Waldorf Ideas for the Beach

[treehugz]

Anybody been to the beach lately and done some fun waldorf-y things?  We'll be staying at the beach oceanfront for a month, and I don't really want to take the month off from our preschool rhythm... so I'd like some good beach-theme things to do to incorporate into our waldorf circle time and routine.  I'm thinking things like sand/shell crafts, beach-related art, nature/beach educational walks/play, songs and verses, stories, fingerplays, games, cooking.  Any fun things you've done on vacation?

Here are some beach books I found from an old thread if anyone else is curious or has more to add:

Sand Cake

The Day Ocean Came to Visit
The Seashore Book
The Merbaby
Grandfather Twilight
Miss Rumphius
Wave
Beach Bunny
Summer by Gerda Muller
Buoy by Bruce Balan
Sea Stories (A Classic Illustrated Edition)
Pirates, Ships, and Sailors
Mokie and Bik
The Green Ship by Quentin Blake
Davy's Dream
What Lives In A Shell?
Nicole's Boat
The Lighthouse Family series
The Owl and the Pussycat
At The Beach, by Anne and Harlow Rockwell
A House for Hermit Crab Eric Carle's
Beach Day" by Roosa
Clam-I-am
Over in the Ocean" (Berkes)
The Snail and the Whale
Amos and Boris
Flotsom.
Great sharky shark
Beach by Elisha Cooper (LOVE this book, LOVE this author!)
How Will We Get to the Beach by Brigitte Luciani
Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan
What Lives in a Shell? by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld
Over in the Ocean: In a Coral Reef by Marianne Berkes
Hello, Fish!: Visiting the Coral Reef by Sylvia Earle
Lottie's New Beach Towel by Petra Mathers
Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies
Sally Goes to the Beach by Stephen Huneck

Edited by treehugz - 9/28/11 at 7:12am

[poetlizabeth]

What a great list of books! I have read many of them but there are some I was not aware of. When I take the 5 year old I take care of to the beach, she generally just explores the sand and the water. She looks looking for seashells and decorating them later. Lately when we go to the pond she has been very interested in fish and catching them with a net.

[treehugz]

Originally Posted by poetlizabeth 

What a great list of books! I have read many of them but there are some I was not aware of. When I take the 5 year old I take care of to the beach, she generally just explores the sand and the water. She looks looking for seashells and decorating them later. Lately when we go to the pond she has been very interested in fish and catching them with a net.

What do you decorate your seashells with?  I know we'll do tons of beach play and exploring while we're there.  I think we'll make some fairy houses on the beach too... and maybe try coloring some sand with food coloring and then doing some sand art.  I'm hoping to do some picnics on the beach for breakfast and supper and have a simple circle time on the beach too.  I remember our library has a fingerplay book with a couple of beach pages, so I need to check that out.  I haven't found any good comforting beach stories like I'd hoped though.  If I can't find any, I may just memorize The Owl and the Pussycat. 

We've done this trip for the past 2 years, and it seems we always lose any kind of rhythm while we're there.  I've been trying really hard lately to get some kind of rhythm going in our house, and I hate to get away from it for a whole month, you know?  Bedtimes and wake up times go out the window and my extended family is there, so meals and snacks get a little crazy too. 

Here are a couple things I've found to put in our circle time: 

1. Tiptoes Walks Along the Shore (very short story from the Tales of Tiptoes Lightly)

2. These verses from Karen Smith, The Waldorf School of Atlanta:

Here is the boat, the golden boat,
that sails on the silvery sea.

Here are the oars of ivory white,
that lift and dip and lift and dip
the golden boat, the golden boat,
that sails on the silvery sea.

Here are the ten little fairy men
who man the oars of ivory white,
that lift and dip and lift and dip
the golden boat, the golden boat,
that sails on the silvery sea.



Here is the sea, the wavy sea
Here is a boat
And here is me
All little fishes down below
Waggle their tails
And off they go.

[poetlizabeth]

More great ideas!! We use felt and glitter to decorate the seashells but you can use all of different materials. Small shells are also good for gluing and making collages, it best you canvas since its much stronger than paper. Large shells make good pencil holders and make great decorations!!

[treehugz]

Love the shell collage idea... last time we were at the beach, we kept arranging our shells into different designs.  It never occurred to me to glue them onto canvas and make a collage. 

A couple more ideas...

1. Jars of Summer: http://gardenmama.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/09/my-entry-1.html

2. Tongue twisters:

Spiral-shelled sea-snails shuffle in sea-shells. 

Sally sells seashells down by the seashore.

The shells that she sells are seashells, I’m sure.
And if she sells shells on the seashore,
Then I’m sure she sells seashells.

(my dd loves to play shopkeeper, so I imagine this will be a big hit!)

[treehugz]

We'll we're at the beach!  Poetlizabeth, we made some shell collages yesterday, and they came out great!  Thanks so much for the idea!  We made some colored sand earlier in the week and will do some sand painting soon.  Dd is having a great time playing Sally, with all the seashells we've collected.  I set up a beach towel canopy over some patio chairs and she loves to play in there... she washes and polishes the shells, then arranges them in her store, then the customers (i.e. me) come to buy some shells... it too stinkin' cute!  We take our breakfast muffins out to picnic on the beach in the morning and dd throws crumbs to the hundreds of seagulls who jump to catch them.  I mostly gave up on any kind of circle time... just too much other exciting stuff to do here I suppose.  But she is very much enjoying her beach book storytime... her favorites are Lotties Beach Towel, Beach Bunny, Wave, What Lives in a Shell, and Sand Cake. 

One interesting thing... I'm finding that the month away from the many distractions of home life has helped to solidify our rhythm instead of blowing it... I'm getting closer and closer to narrowing down to the best bedtime that works for dd... with no cookbooks here and limited groceries, meals are more simple and meal planning is more clear and easy... scheduling outside play times is a no brainer - before 10am and after 4pm to avoid sunburn! ... it's a long drive to the grocery store, so errands/groceries get done only once a week. This is our 3rd year doing this month-long beach trip and I've always felt chaos when we've been here... this year I really feel like I'm starting to get somewhere.  I think rhythm will work ever better when we get home.