We just started our ocean unit last week, inspired by the newest member of our pet family: a red beta fish aptly named Lightning McQueen.
Little has been asking for a fish for a while, and I wanted to think of how we could further incorporate his new pet into our learning, and an ocean/fish unit seemed in order.
I picked up a 5 inch starfish from Hobby Lobby {$4.99} for Little’s pirate birthday party in March and added the starfish to our nature table afterward. For our first day of our new unit, we passed around our starfish and talked about how they crawl along the ocean floor and what they eat.
And then we made this fun craft!
You can find free starfish printables online, but I’m running low on cardstock, so I just traced a star-shaped puzzle piece on some construction paper for our fish. The boys painted the fish with Elmer’s glue and we used steal-cut oats for the fun bumpiness of the fish. They loved it. Before they sprinkled the oats on their paper, they enjoyed running their fingers through the oats and feeling the little granules run through their hands.
After the glue dried and the starfish were complete, we were able to compare the texture of our fish craft with the real starfish. It was a super simple and fun sensory craft.
Enjoy!
Kat
Love Makes A Family {by mommyponders} 
Love the craft and they retain so much more when they have this type of sensory experience to “anchor” the spoken word.