Their own personal ocean.

Last week Layla had her friend Carter over for the entire day. Knowing that three and four year olds can only keep themselves busy for so long, I started planning an activity. Layla has been studying ocean animals in school, so I decided to let the kids build their own ocean, full of creatures.

I taped together some butcher paper to make a large rectangle, about 3' x 5'. Before lunch I let the kids paint their ocean, then we hung it up to dry.

After lunch, I gave them pictures I had printed out of all different ocean creatures to color, and offered them crayons, markers, or colored pencils (I find if kids have different artistic tools they are kept busy quite a bit longer).

When they finished each drawing, I cut them out and let them tape their animals in the ocean. Both of them had a BLAST with it, and Layla loves her ocean so much it is still hanging on the wall. SUCCESS!