Shells - Rock Pool Small World

I decided to swap around our sensory box the week before half term, we decided that a beach theme would be good, but as I'd just cleaned I didn't want anything as messy as our last beach small world! So we got out all of our shells. Most of our shells we have collected during various beach trips. But I bought the big 2 at a car boot sale a few weeks back for 50p! Then we used a blue ice cream tub filled with some water to make a rock pool. We decided that our Playmobil people, that came with the swimming pool that Joseph got from Santa for Christmas, would be perfect as they have their costumes on ready for paddling!
We also grabbed their Playmobil chairs and umbrella, and some sea creatures to live on the pool. Daniel (3.5) helped me set the box up and had a good play whilst Joseph (5) was at school, its amazing how involved he gets when he's not got any distractions or interruptions.

I'm not sure what happend to the 'Daddy'....

It worked quite well, as by the time we had collected Joseph from school, Daniel had lost intrest & Joseph was then able to enjoy the box by himself. Soon after he started playing with the box Joseph decided that the whole box was the rock pool & emptied in the water. He then spent ages sorting through the different types of shells.

During half term we visited Nanny's house and collected lots of shells on or trips to Westward Ho! So once we got home we had lots of new shells which needed washing as they were covered in sand and clay. So one day after school I filled a sensory box with warm water and some antibacterial washing up liquid. I put a washing up bowl next to it for the clean shells. I added the shells to the box and the boys got to work cleaning them.

Daniel was also excited to be reunited with his stick that he'd used as a boat at the beach. They had so much fun washing the shells and got a bit wet! They always love water play. Now we have lots more shells for our small world play and I think we will have to use some up for a craft. A few have holes so perhaps we will do some threading and make jewelry.

x Jo x

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