Ocean life mat

I got the idea of the ocean life mat from here and had it in my to-do list for quite a while. The arrival of the summer felt like the ideal time to get it finally made. In fact, it was very easy to make; I used a small blue towel for the background, remnants of felt in light blue for the shore, pale orange for a patch of sand, green for some seaweeds, and dark brown for the bottom of the ocean. All those remnants were sewed into the towel. I decided not to stitch the upper part of the shore, so there could be a pocket to keep the animals. However, we have ended up using card figures, wooden animals, plastic figurines, and even a set of ocean animal rubbers I had from my childhood. All the items have been much played with and some even explored on the light table. As you can see here:

As a background for the ocean mat and the light table, we made M's corner into a real sea-corner pinning as many clippings of the sea as we could find unto the board that usually serves us as a background setting of the topic we are presently working on.

To give the whole topic a finishing touch, we set out to the sea in a sailboat!!

And this is what we saw when leaving the shore: 

I leave you guessing what city we were in...

Ocean small world play

We've been doing lots of water activities this summer but the one I enjoyed the most preparing, and M playing with, was the ocean in a plastic bathtub and child-size sailboat. Now that we see the pics I regret not having planned the making of the boat a bit ahead of time. Next time I make a boat or a little shed I will plan it so I don't feel ashamed when I see the shots. Anyway, the boat was a great hit and I was super happy to make it as a surprise during a short morning trip M and her daddy made. I had wanted to make the ocean small world for a long time but hadn't thought of the boat at all. Then, when I finished the first I felt inspired and spent the time I would have devoted to a nap -this pregnancy is making me feel very sleepy!- in making a small boat M could get easily into, but more or less flying by the seat of my pants.
Other activities we've done so far are an ocean mat, clipping pictures of the sea and ocean and pinning them on our board, exploring sea animals on the light table, and going on a sailboat. We are lucky to live so near the Mediterranean sea...

Here is what is inside:

* Sand

* Big and small shells

* Pebbles

* Bathtub plastic animals

* Bubbles and light blue water