them excited for math by teaching counting, time sequence skills, or shapes Teach literacy concepts through songs and fingerplays that feature ocean animals, and prewriting activities that feature beach toys.
But an ocean preschool theme doesn’t just have to be about sea animals. You can teach about the difference between fresh water and salt water, the different layers of the ocean, where in the world oceans are found, and about different jobs people might have related to the ocean.
Even if you don’t live near the ocean, picture books and videos about the ocean can make it come alive for preschoolers. You can also create fun, hands-on ocean activities such as sensory bins and water tables to add more enrichment to your lesson plans. And if you have the option, a field trip to an aquarium can open up a whole world of learning about ocean animals for kids.
A simple way to describe the ocean to preschoolers is to explain that it is a large body of salt water. You can use a globe, a map, pictures, books, and videos to visually show kids what an ocean looks like. To further explain what the ocean is, add a hands-on activity such as a sensory bin of salty, sandy water with ocean animal toys in it.
Don’t Forget Ocean Picture Books!
Carefully selected picture books about the ocean can really make your ocean theme come alive, especially if your preschool class doesn’t have any formal experience with the sea. Here are some of my favorite ocean theme picture books I like to read my class during circle time!
Ocean Themed Math Printables for Preschoolers
These ocean themed math printables will be a fun addition to your ocean themed preschool lesson plans. With these free printables kids will practice counting, number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, addition, subtraction, writing numbers, and fine motor skills.
Five Little Fishies Song and Counting Printable
This "Five Little Fishies" song and counting printable is perfect for math time, and it's a great activity for teaching counting. Combine this with the song, and your preschoolers are sure to love learning!
Practice Counting With Ocean Themed Counting Grids Free Printables
These free printable ocean counting grids are a fun way to learn counting, and they come with three different grids: 10, 20, and 100. They're also an excellent way to teach one-to-one correspondence, addition, and subtraction.
Ocean I Spy Counting Printable for Preschoolers
Help your preschoolers learn to count with this free ocean "I Spy" counting printable! This is such a simple activity, and it doubles as a fun way to introduce kids to new words like whale, crab, puffer fish, seahorse, and more.
Hungry Shark FREE Printable Subtraction Mat
This hungry shark printable mat is a fun way to teach subtraction with an ocean theme. This activity works well with students on all different learning levels.
Fish Bubble Counting Mats
These fish bubble counting mats are a perfect way to teach one-to-one correspondence. This free printable includes numbers 1-20 and comes with two different printing options.
FREE Printable Ocean Counting Clip Cards
These free ocean count and trace cards are the perfect math activity for preschoolers. In addition to learning how to count, this activity is also great for fine motor skills, number recognition, and tracing.
Ocean Counting Mats
These super cute ocean counting mats are an inviting way to practice counting and number recognition. This activity calls for the use of beads, but the printable pack also includes a sheet of ocean animals that you can cut out and use as manipulatives in place of the beads.
Ocean Addition and Subtraction Mats
If you're looking for a fun ocean themed math activity for your math centers, check out these free ocean addition and subtraction mats! These mats are a bit more advanced but can be easily customized for each of your learners.
Ocean Themed Literacy Printables for Preschoolers
These free ocean themed literacy printables are perfect for a preschool ocean theme. Early learners will have fun learning alphabet recognition, upper and lower case letter matching, and beginning letter sounds with these printable activities. These low-prep activities are also great for working on fine motor skills.
Teach Pre-Reading Skills with Seashell Matching Cards
This free seashell matching printable is an excellent pre-reading activity. You can use it in your preschool literacy center and/or your science center, or put them in a ziptop baggie for a busy bag during quiet time.
Roll and Say Summer ABC Game
This "Roll and Say" ABC printable is super easy to prep and makes learning fun! This free, versatile activity can be used to practice naming the letters, letter sounds, or a word beginning with the letter.
Octopus Alphabet Game
Have you ever seen a cuter octopus? This free octopus alphabet game combines letter learning and fine motor practice so that preschoolers and kindergarteners reap huge benefits while playing.
Ocean Theme ABC Sensory Bin
These free ocean ABC printable cards pair perfectly with an ABC sensory bin for a robust learning experience. This quick-prep activity allows kids to engage in sensory play while also practicing letter recognition and matching upper and lowercase letters.
Ocean Animal Beginning Sound Clip Cards
These cute ocean animal beginning sound clip cards are a fun way for preschoolers to practice beginning sounds and letter recognition. This free printable is great for working on fine motor skills as well.
Underwater Alphabet Activity
This free underwater alphabet printable is a fun and interactive way for kids to practice lowercase and/or uppercase letter identification. The nature of the activity also makes it an excellent way to work on fine motor skills!
Ocean Themed ABC Spin & Color
This ocean themed ABC spin and color game combines coloring with letter identification for a fun summer lesson. This free activity comes with both uppercase and lowercase printables.
Ocean Animal Free Printable Clip Cards for First Letter Recognition
These ocean animal printable clip cards allow children to work on both letter identification and tracing. This free printable has adorable sea animals like a whale, turtle, seahorse, starfish, and more!
Get the Right Ocean Themed Manipulatives
Bringing the ocean to your classroom means having the right ocean materials. Here’s what I always have for my ocean theme.
Ocean Themed Pre-Writing Printables for Preschoolers
Seashell Pre-Writing Number Tracing Cards
In addition to pre-writing practice, these seashell number tracing cards also encourage number formation, number identification, and fine motor skills. This free printable set includes numbers 1-20.
Shark Pre-Writing Practice
This shark themed tracing printable is a fun way for preschoolers to work on their pencil grip. This activity is super low-prep; just print and use!
How to Use These Free Printables for Scissor Skills Development
This free ocean themed printable was designed for scissor practice but can also be used as a tracing printable. There are four levels of cutting or tracing paths so students can work on different skill levels.
Ocean Letter Tracing Sheets
Preschoolers can practice writing both uppercase and lowercase letters with these ocean letter tracing sheets. This super cute, free printable includes line tracing for the words Seahorse, Crab, Turtle, Octopus, Whale, Fish, Starfish, and Dolphin!
Smiley Shark Pre-Writing Freebie
Whether you pair it with the book or not, this smiley shark pre-writing printable is a fun activity for any preschooler. The free printable can be used to practice different line shapes and strengthen pencil grip.
These preschool ocean printables for young children are an easy way to add some fun ocean themed learning activities to your lesson plans. They will help your preschoolers learn literacy concepts such as letter recognition, math concepts such as counting, and they’ll help them practice fine motor skills for writing.
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
