It is incredibly hot in southern California as the region suffers through a record-breaking heat wave. The heat advisory urges us to strictly limit time outdoors – which means even a trip to the beach is out of the question. If your children are begging for some fun in the sun, but it’s too dang hot – if you live in Montana and the drive is a little too far – or if you’re reading this in the dead of winter – have no fear! Tell your kids that Beach Day is here! Set up this small world beach scene and give them some beachy fun right in the comfort of your (hopefully) air-conditioned home!
If you’re new to small world play and wondering what it’s all about – a small world is simply a miniature scene that you create for your child to play with. Is your child learning about frogs? You can set up a pretend frog pond. Do you have a dino-lover in the house? Then create a scene where she can make her plastic dinosaurs stomp and roar and have epic dino battles. (See my lava slime sensory bin as an example).
Small world scenes usually involve small figures or objects for your child to manipulate, and incorporating a sensory element can bring the fun to a whole new level. The benefits of small world play are many. Your child can give those fine motor muscles a workout while manipulating the small objects. She can use her imagination to enact scenes of her own creation. She can put into use new vocabulary she’s learning about the subject. And it’s just plain fun!
For the sensory element of my small world beach scene, and to create the base, I used kinetic sand. (If you’re not familiar, kinetic sand has a texture similar to brown sugar but with absolutely NONE of the stickiness. It is perfectly moldable and can be packed tightly, yet has the ability to ooze through your fingers in the most delightful way. And if you’re worried about the mess – cleanup is way easier than traditional sand because it clumps together and can be picked up quickly with your fingers.)
If you don’t have kinetic sand in your home, regular sand will work just as well – it is a beach scene, after all! Purchase a cheap bag at your local hardware store, and you’ll be able to use it over and over again.
Here is my complete small world beach scene:
The beach-goers are from our collection of Lego Duplos, and the sea creatures are from a set we’d purchased while on vacation in Monterey. If you look closely, our Lego people aren’t exactly dressed for the beach. Ha ha! Just use what you already have on hand or items that you can buy cheaply from the dollar store. It doesn’t need to be perfect!
Whenever we have an item of clothing that can no longer be worn due to stains or tears, I like to save it for messy play or crafts. This is what I used to make the beach towels for the Lego people. I cut little rectangles out of some stained clothing – and voila! The beach umbrellas are from Dollar Tree.
I buried small seashells throughout the sand (also purchased from Dollar Tree), and used a larger shell to hold a collection of “pearls” (which were beads from a Mardi Gras necklace). Beware the giant crab guarding his treasure!
The Dollar Tree seashells came in a plastic netting bag, which I used to make a miniature volleyball net, and a white pom pom served as the volleyball.
Since our kinetic sand is moldable, I wanted to give the Lego boy a little bucket for making sand castles. I used the cap off an old glue bottle. A thimble would work as well.
I added doggy footprints in the sand using one of our plastic toys.
For ocean water, I used blue and green glass gems that I’d purchased from the Dollar Tree. But no beach scene is complete without a shark to threaten the swimmers! Good thing someone’s pet dog is there to sound the alarm!
You guys, my three girls played with their small world beach scene for two hours straight. They only stopped when I made them clean up for dinner. They had so much fun coming up with pretend scenarios for their Lego people. There were rousing games of volleyball, some unfortunate shark attacks, paths forged, and friendships made. In fact, I left our little beach out all week and found our house guests digging in the sand as well.
