Celebrating World Ocean Day With Preschoolers
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World Oceans Day is celebrated every year on June 8th to raise global awareness of the ocean’s importance and its role in the survival of this planet.
In fact, 70% of our planet is covered by the ocean. The ocean is Earth’s lungs, its life source, and the sustenance for every life form. The ocean is home to most of the Earth’s biodiversity, provides food to millions of people worldwide, produces 50% of the oxygen we breathe, and is the source of employment for millions of people.
In other words, if the ocean dies, so will we and every life form on this planet. Yet, we humans tend to look to the other side and don’t pay attention to what we are causing. Millions of us think: “That’s not my problem. I’m getting what I need”, but my question to you is: “What about the future generations? Is that the legacy we want to leave?
We have to open our eyes, and as teachers and parents of preschoolers, we not only have the opportunity but also the responsibility to teach them what is happening. Right now, we have depleted 90% of big fish populations and destroyed 50% of coral reefs. We must teach our children (and ourselves) that we need to protect and preserve our ocean and all the lives that live in it. If we get together with our families, friends, community, and millions of other people globally, our children and all future generations will have a chance to survive, because we can teach them how to change our ways and stop causing the damage that we are causing, and become advocates to protect and restore our ocean.
History of World Ocean Day
In 1992, the Canadian Government, represented by Canada’s International Center for Ocean Development and the Ocean Institute of Canada, proposed this idea at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Since 2002, the World Ocean Network, which includes more than 2000 organizations worldwide, has worked to protect the ocean from damage caused by human activities.
Finally, in 2008, the United Nations passed a resolution during its General Assembly to designate June 8th as World Oceans Day.
World Ocean Day 2022 Theme
This year, the theme selected for World Oceans Day is Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean. The purpose of the United Nations is “to bring awareness to the importance of our oceans and the threats they face”, hoping to encourage organizations and people around the globe to get together to protect the ocean and all the marine resources that are so important to all of us.
Facts About World Ocean Day for Preschoolers
Talking to our children about World Ocean Day is just a start. For them to be able to understand the magnitude of the importance of the ocean for our survival, you have to share with them important facts and do hands-on activities, but, most importantly, commit to talking to them about how to preserve and protect the planet, its ocean, its ecosystems, and everything in it, every day. These are some of the most important facts about why World Oceans Day exists:
- The ocean produces 50% of the oxygen that every life form (people, animals, and plants) on the planet breathes.
- The ocean reduces global warming and climate change.
- It provides the largest amount of protein (meat) for millions of people worldwide.
- The ocean covers 70% of Earth.
- More than 200,000 species are known in the ocean, and scientists believe millions more remain undiscovered.
- Hundreds of those species are endangered, and many are already extinct.
- 90% of big fish populations are depleted, and 50% of coral reefs are destroyed.
- 13,000,000 tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year, and it’s been predicted that by 2050 it will be more plastic than fish in the ocean.
- Plastic causes the death of more than 100,000 marine animals every year.
How to Celebrate World Ocean Day
As I have said several times before, children are the future advocates and protectors of our planet if we do our job right. It doesn’t matter that they are small now. We can still imprint in them the knowledge of everything we are doing to damage the planet and the love for everything in it, to encourage them to be the changing force that will hopefully make a difference in the future. These are some activities that you can do with your kiddos to celebrate World Ocean Day:
1. Start by Not Using Plastic
Plastics are one of the biggest threats to ocean health. Marine animals are killed by plastic getting tangled up in them, but plastic also breaks down into microplastics that are consumed by those animals and end up in our stomachs when they enter the food chain. Start teaching your students to recycle and eliminate single-use plastic from their lives and everywhere they go, such as straws, bags, and cups.
2. Promote a Clean-Up Campaign
Plastic can travel hundreds of miles before it reaches the ocean. No matter if you choose to do your clean-up campaign in your center, your neighborhood, rivers, streams, or ocean, it will make a huge positive impact on the environment and your children’s conscience, since it will help them (and their parents) understand how much garbage ends up in the ocean through the different water sources that end up bringing pollution to the ocean and all marine life.
3. Show Them an Ocean Film and Invite Your Families to Watch Others
Knowledge is power, and it is important to keep your children, their families, and everyone you know informed about ocean conservation and how to become better supporters.
Many documentaries are excellent and informative about ocean wildlife and conservation issues. Some of my favorites are Our Planet: Coastal Seas, Disneynature: Oceans, A Plastic Ocean, Sharkwater, Mission Blue, The Blue Planet, and My Octopus Teacher.
4. Participate in a World Ocean Day Local Event
Since this is a worldwide effort, hundreds of events are planned around the planet. Visit the World Ocean Day website to find out what events are going on in your city, inform your families, and participate. These events range from hands-on exhibits to film festivals and everything in between. They are fun and educational, and they can encourage your students to protect our ocean, creating a “snowball” effect that could involve future generations.
5. Consume Less Ocean Food
I have to confess that I love shrimp. It’s my favorite food, but I limit myself to consuming it a few times in the year only, as a way to put my “sand grain” in the fight to protect the planet. You and your students can make a difference too. At least for this day, don’t consume any type of meat, and teach your children and their families how to be ocean defenders, avoid the overconsumption of any type of meat, and learn which fish are the most eco-friendly by providing them with the information found on this website and the guide to sustainable seafood choices.
6. Explore the Ocean
Children must connect with the ocean, and one excellent way to do that is to show them images of things they might not see by just going to the beach. Google has an amazing collection of these images in an incredible feature called Google Ocean that you can use.
7. Go on a Field Trip to Your Local Aquarium
How don’t we love to go on field trips, especially when you are a kid, right? Taking your children to your local aquarium gives you the chance to show them an incredible collection of marine life, talk about these species, and encourage your preschoolers to love and protect them.
8. Get Everybody Involved
Start a school or community conservation project by encouraging your students and their families to join an Ocean Guardian Program, where you can submit ocean-themed stories, poetry, artwork, science projects, terrariums, or any other project created by your students and their families.
9. Have a Family Field Day at the Beach
A great way to celebrate World Ocean Day is to invite your families to a field day at your local beach. If you don’t have a beach in your city, maybe you have a river or a lake instead, and use the opportunity to let your preschoolers explore their surroundings while you teach them how to care for and protect their ecosystem. You can even use the day to clean up the area, collecting garbage.
10. Present an Ocean-themed Collage Exhibition
Provide your students with multiple materials and large pieces of construction paper or cardstock, and invite them to create artwork using any material they want. Then place them on the walls as an exhibition, and invite your families to come and see them.
11. Do Different Activities with Seashells.
Shells are gifts from the ocean that children know well. They come in many shapes, colors, and sizes, and you can use them for many activities. Some of them are:
- Counting shells.
- Divide shells by color, size, or shape.
- Write different letters or numbers on shells with a permanent marker, and have children take one, say the letter or number name, and copy it on paper.
- Pick a shell with a letter, say its sound, and/or a word that starts with that letter.
- Match the number on a shell with magnetic numbers or small manipulatives such as buttons, mini pom-poms, mini fish, mini erasers, etc.
- Prepare your sensory table with sand, blue-tinted rice or blue gelatin, shells, pails, small shovels, plastic fish, a small container of water, blue water beads, or blue jewels, and have the children create mini castles and “fish”.
I’ve created a 17-page FREE Seashells pack that includes literacy, math, science, and fine motor activities, which you can download at the end of this post.
12. Read Ocean-related Stories
Help your children immerse themselves in the ocean’s deep waters with these beautiful stories that help them understand its depths and inhabitants a little better, and encourage their love for them.
- Save the Ocean by Bethany Stahl. With beautiful, charming illustrations and a lovable sea turtle named Agwe, this book offers a heartwarming lesson in recycling and conservation.
- My First Book About the Oceans by Patricia J. Wynne. In this carefully researched book, children can learn how the ocean shapes both climate and weather, about the tiny animals, plants, and monstrous creatures that inhabit it, why a healthy ocean is essential, and what you can do to help protect it.
- Exploring the Wonderfully Wild Animals of the Big Blue Ocean by Sky Adams. This book inspires, informs, and enlightens about the captivating creatures of the underwater world, and our critical role in preserving these animals and the health of the planet’s oceans for future generations.
- The Ocean Book: The Story, Science, and History of the Oceans by DK. Combining arresting photography, rich illustrations, and engaging, expertly written text, this book showcases the landscapes, plants and animals, and captivating human stories of the world’s oceans.
- Oceanology: The Secrets of the Sea Revealed by DK. An informative and utterly beautiful introduction to marine life and the ocean environment, using astounding photography and simple illustrations to explain how life has adapted to the marine environment and examine the physical forces and processes that shape the oceans.
- Pop-up Ocean: An Awe-Inspiring Book About Sharks, Whales, and Life in Coral Reefs and Kelp Forests by Lizzy Cope. This book takes the children on an awe-inspiring journey to the depths of the ocean.
- National Geographic Ocean: A Global Odyssey bySylvia A. Earle. This book unveils the ocean’s power, significance, and fundamental role in shaping Earth’s climate and chemistry, as well as its vital role in supporting a multitude of life forms, including our own.
- Hello Ocean by Pam Muñoz Ryan. Crisp, realistic illustrations fill the pages of this book with the rush of surf and the warmth of sun-baked sand. The sights, smells, and sensations of the sea become vividly clear in these beautifully rendered paintings.
The last one, Hello Ocean by Pam Muñoz Ryan, is one of my favorite books. It has beautiful, realistic illustrations and simple, easy-to-understand text. Below is a reading-aloud video for that particular book.
13. Do Ocean Experiments
I came across two great experiments. The first is a Salt Water Density Experiment, which is great for preschoolers to learn how salt water differs from freshwater. The second is called Salt Water and Waves, which helps kiddos understand that ocean water is salty and how waves happen. Both are super interesting and simple enough for them to understand.
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Celebrating World Oceans Day with your preschoolers, using these activities and any others you can come up with, will be tons of fun and an incredibly rich opportunity to learn about the Ocean, its importance, and its treasures. I hope you enjoy them and that your kiddos learn to love the planet’s life source and become its protectors and advocates for the rest of their lives.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.S. Please let me know if these suggestions and printables work for you. If you would like an article or printable on how to make something specific, please let me know, and I’ll do my best to create it for you. My goal is to help you however I can, and I don’t like anything better than posting something you might find useful.
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