Water and ocean crafts are popular in summer and during sea-life units because the materials are cheap and the results are colorful. This guide groups ideas by type of activity, with notes on keeping young children safe around water and small parts. If you want a full theme week, pair these ideas with a garden theme plan or use them in summer camp activities.
Safety first: water, small parts and messy materials
- Water supervision: Young children can drown in very small amounts of water. For any activity involving a tub, bucket, sensory bin or pool, an adult should stay within arm’s reach and keep eyes on children at all times. Empty containers when the activity ends. Do not leave children alone with water, even for a moment.
- Small parts: Googly eyes, buttons, beads, sequins, cereal rings and dried pasta are choking hazards for children under about 3 and for any child who mouths objects. Use larger pieces, draw features with markers, or skip those materials with younger groups.
- Threading: Use large pieces and thick string or pipe cleaners, tie off ends, and never let children wear or chew string necklaces unsupervised, since cords can also be a strangulation hazard.
- Edible-looking crafts: Cereal, pasta, gelatin and oobleck may tempt children to eat them. Tell children clearly that craft food is not for eating, and consider non-food alternatives for children who mouth objects.
- Allergies: Check records before using food items. Wheat, dairy, gelatin and nut-based products can all be concerns.
- Paint, glue and glitter: Choose washable, non-toxic products and keep glitter out of eyes and mouths. Many programs avoid loose glitter for young children.
- Slippery floors: Spills create falls. Put towels down and keep a mop handy.
- Skin: Soap and water after messy play. Check for rashes or sensitivities to cornstarch, shaving foam or food coloring.
Painting and printing crafts
- Watercolor resist fish: Draw a fish with a white crayon, then paint over it with watercolors. The wax resists the paint and the design appears.
- Celery or sponge printing: Cut the base of a celery bunch and stamp it for a scale pattern, or use sponges cut into fish shapes.
- Salt painted jellyfish: Draw a jellyfish shape with glue, sprinkle salt, then touch watercolor to the salt so the color spreads. Remind children salt is not for eating.
- Cupcake-liner prints: Press the flat side of a liner into paint to print crab or jellyfish bodies.
Paper and recycled-material crafts
- Paper plate sharks or crabs: Cut a plate and add paper teeth or claws. Adult cutting for younger children.
- Cup whales: Decorate a paper cup, add a paper tail, and draw eyes with marker.
- Cupcake-liner octopus: Glue paper strips as legs, which also works for scissor practice (see cutting activities for pre-K).
- Paper bowl jellyfish: Turn a bowl upside down and add paper streamers or crepe strips.
- Cardboard starfish: Cut starfish shapes from cardboard; children decorate with paint or tissue paper.
Threading and fine motor crafts
Use large pasta tubes, thick craft sticks, big beads or paper shapes with holes punched, and a strong, short piece of string. For under-3s, skip threading unless it is large and closely supervised. Do not allow children to eat the threaded cereal or pasta. These activities build the pincer grasp and hand-eye coordination.
Sensory crafts
These pair well with sense of touch activities for preschool and a shelf of ocean themed books for preschoolers.
- Ocean oobleck: Mix cornstarch and water (the ratio is often around two parts cornstarch to one part water, adjusted by feel) and tint blue with food coloring. Add large plastic sea creatures. Cornstarch can be messy and slippery, so supervise and do not pour it down the drain. It is not for eating.
- Bubble foam ocean: Whisk dish soap and water into foam in a bin, for children old enough not to taste it. Keep the foam away from eyes and mouths.
- Ocean bottles: Fill a clear plastic bottle with water, a few drops of blue coloring and a few larger items; seal the lid with strong glue or tape and check it. Adult-made only, and keep away from children who might open it.
- Sea-life sensory bin: Use blue-dyed rice (dyed with food coloring only, and kept away from children who still put things in their mouths) or shredded paper with large plastic animals. Choose materials too large to be swallowed and supervise closely.
Sink-and-float and water-play experiments
Give children a tray or tub and a handful of objects such as a sponge, plastic cup, large wooden block and rock too big to swallow. Ask them to predict whether each will float or sink, then try. Keep water shallow, stay within arm’s reach and empty the tub after use. This links craft work to simple science, and our inquiry questions for preschoolers give you prompts to ask.
Tips for process-focused crafting
- Let children make their own choices rather than copy a model. A fish with five eyes is still a fish.
- Offer a few materials, not dozens.
- Talk about what they are doing rather than praising the product only: “You mixed blue and green.”
- Display work at child height.
Cleanup and routines
Set up a wash-up routine: aprons on, spills cloth ready, wipe hands, then soap and water. Dry craft pieces on a rack. Label work with names.
Where to go next
For a spring or summer unit with growing things, see Pre-K plant activities. If you need a cold-weather contrast, try penguin lesson plans for preschoolers.