Inspired by Sam at Thrive 360 Living and her fun Penguin Small World Play and Shaunna at Fantastic Fun & Learning with her awesome Dinosaur Sensory Bin, I set out to put our water table to good use and created an Ocean Sensory Table for our Ocean Week.
The materials I used to create this sensory table can be found at most craft stores, and include:
- blue water beads
- decorative sea shells
- small decorative rocks
I also used some large rocks from our yard and the Coral Reef Toob by Safari Ltd. And Caden had to add a vehicle of course, luckily we had a beach patrol truck in our collection! It fit right in on the rocky beach I created!
Caden enjoyed exploring the different materials. He really liked the feel of the water beads and loved to scoop them into the rocks and sea shells. He even began to use the small sea shells to scoop the water beads up and move them around the table.
He also enjoyed making the fish swim around the “ocean” and asked many times what the name of a certain sea creature was. Caden is particularly interested in the sea-horse and octopus.
This is a really fun sensory table and I am really glad that I had to chance to create it! If you enjoyed this please visit Stir the Wonder on Facebook and follow me on Pinterest. This Ocean Theme board might be of particular interest!
Follow Samantha @Stir the Wonder’s board Teach: Ocean Theme on Pinterest.
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Jackie says
June 22, 2013 at 8:26 amThis looks so fun! I love the mix of materials you’ve used to provide a true sensory experience, Samantha! My gang would looove this!
Samantha says
June 22, 2013 at 9:30 amThanks Jackie!
Mary Catherine says
June 22, 2013 at 10:24 amThis looks like a ton of fun! My son also randomly adds vehicles and such to our sensory play, and I know he would love this set up. 🙂 I’m off to pin this on my ocean-themed Pinterest board, then I’ll check out yours too.
Samantha says
June 22, 2013 at 10:56 amThanks Mary Catharine!
Julie says
June 22, 2013 at 6:56 pmI LOVE this idea that you came up with by creating an ocean in your water table! My beach loving boys would love this. We would love for you to share at our first Super Summer Saturday party here: http://www.thechirpingmoms.com/2013/06/super-summer-saturday-party.html!
Thanks!
Julie
Sam @ Thrive 360 Living says
June 24, 2013 at 11:57 pmI absolutely love this. The water beads look like so much fun and we would definitely have a vehicle in ours too! Thanks for the lovely shout-out!
Sugar Aunts says
June 28, 2013 at 9:59 pmI want to come over and play! This looks like so much fun! We are featuring your post tomorrow on Share It Saturday! Thanks for joining us 🙂
Colleen at Sugar Aunts
Samantha says
June 29, 2013 at 1:07 pmThanks so much!
Kayla says
July 23, 2013 at 3:56 pmLove this idea! Since Baby T takes all the structures out of the water-table–I will DEF try this! I am not sure about the water beads though since my dogs eat literally everything. Have you had any trouble with your pup or are you just super vigilant?
erin says
September 21, 2013 at 12:06 pmHi,
I love your blog–it has so many great ideas for my preschool classroom. Could you tell me where you purchased the tub for the ocean themed sensory play?
Thanks,
Erin
Samantha says
September 21, 2013 at 2:35 pmHi Erin, I’m glad you enjoy my blog. This is the Step 2 Waterwheel Play Table which I purchased from Target, but you can get similar water tables pretty much anywhere. 🙂
Hayley says
April 18, 2014 at 3:11 pmSo beautiful and many fun ways to play! I am getting my little guy this water table for his birthday in June and am so excited to try something like this with him!
Jill says
July 7, 2014 at 11:22 amOcean themes are great for the summer 🙂 Looks like a lot of fun!
Kat Reader says
July 7, 2014 at 11:38 amThis looks so fun!! I’ve never done anything with water beads, but would love to get my hands in some (guess it’s not just for the littles, lol!). 🙂 Fantastic hands-on ocean learning … thanks for sharing!
Ashley Moore says
July 8, 2014 at 10:30 amLooks like a super table! We used spaghetti in our ocean table, and it got super messy! lol
Samantha says
July 8, 2014 at 7:41 pmThat sounds like a fun idea!