Montessori Inspired Explorations At The Beach

Taking the Montessori classroom outside creates great opportunities for hands-on learning using minimum materials and effort. Sun, fresh salty air, the sound of crashing waves – what a perfect setup for fun explorations for kids. We headed to the beach to do fun Montessori activities as a part of the preschool homeschool program. Before allowing children to play and simply have an awesome time in nature, I prepared and organized Montessori-inspired activities taking advantage of the natural outdoor setting.

Each outing in nature always has two activities in common – storytelling and drawing from memory or observation. These are two final things we never leave the place without accomplishing.

Montessori Explorations At The Beach:

The Metal Inset extension activity –  Drawing shapes and lines on the sand. The focus is to touch the lines of the parallel sides of the shape when drawing lines with a finger on the sand.

Counting with loose parts and writing numbers on the sand – Since it is never practical to have a “writing on the sand activity” available at our house, it is a perfect chance to practice writing letters and numbers on the sand at the beach. Counting with loose natural parts or shells has many variations. We started with a simple task.

Exploring shapes and symmetry with acrylic mirrors – An acrylic mirror is a wonderful tool for learning about symmetry. This concept is usually a part of the older children’s curriculum.  However, a simple demonstration of drawing semi-shapes and completing them with mirror reflection is a fun learning exercise for a preschooler as well.

Marble Race – Simple, but fun entertainment for kids that can be done on the wet sand. We didn’t happen to have marbles, so we used loose parts – rolling to see which one would roll further.

Drawing from observation  – This is the most welcomed and beautiful part of every nature learning experience – drawing stunning surroundings. It is impossible to be next to the ocean and not admire the depth of aqua, blue, and green colors of the water and sky. We took markers with various tones of blue and green to draw what we saw – clouds, waves, and the sparkling surface of the ocean.

More natural discoveries to be explored as we continue our Montessori outdoor adventures. I invite you to sign up for my newsletter to receive updates with fresh content and new printables.

Here is my Nature Inspired Art Activity Book for Drawing and Colouring for Kids and Adults that had received some great feedback from Art teachers.

you might enjoy our ocean printables