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BEACH THEME

CRAFTS:

Driftwood Art
Ask your Kids to look at a piece of driftwood to determine its use for art. Can it make a good face or an interesting background for a painting or collage? Does it have an unusual shape suggesting some kind of animal, a boat or other shape which can be elaborated on to bring out its hidden potential? Long twisty pieces of wood can be painted and decorated as snakes or eels. A square or rounded shape can make a great face if decorated with bits of cloth and wool for hair and hats. Pebbles and shells make excellent eyes, nose and mouth. Another piece might suggest the shape of a boat or car, and can be painted and dressed up to complete a dramatic impression.

Layered Sand Jar
Materials: A variety of colored sands, Nicely shaped clear jar with lid, Funnel. Spoon a layer of colored sand into the jar-or pour through funnel. Gently tap jar to make sand level. Continue adding colors until you reach the top. Screw the lid on the jar.

Paper Plate Whales
Each child requires: half a paper plate; a selection of black, white and coloured construction paper, along with ideas for fin and tail shapes (or patterns for the youngest kids to trace); scissors; glue; and a black or red marker. Using the straight side of the half plate as the top of the whale, the kids should cut out and glue on big eyes (white and black), tail, and side and top fin. To finish the whale, let them draw on a big happy smile. 

Pebble Mosaic 
For this craft you need a sturdy backing (cardboard, a piece of driftwood or heavy paper). Draw a design, and glue pebbles, shells, and pieces of wood inside the lines. Encourage your Kids to place the colours of the materials they use in interesting designs. Make a loop on the backing for hanging. 

Shell Collage
Use a piece of cardboard for background and paint it a "beach colour" (yellow, light blue, light turquoise). Cut a frame from coloured bristol board or craft paper and glue it on the cardboard. Glue on whole shells, and whatever bits of nature you find, in an attractive design. Make a loop at the top for hanging.

Sand Painting
Materials: 2 or more colors of sand, white glue, water, Heavy drawing paper, cookie sheet, paintbrush. Mix a spoonful of glue and a spoonful of water together in a cup. Use a pencil to lightly draw you design on the paper. Set the paper in the tray. Use the paintbrush to paint all the areas where you want one color of sand to stick. Use a spoon to sprinkle the sand over the glue. Let sit for a few moments. Gently turn the paper over the tray and tap to let the extra sand fall off. Continue until you picture is done.

Spray Bottle Painting
Provide the children with spray bottles filled with water paint or water colored with food coloring. Put up a large piece of paper or a sheet on a fence or easle and let the children spray with the bottles to create a painting or mural.

Sand Creativity 
Sand and a stick make great raw materials for sand art. Draw and write creations on the sand. Decorate them with pebbles, twigs, shells and sea weed or other plant materials lying around. Sand castles are always fun to build. Encourage your Kids to take on a group project and build a city of castles and canals. Bring figures from home to populate the castles. You might get the Kids to make miniature flags to decorate the castles. Before you leave the beach, make sure the area you've been using is cleaned up and left in a better state than when you found it. During a rainy day make some great crafts from the materials you found on the beach. 

Sun Hats and Headbands
Create sunny headbands out of blue and yellow construction paper. Have the kids cut out a strip of blue paper. After stapling together the ends of their band to fit their head, they cut out a big yellow sun, give it a happy face, and glue it over the staple. Make paper hats from newspaper.

GAMES & ACTIVITIES:

Beach Blanket Toss
Use a beach blanket and beach ball for every 8 – 10 kids. The groups should stand around the blanket holding the edges. Place the ball into the centre of the blanket and tell them to make it “hop”. The children must work together to make the ball hop and catch it on the blanket again. After they get good at it, add variations such as rolling the ball around the outside edge of the blanket, or from side to side.

Beach Day
Make a play area with sand and sea shells. Add a blanket umbrella, shovel and pail and other misc. beach items. Take each childs picture and make a bulletin board .

Beach Ball Cooperation
Let the kids choose partners, then give each pair a beach ball. Ask the pairs to move around the room carrying the ball between them, but without using their hands. Challenge the kids to try as many different ways to carry the ball (without hands) as possible: head-to-head; side-to-side; belly-to-belly. For variation, ask the kids to form a circle and pass the ball around the circle without using their hands.

Dodgeball
The kids gather in a circle around one child with a beach ball in the middle. The child in the middle rolls the ball along the floor to try to hit someone in the circle. When a child is hit, he replaces the person in the centre.

Frisbee Toss
Form the kids into a circle. Let them toss a frisbee back and forth, trying to keep it in the air as long as possible. 

In the Pool, On the Sand
The kids gather in a circle and a leader begins the game by calling, “In the Pool!” — a signal for everyone to jump into the center of the circle. The call, “On the sand!”, is the signal to jump out of the centre of the circle again, or stay put if you were already on the sand. The faster and more mixed up the calls, the more fun.

Raise the Water 
Older kids hold the end of a rope while the kids line up in front of it. At first the water is low because the tide is out (rope lies on the floor); The kids jump over it one by one. As the water rises, the The kids keep jumping until no one can successfully jump over the rope. Another variation is to jump over the rope and swim back under it to tag the next child to start.

Skipping Stones
Look for flat or slightly rounded stones, and pile them up in a central area so everyone can try skipping them over the water surface. Throw stones across the water with a sideways twist (as you would throw a tiny frisbee) so it skims and bounces across the surface before sinking. Count the number of bounces each stone makes. 

Spring Beach Party
It's late spring and time for a beach party. It doesn't matter whether your beach is on the ocean, a lake or a river. What does matter is this: don't even think about water activities unless you have plenty of parents who will provide adequate supervision for all Kids. Make sure either everyone has rubber boots, or the water is warm enough to wade in wearing old running shoes. Bring buckets and spades or shovels to increase the activities your Kids can enjoy. Set up a box or large bucket to collect pebbles, strange shaped stones and neat pieces of driftwood to be taken home for craft projects at a later time. Encourage the Kids to add their special finds to the bucket. 

Squirting
Place empty paper cups on a table, wall, ledge, etc. out doors. Fill empty dish detergent bottles (or any squirt type plastic bottle) with water and the children can try to knock over the cups by squirting them with water.

Shake the Snake
Organize the kids into two groups: shakers and stompers. Give each shaker a length of rope. He holds one end between thumb and first finger and dangles the other end on the floor. On a signal, shakers run around the room squiggling their ropes along the floor, and stompers try to step on a rope to pull it out of the shaker’s fingers. When a stomper successfully liberates a rope from the shaker, the two change places.

SONGS:

Beach Picnic
Tune: AlouetteAll: 
Beach picnics, we love beach picnics      
Beach picnics, we love them so.
Leader:  Did you bring the sandwiches?
All: Yes, we brought the sandwiches.
Leader:  Sandwiches... ohhhh
All: Beach picnics, we love beach picnics 
Beach picnics, we love them so.
Leader:  Did you bring the lemonade?
All:  Yes we brought the lemonade.
Leader:  Sandwiches, lemonade, ohhhh
Other verses:  Did you bring the cookies? 
Did you bring the fruit?

Down by the Bay
Chorus:
Down by the bay, where the watermelons grow,
Back to my home, I dare not go,
For if I do, my mother will say:
Did you ever see a flea with a sunburnt knee?
Down by the bay.

Repeat the chorus, each time substituting a different line.

Did you ever see a bear wearing purple underwear?
Did you ever see a moose with a front tooth loose?
Did you ever see a goose wearing yellow boots?

The Swimming Hole
Swimming, swimming, in the swimming hole.
When days are hot, when days are cold, in the swimming hole.
Sidestroke, breaststroke, fancy diving too,
Don’t you wish you never had anything else to do?
Oh!
Actions:
Swimming (make motions with arms as if swimming)
In the swimming hole (draw a square in the air in front of you with
your fingers)
When days are hot (brush hand across forehead)
When days are cold (cross arms across chest and shiver)
In the swimming hole (repeat action from above)
Sidestroke (sidestroke swimming motion)
Breaststroke (breaststroke swimming motion)
Fancy diving too (using both arms make diving motions)
Don’t you wish you never had anything else to do? (wag one finger in
time to the music)
Sing the song with actions once. Then do the motions for each phrase
of the song and omit the words until the entire song is pantomimed
except for the word Oh!

STORIES:

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FOOD SUGGESTIONS:

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TIPS/NOTES: