Under the Sea 🐠🌊 - From Water Play to Sea Creatures: How Children's Curiosity Grows Naturally

The recent spell of warm weather brought plenty of smiles, sunshine and stories into nursery this week. ☀️ Some of our children took trips to the beach with their families, collecting shells, paddling in the sea or spotting interesting sea creatures. Others became fascinated through listening to their friends' adventures. Before long, our conversations naturally drifted beneath the waves 🌊, and our nursery was transformed into an underwater world full of curiosity, creativity and exploration. 🐠

Last week at Fun Box we enjoyed plenty of water play: https://www.funboxdaynursery.co.uk/post/8-water-play-ideas-to-keep-children-cool-and-entertained-this-summer

This week, following the children's recent experiences and interest we also focused on Under the Sea.

At Fun Box, we believe children learn best when new experiences connect with things that are already familiar to them. Living on the beautiful south coast gives many of our children opportunities to explore beaches, watch ferries on Southampton Water or discover the treasures hidden along the shoreline. 🐚 These everyday experiences become wonderful starting points for learning.

Fishing Challenge

Our week began with a fishing challenge, where the children used magnetic fishing rods to catch numbered fish from a sensory tray. 🎣 While they were concentrating on making the perfect catch, they were also developing number recognition, hand-eye coordination and fine motor control, all wrapped up in a game that had everyone cheering each other on. 😊

Corall reefs

⭐ One of our favourite creative activities was designing colourful coral reefs. Using blue play dough as the ocean floor, the children carefully pressed different shapes and colours of pasta into their creations, experimenting with patterns, textures and colours while strengthening the small muscles in their hands that will one day help them hold pencils, fasten buttons and master many everyday skills. 🪸 It was lovely watching each unique reef gradually come to life as the children's imaginations took over.

Exploring sea shells

Our sensory exploration continued with a collection of real seashells 🐚, inviting children to look closely at their different shapes, sizes and textures. They compared smooth shells with rough ones, noticed spiral patterns and shared their own ideas about where the shells had come from and what might once have lived inside them. It was wonderful to see how a simple collection of natural treasures inspired so many thoughtful conversations and curious questions. 💭

Creating a rock pool

The children also created their own miniature rock pool using water, sand, stones, toy sea creatures and real shells. 🌊 This quickly became a place for imaginative storytelling, problem-solving and cooperative play as they explored underwater habitats and created adventures of their own. 🦀🐠

Sea creature treasure hunt

Around the nursery and garden, sea creatures appeared in unexpected places during our treasure hunt. 🦑 Armed with picture checklists, the children searched high and low for each hidden creature, proudly naming what they found and celebrating together when every sea animal had been discovered. 🎉 Activities like these encourage observation, language development, memory and teamwork, all while keeping children active and engaged.

Foamy seas

There was plenty of sensory fun too as we created a foamy sea by blowing bubbles into blue soapy water before adding crushed cereal to resemble sandy shores and sea foam. 🌊🫧 Alongside this, the children made colourful jellyfish using paper plates, tissue paper, glitter and yarn, expressing their creativity while developing careful cutting, sticking and threading skills. 🪼✨

Sea stories

Throughout the week, we also enjoyed sharing sea-themed stories together. 📚 Reading stories introduced new vocabulary, encouraged children to ask questions, predict what might happen next and share their own ideas about the amazing creatures living beneath the waves. Every story opened the door to another conversation. 💙

Making paper plate jelly fish

The children's creative side also was also brought out when they were designing their own jellyfish using paper plates, glitter, tissue paper and yarn.

Although each activity looked very different, they all had something in common. Every experience encouraged children to investigate, imagine, communicate, create and think. Through play, the children explored mathematics 🔢, language 💬, science 🔬, creativity 🎨 and physical development 💪 in ways that felt meaningful, enjoyable and fun.

In early years education, we sometimes refer to this as building on children's cultural capital—recognising the knowledge, experiences and understanding that children already bring with them from their everyday lives and using these as foundations for future learning. While the phrase may sound a little technical, the idea is actually very simple. Whether those experiences come from a family day at the beach, a walk in the New Forest 🌳, reading a favourite bedtime story 📖 or listening to a friend's exciting adventure, every child arrives with something valuable to contribute. Our role is to notice those interests, nurture them and help each child's curiosity grow a little further. 🌱

We can't wait to discover where the children's imaginations take us next. Until then, we'll be happily exploring beneath the waves, one adventure at a time. 🌊🐠🐚💙

If you'd like to explore some Under the Sea activities at home, here are some links that might bring you some inspiration:

BBC Bitesize Learning: ~EYFS: Listen and Play - Under the sea https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/zm6xwty

Inspire My Play: Ocean Themed Play, STEM and Craft Activities https://inspiremyplay.com/blogs/blog/ocean-themed-play-stem-and-craft-activities?srsltid=AfmBOoqJ1hKIyrL2MmU4jZnXvMlcDwdISgkzDNyqUNeG31s6KpHwvR3B