Having Fun at the Beach! Kindergarten A-Z

Living in Anping, it was easy to take a field trip to the Beach. The challenge was convincing my co-teacher its safe to let our kids actually touch the water.

This is just a sample of what I did during one semester of new K1 children. We moved through the entire alphabet using the Beach theme.

Kk is for kayaking!

Later we hung our different projects around our class.

It took a few weeks to get the children used to me, each other and following the curriculum. Foremost I wanted to connect with the children on an emotional level and trust me while following the same established, time schedule every day. Its important for kids to have an expected routine, eat, drink, sleep at the same time.

Aa is for Anchors Away! (or All Abaord!)

I started our Beach Theme tying that into our phonics in week 3. I had already began phonics in week 2 with As is for apple, which isn’t very “beachy” so we began our Beach Theme with the letter B. For every letter, I have a worksheet where the student has to color in a Bubble letter of that week’s letter an cut and paste pictures of the corresponding vocabulary word onto the letter. This is for their hand motor skills, pre-writing class. For most of the class, coloring inside the lines, and cutting out something is extremely challenging. Also, many do not know how to use the glue properly without spilling all of it. After this exercise there is at least one paper cut to shreds or a puddle of glue on the table. But I am confident that by we get to the letter Zz, all of them will be able to complete this assignment with shining colors.

Having Fun at the Beach!

It took a few weeks to get the children used to me, each other and following the curriculum. Foremost I wanted to connect with the children on an emotional level and trust me while following the same established, time schedule every day. Its important for kids to have an expected routine, eat, drink, sleep at the same time.

Aa is for Anchors Away! (or All Aboard!)

I started our Beach Theme tying that into our phonics in week 3. I had already began phonics in week 2 with As is for apple, which isn’t very “beachy” so we began our Beach Theme with the letter B. For every letter, I have a worksheet where the student has to color in a Bubble letter of that week’s letter an cut and paste pictures of the corresponding vocabulary word onto the letter. This is for their hand motor skills, pre-writing class. For most of the class, coloring inside the lines, and cutting out something is extremely challenging. Also, many do not know how to use the glue properly without spilling all of it. After this exercise there is at least one paper cut to shreds or a puddle of glue on the table. But I am confident that by we get to the letter Zz, all of them will be able to complete this assignment with shining colors.

  

I am also constantly playing and singing our phonics song, “Aa is for Apple..”

Bb is for Boat/Beach:

I taught the kids a lively version of “Row, Row the Boat” which we sang in morning circle time. In Art class we made Beach Balls from painted paper plates. It was actually quite challenging for them to color each triangle a different color without painting the whole ball every color. We played Beach Theme related game, Fish in a Boat, which reviewed colors, with the chant, “Fishy fishy, in the sea, jump in to my boat for me! Fishy, fishy in the sea, what color fish will you be?" I put colored fish under the blanket, while we all held the edges. And I called out,”( Child’s name) dive under the ocean and catch a yellow fish.”

I also made a little Beach Dramatic Play corner, with a beach umbrella, snorkel mask, shells and coral and body surfboard. 

  

Cc is for Crab:Cc is for Crab:

 We learned how to make a crab with our bodies (table top) which is strengthens the children's  bodies. They liked it. I called out, “1, 2, 3,4 Up!” which means they tap their right foot, left foot, right hand, left hand, and on “Up” they lift their bellies parallel to the floor. The art project this week was handprintcrabs I painted both hands red onto a beach scene and they glues on clouds and wiggly eyes.

  
And on it on it went until Z.
We took several field trips to supplement our theme.

Ww is for wet-suit