Beach in a Bag

© Shannon Hengeveld, a teacher at Boys and Girls Club of JC/WC in Tennessee - Used by permission

Objectives:
Teaches children about the beach and its inhabitants; can also serve to refresh children in a stressful situation or as an imaginary field trip during a summer program. 

What You Need:
Ziploc® bag for each child
sand
shaving cream
blue food coloring
seashells
small plastic crabs, fish, seagulls, or any other beach inhabitant

What You Do: 
1.  Allow each child to pour enough sand (but not too much)to cover the bottom of the Ziploc® bag.
2. Add seashells and beach inhabitants so that they can be seen from the outside of the bag.
3. Squirt some shaving cream into the bag.
4. Add a few drops of blue food coloring.
5. Close the bag.
6. Allow the children to rub their fingers over the outside of the bag to mix the food coloring and shaving cream to create foamy waves.
7. The bag can then be reopened to add fish and other sea creatures into the "water," if desired. I would suggest sealing the bag with blue or clear packing tape so the children cannot get into the shaving cream.

This is a great way to teach the students about the beach using most of the senses. They can smell the shaving cream, feel the sand, see the blue food coloring mix with the shaving cream, and hear the rough sand rub against the plastic bag, as well as hear the shaving cream squirt into the bag. You could use gummie sea creatures to get taste in there, too! This is loads of fun for me and the kids. I have found that children can use their beach in a bag to calm themselves or to help with separation. They can hold their bags and imagine they are at the beach listening to the ocean. I have kept one handy specifically for that purpose, even when I am not doing a beach unit! The kids really respond to it.

When doing this as an activity with your children, you can incorporate math (using measuring cups to pour the sand), visual perception (what colors/shapes do you see?), language arts (sharing beach experiences, reading beach stories), science (what animals live at the beach? what kind of weather do beaches have?), and much more. This activity covers about everything, and on top of that, it is super fun!!