5 Beach Themed Fine Motor & Sensory Activities

To encourage fine motor strengthening and sensory processing skills, try these fun activities at home with your kiddo(s)! Each of these fun activities were tried and tested throughout our “beach week”. Making learning and summer FUN is one of our favorite things to do! Enjoy!

1. Toilet paper roll squid

   1. Supplies:

      1. Paint & paint brush 

      2. Yarn

      3. Toilet paper roll

      4. Scissors 

      5. Hole punch

      6. Google eyes

      7. Card stock 

      8. Glue  

   2. Instructions:

      1. Paint toilet paper roll, punch 10 holes around bottom of roll, and cut two slits across from each other on top of roll 

      2. Cut ten 12 inch pieces of yarn and one rounded triangle out of card stock 

      3. Attach rounded triangle to toilet paper roll 

      4. Glue on googly eyes above yarn 

2. Paper jellyfish

   1. Supplies:

      1. Paper plate 

      2. Scissors 

      3. Yarn 

      4. Paint  & paint brush 

      5. Google eyes

      6. Glue

      7. Hole punch 

   2. Instructions:

      1. Cut paper plate in half and hole punch 10 holes across bottom

      2. Cut ten even pieces of yarn 

      3. Paint paper plate whatever color 

      4. Attach yarn and googly eyes right above yarn 

3. Celery stamping rainbow fish 

   1. Supplies:

      1. Printable rainbow fish printable 

      2. 1 stick of celery 

      3. Red, orange, green, yellow, blue, and purple paint 

      4. Googly eyes 

   2. Instructions:

      1. Cut up stick of celery into 6 pieces for the 6 different colors of paint 

      2. Starting from front of fish, stamp the celery so it looks like scales 

      3. Place googly eyes on face of fish 

      4. Paint tail whatever color or continue the stamping of celery 

4. Ocean in a bottle 

   1. Supplies:

      1. Water

      2. Cooking oil

      3. Little sea animals

      4. Blue food coloring 

      5. Plastic bottle

   2. Instructions:

      1. Fill bottle ⅔ of the way with water

      2. Add a few drops of food coloring and shake bottle

      3. Add some cooking oil and little sea animals 

      4. Flip upside down to see your ocean come to life! 

5. Sand slime 

   1. Supplies:

      1. ½ cup of Elmer’s washable clear or White PVA school glue

      2. ¼ up of liquid starch 

      3. ½ cup of water 

      4. Beach sand, play sand, or craft sand 

   2. Instructions: 

      1. Add glue to bowl 

      2. Add water to bowl and mix well with glue 

      3. Add several tablespoons of your sand to glue and water and mix well 

      4. Add starch to bowl and mix 

      5. Keep mixing up until the slime pulls nicely away from the sides of the bowl 

      6. Knead slime until desired consistency

      7. Add shells or sea animals for fun!