It’s another “Minnesota’s closed” day due to the wonderful new batch of snow dumped on us last night. Because I can’t share one of my new favorite activities with my ECSE classroom this morning, I’m going to share it with you! Enjoy your day inside, and hopefully this intervention will inspire you to daydream of warmer oceans 
This activity is adapted from the song “At the Bottom of the Sea” by Ralph’s World. Here is a link for the song. You will need a large blue scarf (the texture is a great sensory item) and several beanie ocean animals. I use a jellyfish (open to interpretation as an octopus as well), crab, colorful fish etc. and put them in a small cloth bag to “hide”.
Begin by moving the scarf up and down with large, slow movements and sing…
At the bottom of the sea
Where the mermaids murmur
You’ll find me
At the bottom of the sea
At the bottom of the sea
Where the crabs walk backwards
You’ll find me
At the bottom of the sea
Choose a child to ask, “Who’s at the bottom of the sea”? Depending on the group, you can give them hints to guess the animal, or just pull each one out and have them identify it. Have the child throw the animal into the sea, aka the scarf.
Using small, fast, up and down movements sing….
And we’re gonna swim, swima, swim, swim, swima, swim, swim, swim
At the bottom of the sea
This is a great activity to address a variety of goals such as gross motor, animal identification, palmar grasping, and self-regulation. What animals can you find at the bottom of the sea?
Filed under: Academic Skills, Animal Identification, Animal Theme, Children, Early Literacy, ECSE, Fine motor, Friday Favorites, Gross Motor, Music Therapy Groups, Ocean Theme, Preschool, Regulation, School Age, Self-regulation, Sensory, Social/Emotional Tagged: academic skills, Animal, Children, Early Childhood, Early Literacy, Fish, Friday Favorite, Gross Motor, Group, Minneapolis, Motor goal, music therapy, Ocean theme, Preschool, Scarf, Self-Regulation, Sensory, Sequencing, Special Education
