This is part of my 15 minute focus series. Children learn a little about what lives in the ocean, then try out drawing with oil pastels and doing a watercolor resist painting.
Objective: children can list some creatures that live in the ocean.

Supplies:

• paper (watercolor paper is best if you have it. I didn’t on the day I took these pictures),
• oil pastels,
• blue liquid watercolor mixed 1:2 with water,
• salt shaker

Intro

Talk about some of the animals that live in the ocean, then tell them we will learn to draw some.

Drawing Sea Creatures

Demo how to draw one creature. They copy. Then do another. (Note: this is an activity that I do at the end of the 4-year old Pre-K program. Young 4’s wouldn’t be up to doing this.)

• Fish: make a circle or an oval. Draw a triangle tail. Draw a partial triangle (or a sideways V) to make the fin. Add an eye and a smile.
• Octopus: Make a circle. Draw 8 lines coming down from it for legs. Add 2 eyes and a smile.
• Turtle: Draw a circle. Make a small circle to be the head, and then 4 legs.
• Shark: make an oval. Draw a triangle tail. Draw a triangle on top for the dorsal fin.

Encourage them to make lots of sea creatures. While they do, sing the song Slippery Fish, singing about the creatures you’ve just drawn.

Watercolor

Now demo how to paint over their drawings with watercolor – help them notice how it doesn’t stick to the drawings – it pulls away from the oil pastel. (Watercolor resist.) I just had one container of liquid watercolor I passed around and we took turns painting.

Salt

After they’ve all painted and while it’s still wet, show how when you sprinkle salt on the painting, it looks like bubbles. After you leave it to dry, the salt will shake off but there will still be the bubbly effect in the paint.

Then, read your favorite book about the ocean. Find recommended books and more ocean science activities.