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 Beach
Ball Spelling
You will need a beach
ball, a sand pail and a set of cards with the spelling words.
Place the cards in the bucket. Children can work with a partner or
in small groups. Person one picks a card from the pail and reads it
aloud. The toss the ball to his/her partner or another member
of the group. The person that catches it says the first letter of
the word and then tosses it to another person, who says the second
letter of the word. The ball keeps moving until the word has been
spelled. The person who called the word, must pay close
attention as the word is being spelled. If a player says an
incorrect letter, they must look at the card and spell the whole
word before sitting in the shark pond (center of circle). The
game continues until all words have been chosen from the pail.
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Beach Ball
Games
You will need
a beach ball or any other beach type item that the kids can pass.
This game can be played with any unit you are studying or book you
are reading.. To play, the children sit in a circle. They pass
the ball (or other item) from one person to the next. They
chant Pass, pass, pass the ball. Pass it very fast. Pass,
pass, pass the ball. Who will have it last. You can also
alternate the chant with Pass, pass, pass the ball. Pass, pass,
pass it slow. Pass, pass, pass the ball. Where it will end no one
knows. The person that has the ball can do whatever activity you
decide. Since this is reading month, you could have the child who
has the ball read the next passage in your weekly reading story or
pull a task card from the sand pail and complete the task. Tasks
could be to read the word wall, read the wall, locate nouns in the
room, read the class poem, read the calendar, read a tongue twister,
read the lunch menu. The ideas are endless!
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Beach
Ball Reading
Write your vocabulary words on a beach ball with
permanent marker. Toss the ball out to a member of your class.
The child who catches the ball looks to see what words their
hands are on. They can either give a definition for each word or use
the words in a sentence.
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Beach
Pail Centers
Create and store your literacy centers in beach
pails. Have parents donate them or pick up inexpensive ones at the
Dollar Store. Kids will love to grab a pail and head to a
towel to practice reading!
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Beach Bag-
An easy to make craft
from Kids Domain. Idea- make the bag and fill with books to
create a Beach Book Bag! |
Beach Bingo-from Kids Domain-
printable bingo cards and
directions.
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Beach Theme Unit from EduHelper-
Comprehension Packets for grades 2-8; writing prompts, and more.
Printables! |
Book Lists-
Check out these beach related book lists
Everything Preschool |
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Beach Theme Book Ideas-
lesson plans, crafts, beach internet resources, hands-on activities,
and many other resources |
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"We are Having a Ball
Reading This Month!"
Paper beach balls can be made and decorated with
different books the kids have read. I had my students fill in the
beach ball's sections with title, author, author's purpose, setting,
character, problem and solution. They had fun making their
ball report.
"Make A
Splash With A GOOD Book!"
"Make A Splash in Reading"
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Create a large
wave. Have your students create themselves on surfboard shaped like
books.
In large water
droplets have the students write a book summary of their favorite
book. Place the water drops above your wave.
"Surfing
Summaries"
On surfboard cutouts, have the students
write a book summary.
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"Dive Into
A Good Book!"
 "Get Caught
Up In A GOOD Book"
Decorate with a fishing net and some good books. Take pictures
of your students reading and attach under the net.
"We are digging reading!" or
"We Dig Reading"
Using sand pails and shovels as your decorations.
"We
are building great readers!"
Sandcastles kick off this theme. Ask the children to
create different sections of a sandcastle. As they read to meet
individual or class goals, assemble the castle. The more they read
the bigger their sandcastle will be!
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Painted Beach Shells:
Take large pasta shells
and allow the children to paint them Once dry they create an
eye-catching addition to any beach scene.
In the past, I
have made a set with math problems written inside. One shell
had the problem. Another the answer. The kids laid them out to
create a memory type game. They turned over two shells hoping
to find the matches. To color your shells add a few drops
rubbing alcohol and a few drops of your favorite food coloring into
a Ziploc plastic bag. Roll the pasta shells in the make to
coat them with the color. Lay out on thickly stacked newspaper to
dry overnight. With a permanent marker, write your problems inside. |
Share your ideas, internet resources, crafts, snacks, pictures or
whatever you have. I would love to add it to my site for others to
to see!
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Jan Brett's
site
has some "beachy" things- such as
coloring pages with Hedgie,
sea shell math games and more! Check it out! |
PuzzleMaker.com
is a great place to
create theme related word searches and other word puzzles. |
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Rainbow Fish
Children love this story! There are many ways
to integrate Rainbow Fish into your beach reading theme. Read the
story and have the children create their own rainbow fish.
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Recording Your Readings
Ask the children to
create different sections of a sandcastle. As they read to meet
individual or class goals, assemble the castle. The more they read
the bigger their sandcastle will be!
If they meet their goals, celebrate with a sandy
treat
My class is keeping track on
paper beach balls when they meet their weekly goals. Each week they
meet their goal, they get to color in a section of their beach ball.
Once the ball is complete, my students will be given a small reward
(a book, a classroom dollar, pencil, homework pass...). |
Sand Table
Story Fun
On heavy cardboard,
create characters from favorite story books that your class is
familiar with. Laminate for durability. Add them to your sand
table with a collection of sand toys/tools. Challenge your
students to uncover characters from one story. Use a sand sifter to
sift out characters. If the child gets a character not
from the day's story, they dig a whole and bury it in the sand. Once
all the characters (or enough) have been uncovered, the child use
them to retell the story. Have a pocket chart handy is a great way
for the children to collect and then store their characters.. |
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Sand Table
Sand Castle Fun
Provide water and sand at
your table and ask the kids to create sandcastles. In their
journals, the children can draw their sand castle and then write a
story about it. Allow the to share their stories with each
other.
If you do
cross-grade buddies, older buddies could write the story as the
younger kids dictate it to them.
Older buddies
can read the stories to other groups of kids. |
More Sand Table Fun-
write and read in the sand. Provide a list of words you are
working on with your students. Wet the sand table down and ask
the children to write the words on the list in the sand. When they
have as many as they can fit, they read the list to a friend or
parent helper. Using sandbox toys, clear the sand and
continue.
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Scholastic's Book Fair Site- letterhead
printable, coloring sheets and more! Great reading shark pictures!
Coming Soon-
pictures of my beach theme corner!
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Shell
Frames
Have the students decorate inexpensive frames with sea shells.
Set up a beach themed reading corner. Capture your students reading
and take their picture. Add to the frame for a lasting memory
of a fun reading event.
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Songs for
the Beach
Everything Preschool
Preschool Educations |
Starfall.com
has a cute interactive book called, Surfer Girl.
How fun!
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Sunglass
Fun
Invite your children
to bring in their beach towels and sunglasses. Then invite
them to lay out their towels, put on their shades and enjoy some
reading in the sun! |
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