World Ocean Day
Wednesday 8th June 2022
Wednesday the 8th June 2022 is World Ocean Day, many early years settings and professionals will be using this as a platform for discussion with young children. So, we thought we would write a blog post focusing on, what is world ocean day, how can we celebrate it with children to extend their cultural capital and interests in a fun and age-appropriate way.
What is world ocean day?
The United Nations theme for world ocean day this year is “Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean”. The focus is about sharing and understanding that the ocean is important to all of us, it supports our sustainability, but we know the health of the ocean is in danger. It is a call to action to work together to help raise awareness and act as a community to improve the health of the ocean. You can find out more about it here.
Why focus on world ocean day with young children?
At Growing Together Developing Early Years we are passionate about how our children are the future generation and it is important that from a very young age we teach children and empower them to love our world and look after it. By inspiring a young generation to look after and care for the world from an early age, they will take these values on hopefully for their whole lives and continue to inspire future generations.
Recommended books:
We can start to teach children from a very young-age in an age-appropriate way, which encourages them to begin to ask questions, talk and act upon this important issue. Below are some of my favourite books for this topic:
· Duffy’s Lucky Escape by Ellie Jackson and Liz Oldmeadow
· Marli’s Tangled Tale by Ellie Jackson and Laura Collwood
· What a Waste by Jess French
5 Activity ideas:
1. World Ocean Tuff Tray – have a tuff tray with small world sea animals and water so children can explore habitats that live in the ocean. You could use spaghetti as seaweed to add a more textural feel to the activity.
2. Pollution Water Tray – to start discussions about pollution in the ocean and litter, you could raid the recycle bin and place (clean) rubbish alongside the small world animals in the water tray.
3. Visit an Aquarium – this is a great opportunity for children to learn about the magnificent animals that live in the ocean. You can also find a fabulous virtual aquarium here that you can use in your setting.
4. Ocean Stick Puppets – Add some story telling into your ocean play and encourage children to make their very own stick puppets. All you need is lollypop sticks, pens, paper, scissors and sticky tape. Encourage the children to draw their very own ocean animals e.g. fish, dolphins, jellyfish, turtles and so on. Once they have drawn them, they can cut them out and stick them to a lollypop stick and voila you can make up your own stories. For younger children, you might want to use a template of animals to support them.
5. Under the Sea Small World Area – Turn your small world area into a vehicle to take the children under the sea. Below are some photos of my very own ocean small world area, following a group of children’s interests.
Check out our Facebook page on 8th June 2022 for more inspiring #worldoceanday activities or tag us @GrowingTogetherDevelopingEarlyYears in your very own ocean inspired fun tomorrow.