Crusty Crustaceans June 20- July 1 2011

We headed to the beach where we met Hermit Crab, Clumsy Crab and all of their friends...

We loved playing in the sand with buckets, shovels, shells and plastic sea creatures.

We practiced using crab claws at our sensory table which was filled with different sizes of pasta shells. We used "claws" to transfer the shells from one bucket to another. It's hard work!

We felt a little like the crab in Clumsy Crab by Ruth Galloway. 

 Our playdough was mixed with sand so we used different kinds of seashells to make prints. 

We practiced walking like crabs- that's hard work too!

 Using stryofoam balls and toothpicks, we made some pokey little sea urchins.

These creatures helped hermit crab protect his home in A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle.  

We had a fun game to play called "Lucky Catch". We rolled the dice to collect sea creatures of different colors. We had to watch out for the "boot" but if we were lucky, we got the treasure chest.

Using sponges and sea colors, we each created a sea as a habitat for our handprint crabs.

Here they are complete with our handprint crabs:

Sea star cookies were fun to make. We sprinkled colored sugar over the top to make them look "crusty". They were almost too pretty to eat. Well...almost!

We visited Belleview Park and went exploring in the water and played in the sand. We had to watch out for the crab's cousin, the crayfish. They're known to hide in the rocks on the side of the stream.