The last few weeks we’ve been talking about the beach and ocean with the 3 year old co-op class. Talking about it is fun, but getting a chance to play in the sand is even better, right? Unless you live hours and hours from the beach and you don’t want to buy a ginormous bag of sand.
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Instead we made something quick and so simple (I promise you this is so easy!!), that kids can help make it with you. AND If they ingest a little, it will be ok too, since it uses non-toxic ingredients!
Items Needed for Homemade Beach Sand:
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5 cups whole wheat flour
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3/4 to 1 cup cooking oil (we used coconut oil)
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mixing bowl
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large plastic tub or trays
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Seashells Toob or real seashells
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Plastic crabs (I wouldn’t recommend real ones – grins)
Mix the flour and the oil together in a mixing bowl (dear moms, this can be highly therapeutic and relaxing – just sayin’). You can add up to 1 cup of oil to your ‘sand’ – it just depends on how sticky you would like it to be.
The kids in our class loved it. We added a bunch of seashells and a mini crab to the bin just for fun, along with a few things to scoop and build little sandcastles. Our homemade beach sand is stored in a 15 quart Rubbermaid container (we made 3 batches).
When there were too many kids wanting to play in the bin, we poured some out on a tray so they could continue with the fun. You can see from the picture above that the ‘sand’ does a great job sticking together so kids can form and create, just like they can with real sand!
Free Ocean Printable Pack
If you’re planning a beach or ocean theme, you might be interested in the Ocean Printable Pack.
Book Go-alongs
Find more fun Preschool Packs on my website along with many other helpful {and free} Preschool Printables. Enjoy!
Note: This beach sand recipe does contain gluten, so those of you with gluten-free kiddos will obviously not want to use this. Sorry!