Educational Ocean Activities for Preschoolers

Is an ocean preschool theme one of your yearly standbys? It certainly seems to be a preschool favorite! You can check out my ever-growing collection of ocean activities for preschoolers, and here you will also find six new ocean printables for preschoolers, too!

Be sure to grab your printable at the end of the post!

I have two favorite preschool themes to teach in the summer. Ocean and desert. Sometimes, when we have an especially long and dreary winter, I’ll deviate from the traditional winter themes and teach either of those in January just for the change of pace.

Kinda’ as a means to escape.

You know how some people have a poster of a tropical island on their office wall? When their work gets mundane or stressful they gaze at the golden sand and crystal clear blue-green water and pretend they are in the Caribbean? Well, in preschool we do that too, but instead of just a poster we indulge in ocean activities in the winter. Ha, ha!

But I love teaching my preschoolers about the ocean enough that sometimes they get a double dose. My own kids certainly do as our summers are full of ocean theme activities.

This summer, as we are trying to implement a new learning routine, I’ve added six ocean theme printables to our activities.

Educational Ocean Activities for Preschoolers

All these printables are designed to be used again and again. I recommend printing them on card stock and laminating them for added durability because your preschoolers will get a ton of use out of them. We have ocean letter identification activities, ocean counting activities, cool ocean matching cards… so many ocean activities for preschoolers.

Ocean vs. Non-Ocean Animal Sort

Preschoolers love to learn about animals, so what better than a sorting activity where they separate the ocean animals from non-ocean animals? It’s a math, science, and ocean activity all rolled into one.

Mr. Crab Counting Game

In this card game, preschoolers practice ocean theme number identification and counting skills by counting the number of seashells on each card. But Mr. Crab likes to snatch the seashells away, so be careful! My little boys love this card game. As an educator, it’s one of my favorite ways to teach number identification because each card has the numeral as well as seashells to count, so the children don’t have to guess the number!

Ocean Animal Fact Cards

My heart sings at how much my little boys love these ocean animal fact cards. Each card has five interesting facts about the ocean animal, and if you have any small ocean animal toys you can encourage your preschooler to find the matching animal! These are like my Insect Matching Cards, which we put on a binder ring and carry around in a baggie with the toys.

Ocean Alphabet Board Game

Preschoolers practice letter recognition in this game! The board game has no beginning or end so preschoolers have to use their critical thinking skills to figure out which way to move their game piece to get to the letters they need. When a player lands on an upper case letter on the game board, they have to find the matching lower case letter on their scorecard.

Alphabet Race Gross Motor Game

Get the kids up and moving with this game! Preschoolers practice matching upper and lower case letters while getting in a little running, too! And there’s sure to be a fair amount of giggling, too. At it’s most basic, these are matching cards, so you can play any matching game you’d like. Concentration. Alphabet Circle Seek. Be creative.

Sharks and Minnows Counting Game

I’m sure you’re familiar with my ever-popular apple drop counting game. This is a similar version wrapped up in an ocean theme. Grab ten two-colored counters (or paint some Lima-beans two colors, one color on each side). One color will be the “sharks” and the other color the “minnows”. Hold all ten in your hand about a foot above the mat and drop!

Now count how many sharks are on the mat versus how many minnows.

This is a fantastic game to teach basic counting skills and comparison (more or less) and for kinder students you can teach composing ten by having them write out number sentences for each drop.

Ocean Printables for Preschoolers

Think your preschoolers will love these printable activities during their ocean unit of study? You can grab them all by clicking the image below.

Looking for More Ocean Activities for Preschoolers?

These are tried and approved by my own kids and preschoolers! Just click the images below to read more!