Toddler Camp: Under The Sea Day (Ocean Themed Crafts + Activities)

Welcome to Toddler Camp! A daily itinerary of themed ideas to keep your toddler busy while you’re at home! You can find more themes and the full guide to Toddler Camp here. 

Why is water so fascinating to kids!? Guess it’s no surprise that so many love all things ocean, too! For this day of Toddler Camp, I put together a ton of ocean themed crafts and activities, plus some really fun outdoor water activities, too!

Below you’ll find everything you need for a full Under the Sea camp day!

Movies + Shows To Watch

Here are a few of our favorite family-friendly movies and shows that feature the ocean!

• The Little Mermaid – Available on Disney+
• Finding Nemo – Available on Disney+
• Finding Dory – Available on Disney+
• Moana – Available on Disney+
• Any of the ocean-themed National Geographic or Disney Nature documentaries – Available on Disney+

Active Play

Just Add Water

Water is so entertaining to most kiddos, that there’s no need for any sort of fancy activity for this theme! Run a sprinkler and pretend it’s a waterfall, fill a kiddie pool and toss in a few rocks for them to plop in the water and find (supervised, of course!), fill up the kitchen sink and toss in a boat, bust out your water table or water the plants (and pretend they’re seaweed and anemones!)! 

Sensory Play

Bubble Painting

Bubble painting is so fun, you’ll want to get in on the action too!

Mix a small amount of paint with bubble solution. I did approximately 2 parts paint to 3 parts bubble solution. (We used acrylic paint, but be ware that it can stain, so do this outside with the ground covered if it’s something you don’t want stained!) Prop or hold up a piece of watercolor paper and let the kids blow bubbles using the paint mixture as they normally would, just aimed at the paper!

If the mixture doesn’t seem to be “bubbling” very well, try adding a little more bubble solution to it. Or, if the color isn’t showing up well enough, try adding more paint. It’s a bit of trial and error at first because every paint and bubble solution is different!

Let dry completely in the sun.

Paper Maché Fish

Rip up a bunch of magazine or newspaper pages into narrow strips and set aside.

Make an egg shaped body by crumpling newspaper and covering it completely in masking tape. Add fins and a tail made out of an old cereal box. Simply tape them on with more masking tape!

Mix 2 parts water 1 part flour to make your paper maché paste. Microwave at 30 second increments to thicken if needed/desired. Dip one of the strips you tore into the paste and wipe the excess off (back into the bowl). Lay onto the fish shape you made. Repeat until it’s completely covered.

Let dry completely (can take anywhere from 6-24 hours depending on the size and how thick your paper Maché layer was.)

Paint as desired! We painted ours, of course, to look like Nemo!

Ocean Crafts

Handprint Crab

I traced Arlo’s hands and we turned them into this cute crab using this tutorial! Googly eyes are always a hit with toddlers and preschoolers!

Circle Punch Paper Fish

Our son LOVES using a circle punch. Pick out a bunch of colorful paper and let your kiddo cut out a ton of circles. Then, cut out a fish shape and let them glue all the circles on like scales! Add a googly eye and some details with a marker.

You could also make a mermaid tail this way if you have a mermaid loving kiddo!

Toys, Games + Puzzles

• Wooden Fishing Game
• Sea Stamp Kit
• Ocean Play Silk
• Natural Bath Toys

Books about the Ocean

Here are a few favorite books of ours that have an ocean theme or storyline:

• Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
• Nugget & Fang by Tammi Sauer and Michael Slack
• National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of the Ocean
• Not Quite Narwhal by Jessie Sima
• The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad 

I encourage you to find a local book shop to support when shopping for these books! You can also shop here and profits will be divided between independent bookstores around the country.