Monday

Circle Time - Make an Under the Sea Wall by cutting out pictures of animals that live under the sea from magazines and have preschoolers help you glue the pictures to a piece of poster board during circle time. Each circle time you could practice naming the animals on the poster.

Arts and Crafts- Give preschoolers a glue bottle and have them use it to create pictures on construction paper with the glue. When they are done, cover the glue with sand before it dries and dump the excess off the paper.

Math and Science- Make a wave bottle by filling a clean plastic bottle with water. Tint with a few drops of blue food coloring. Add vegetable oil or baby oil to the jar. Seal the jar by placing a little bit of super glue on the inside of the lid and closing tightly. When preschoolers shake the bottle they will have their very own wave machine.

Music and Movement - Sing Row, Row, Row, Your Boat.

Pretend Play - Fill your sand table or sand box with little plastic fish and let the preschoolers search through the sand to find them. Let preschoolers play with them throughout the week.

Language and Literature - Go Fishing for ABC's. This fun preschool alphabet activity uses items found around the house and it an exciting way to teach preschoolers to recognize the ABC's. Preschoolers can learn about reusing materials as they save the lids from frozen juice containers while preparing to make this game.

Tuesday

Circle Time - Continue to make an Under the Sea Wall.

Arts and Crafts - Make textured art by adding a little bit of sand to your paint and allow preschoolers to create their own artwork.

Math and Science- Include a collection of shells and cards marked 1-10 in your math center. Instruct preschoolers to choose a card and count out the same number of shells as the number listed on the card. When preschoolers have counted out the correct number of shells have them place the shells on the number card.

Music and Movement - Place plastic fish on the parachute and have preschoolers create waves by gently shaking the parachute. Preschoolers will enjoy watching the fish "swim" on the waves.

Pretend Play - Set up a beach umbrella and a beach towel in your pretend play center and give the preschoolers buckets and shovels to enjoy a pretend day at the beach.

Language and Literature - Read The Rainbow Fish

, a classic story that preschool children can really relate to. Preschoolers love watching as Rainbow Fish learns what being happy is all about.

Wednesday

Circle Time - Talk about the different animals on the Under the Sea Wall.

Arts and Crafts - Have preschoolers color an ocean scene on a piece of wax paper with crayons. When they are done, place a second sheet of wax paper on top of the first and iron just until the crayons inside have melted.

Math and Science - Continue Shell Counting.

Music and Movement - Sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

Language and Literature - Reread The Rainbow Fish. Talk about ways that everyone is different from each other.

Thursday

Circle Time - Create a feel bag using a brown paper bag or an empty tissue box. Place various objects in the bag that you would find in or near the ocean. Have preschoolers reach into the feel bag one at a time and guess what the hidden object is. Some objects you could place in the feel bag are a star fish, shells, or a sea sponge.

Arts and Crafts - Give preschoolers fish stickers and have them decorate the bottom half of a piece of construction paper with the fish. Have preschoolers draw any additional sea life or sea vegetation that they want. When preschoolers are done, help them glue blue saran wrap to the bottom half of the page to show that the scene is under water. The saran wrap can be glued in a rippled pattern to give the page some texture.

Math and Science- Make salt water by dissolving salt in a cup of water. Let preschoolers taste a small amount of the salt water if they want to. Talk about how the ocean is made up of salt water.

Music and Movement - Pretend to be fish and swim around the preschool classroom.

Language and Literature - Read Max the Minnow. Talk with the preschoolers about why it is important to be happy with who we are.

Friday

Circle Time - Put a new object that is related to the ocean in the feel bag.

Arts and Crafts - Make a Paper Plate Fish. This simple preschool art project teaches preschoolers important small motor skills. The bright colors will make this preschool art project a great addition to a preschool fish theme or a preschool bulletin board.

Math and Science- Continue Shell Counting.

Language and Literature - Reread Max the Minnow. Talk with the preschoolers about what types of food fish eat.

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Helpful Tips for Parents

• Screen learning (educational apps and videos) supplements but never replaces human interaction as a teaching medium. Learning happens most efficiently in social, conversational contexts.

• Mistakes are how children learn. A classroom and home that treat mistakes as information rather than failure produces more confident, persistent learners.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if my preschooler is learning enough at home?

Developmental milestones (not academic benchmarks) are the appropriate assessment tool for preschoolers. Verify your child is meeting age-appropriate milestones for language, motor, social-emotional, and cognitive development using your pediatrician's well-child visit assessments. Preschoolers learning through play, conversation, books, and daily life engagement are learning more than their standardized test scores will later reflect. Concern is warranted if a child shows regression in skills previously mastered, or fails to meet speech and language milestones.

Related reading: See also our vocabulary building guide and our counting activities for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🤔 Critical Thinking — Being asked "why do you think that?" and forming and defending an answer develops the analytical reasoning children need for reading comprehension, mathematics, and evidence-based argumentation.
• ✏️ Pre-Writing Development — Drawing, tracing, and early mark-making develop the fine motor control and visual-motor integration that handwriting requires — making every drawing activity a contribution to writing readiness.
• 📖 Story Structure Understanding — Understanding that stories have a beginning, problem, solution, and ending develops narrative comprehension — the mental schema children use to make sense of increasingly complex texts throughout their school years.
• 📚 Pre-Reading Skills — Activities that involve letters, sounds, rhymes, and print directly build the phonological awareness and letter knowledge that are the two strongest predictors of successful reading development.

Create a underwater wonderland in your preschool classroom with this preschool weekly theme. Teach preschoolers about the amazing world that lives under the sea with open ended art, science, and math activities.