Kids will love learning about the beach with this Coconut Sand Play Dough Kit + diverse children's Book "My Trip to the Beach" by Deirdre Pechioni Cummings and Erika Busse.
The diverse children's book "My Trip to the Beach" by Deirdre Pecchioni Cummings and Erika Busse has become something of a beautiful moment in our homeschool! We have been reading it while we play with our Coconut Sand Play Dough Kit! This is a wonderful hands-on learning activity for kids and adults alike! Teaching your kids about mindfulness and positive stress reduction techniques just got easier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNHgn8S2Q24&feature=youtu.be
"I love to go to the beach. I am reminded how awesome and majestic the world is. I feel the cool sand come up between my toes." - Quote from My Trip to the Beach by Deirdre P. Cummings
DeeDee shares with children and parents, who may experience bad days, some wonderful and creative ways to relax and find the quiet space within our hearts and focus our minds on peaceful moments, that only nature and the beach can. Guiding readers with a mental journey to a safe and peaceful place, where all is possible and all is good.
My Trip to the Beach helps to encourage children of any age that they are in control of their thoughts and have the ability to imagine happy things in life. With vivid imagery and ocean inspiration, anyone who suffers from stress, anxiety or simply looking for a unique and diverse book to read with their kids, will be pleasantly surprised with this picture book!
Great for both children and adults alike, we are reminded of how the sun promises to see us again tomorrow, and the next day after that. This book is one we are happy to have in our home library.
First things, first. The Playdough. This play dough smells like coconuts, and really brings the beach to life!
Ingredients Needed:
Step 1: Combine flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a pan or skillet, on medium-low heat.Step 2: Whisk together.Step 3: Add Glitter, if desired. You can omit this if you'd like, my kids love glitter.Step 4: Add water and coconut oil.Step 5: Mix, Mix, Mix! Using a strong spatula, blend your batter together and spread it out across the bottom of the warm skillet. The hotter the skillet, the faster you need to mix and blend, avoiding browning your playdough.Step 6: Place onto a clean surface, and knead your dough while it's still really hot, being careful not to burn yourself. Roll into a ball, and place into a bag to seal in the moisture, and allow to cool completely before playing with. This trick will help ensure a longer life of your playdough. After a week or so, you can add a bit more coconut oil to your dough to refresh it.
Once you have your play dough made, gather your additional play items, and place in a storage bin, of any kind. We love this Storage Bin from Ikea because it fits really well in our Ikea shelves and can stack nicely.
We also added in some larger shells that could not be stored with the rest of the kit, for a fun addition!
I love Teachers Pay Teachers, and I found a really great Ocean/Beach Literacy + Math Packet from JK Curriculum Connection, and it's perfect for Pre-K to Kindergarten, but all my kids really enjoyed it!
We read one of the readers, and I like to print them off in black and white, so the kids can color and read.
I printed the vocabulary cards, 2 per page, and turned them into a memory game! We also worked on our beach vocabulary, and finished up with some counting, graphing and adding. If you are looking for a fun beach theme pack, that is under 7$, I recommend this one! It really checks all the boxes, for math and literacy, plus much more!
Then, we pulled out this adorable Sea Shell Coloring Page from @chickieandroo that my son and I really loved coloring together! Lauren, who blogs at ChickieandRoo.com has this really nice set of nature coloring pages available for free download here on her website!
Thank you for reading today! This book means a lot to us and is part of the Multicultural Children's Book Day on January 25th, 2019, and was founded by Jump Into a Book and PragmaticMom.com. Let's join their cause to raise awareness for the need to put more diverse books into kids hands, homes, and schools! Come and follow them on Twitter on the 25th to enter to win some great books!
Additional Resources for Multicultural Children's Book Day:
Book Lists + Activities for Teachers and Parents + Free Classroom Empathy Kit + Free Classroom Poverty Kit
Multicultural Children's Book Day 2019 is honored to have so many amazing Medallion Level and Author Sponsors on Board:
2019 Medallion Sponsors + 2019 MCBD Author Sponsors
Meet MCBD's impressive CoHost Team who hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, and who spreads the word for this event:
Til next time,
Keep building your masterpiece with scissors and glue, and the beach too!
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