Kitchen Table Classroom
Beach Days by Dianne Wilton


It's difficult to settle down with pencil and paper with the sun out and sand between our toes, so why bother? Here are some fun beach ideas to keep our hands and minds moving:

1. Castles and More

Sand castles are always a favorite, with moats of seaweed, twig drawbridges, white quartz windows and shell walkways. You and your children will have fun creating exciting adventures for princesses in captivity, knights jousting in the courtyard, or Romans about to attack. One person starts the story, and each person adds a sentence, building a cooperative story as well as a cooperative construction. Don't forget to include geographical terms, too, in your sand creations---lakes and islands, inlets and peninsulas, capes and bays.

2. Sand Sketches -

Drawing on the hard sand near the water, use a twig to sketch your view, or trace your hand, or outline each other as you sprawl on the ground. Decorate your pictures with any materials you can find…seaweed for waves in the water, or curls in your hair, or lines on your knuckles ....pebbles for your nails, or rings on your fingers, or boats in the
lake….shells for a belt, or the bracelet on your wrist, or snowy peaks on the mountains.

3. Treasure Hunts

When no one's looking, bury a special shell or an interesting rock. Then create a treasure map or a set of clue cards, using skills you want to practice. (Take 5 giant steps to the north…turn to the right and move 5 x 6 handspans...leap 3 jumps toward the lake….move 36 + 29 baby steps west…dig!) Your children will enjoy hiding their own treasures and making their maps for each other.

4. Rubbings

Explore the beach for objects with interesting textures….a feather, a shell, a piece of driftwood. Holding a piece of paper firmly on the object, rub along the surface gently with a wax crayon. Later, make a paint wash with diluted watercolors and lightly brush over the rubbings. These will make lovely additions to your beach memories.

5. Rock Collections

Spend a half hour gathering interesting rocks and pebbles. Share them with each other on your blanket, and experiment with different ways to organize your findings. Your children might come up with categories of color, shape, size, roughness, mineral pieces, etc. Or arrange them by angularity….the smoothest rocks have traveled the furthest from their source.

6. Stone Words

Search for 8 flat stones and with a felt pen, print a single letter from "beach fun" on each stone. Then have fun rearranging the stones to create as many other words as you can. (fan, cub, bench)

7. Play Pebble Darts

Dig a small deep hole in the sand and draw concentric circles around it. Taking turns, stand behind a line and toss your pebble. A pebble in the hole is worth 10 points, or10 x whatever multiplication table you want to practice. Place whatever values you like on the other circles. (5 x, 3 x, 2 x)

8. Skipping Stones

Skip flat stones over the surface of calm water, counting by 2's for each touch to the surface. Remember,
skip counting is a precursor for multiplication so you may also want to try counting by 3's or more.

9. Stand-Up King

Stand a twig vertically into a hill of sand. Taking turns, each person uses his hand to slide down the twig and scoop sand away, trying not to knock it down. A gentle touch is needed as you concentrate on keeping the twig upright. The first person to cause the twig to fall, is the first-man wet!

To add even more challenge, the first person names an animal (or country,
city, food, etc.) while scooping the sand. The next person must give another word in the designated category, but his word must begin with the letter that ended the first word. (cat, tiger, rhino, octopus)

10. Watermelon for lunch?

Collect the seeds, dry them on a large flat rock and take them home for your next counting or craft activity.

About the author: Dianne Wilton is the mother of two boys and the author of Kitchen Table Classroom. She invites you to check her website at http://ktclassroom.tripod.com/ for a free fun learning activity each day.