Hello Ocean

In Hello Ocean, by Pam Munoz Ryan, a girl uses her 5 senses to more deeply experience the beach. Anyone who has been to the beach knows it can be sensory overload.

The smell of the ocean, sunscreen, and shells. The sound of waves crashing, people talking, and gulls squawking. The taste of the salt water, and ice cream if you’re lucky. The feel of the warm sand, cool water, and hot sun on your face. The sight of the deep blue water, umbrellas in a rainbow of colors, and children playing. These things are all part of the experience. The girl in this story shares her sensory experience. I love the descriptive words used by the author, “squishy, sandy, soggy ground, slippery seaweed that wraps around”, along with the vivid pictures.

This book inspired me to get a little messy with Big Kid. We pulled out the air dry clay, and our collection of small shells and made a “creation” as Big Kid called it. Basically, we pushed the shells into a flattened piece of clay. Once the clay is dry, the creation will be a keepsake from our summer at the beach.

Big Kid loved doing this! She experimented with pushing the shells in, then pulling them out so we just saw the imprint. She left some in, and dragged some across the clay. Just like the girl in Hello Ocean, she got a rich sensory experience with this project. She got to feel, and smell the clay, the shells. She heard the shells jingling together on the dish where we had them. She saw the different colored shells and sea glass. This is something we will definitely do again.