20+ Beach Themed Toddler Activities

Name a more summer theme than the beach? I don’t think you can! I’m so ready for my yearly trip to the coast that this theme was real easy to pull together.

We are diving right into things today because there is so much fun to be had with this theme! Most of these activities fall into the fine motor category to go along with the printable I’ve created.

You’ll need a few supplies that can all be found at the dollar store if you don’t already have them at home.

Supply List

*Seashells

*Flat Glass Beads or Sea Glass

*Plastic Pearls or Beads

*Sand

*Flower leis

*Sponges

*Ocean Creature Toys

*Water Play Tools

*Fine Motor Tongs

*Lemon or Lime Press

Sensory Activities

First off, I can’t let a beach theme go to waste without a sensory bin for small world play. I made this in my favorite 28 quart sized plastic container. This are by far the perfect size for all sensory play!

The kids enjoy scooping and pouring sand, burying seashells, and playing with the animals.

A beach theme lends itself to lots of water play! This simple scooping activity was a hit.

The most used activity by far with this fun fine motor water play set up. In the dish pan, I included small sponges, a lemon press, bath toys, and a burger press from the dollar store. Squeezing water from the sponges using real kitchen tools is a Montessori inspired activity that I love!

We also enjoyed cleaning sand off our ocean animals! Another great fine motor activity.

Fine Motor and shelf work Activities

Lets build those little finger muscles by posting straw pieces into the coconut!

I couldn’t pass up these ocean themed beads from Hobby Lobby. This basket is for threading but we also use the beads for transferring and counting activities!

Another fun transferring activity using an ice cube tray and table scatter from the dollar tree. This could easily be recreated with a plain ice cube tray and small seashells or ocean animals! This is fine motor and one to one correspondence practice.

We are super into playdough lately. This playdough mats are included in my printable. I found this beach themed playdough bucket in the target dollar spot!

Have you ever set up a cutting basket? I created the cutting strips and then added flower leis to practice with. Once we’ve finished cutting, you can reuse all the pieces to create a new lei! A two for one activity win!

A classic pre-writing tool is a salt or sand tray. In the printable you’ll find 8 different lines and shape cards which can easily be added to any salt tray.

Matching Activities

I love creating or finding matching cards for any mini figures we have. I just take the pictures and print them off! J, at almost 2, is just getting the idea behind matching objects so this was perfect for him. It also helps grow vocabulary.

These matching cards along with shadow matching cards are included in the printable.

Two piece puzzles are perfect for younger toddlers. These ocean themed puzzles have been a hit.

More building of visual discrimination skills with this big and little seashell sorting activity. This can be found in the printable.

Counting and Measuring Activities

Using ten frames are pretty typical in early childhood classrooms. With toddlers, I like to focus on one to one correspondence up to five. I changed up my typical five frames by adding a place to trace the number and a counting hand. If you laminate these cards or put inside a page protector, you’ll be able to use them again and again!

During our camping theme (found here!) we camping items with marshmallows. I thought measuring the whale spray would be so fun! You’ll find 8 of these cards in the printable.

We’re big fans of roll and cover games. This fish themed bubble counting page can be found in the printable!

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