Sensory play or sensory pay?

into the shallows, where rippling waves cause shrieks of delight! These are the moments that stay with us, long after the bucket and spade have been forgotten.

If you’re not already thinking about summer holidays past or those yet to be planned, National Beach Day on 30 August is a good time to celebrate the great British seaside experience in your setting. Not every family can ‘go on holiday’, but with a little thought and some initial planning, you can bring the seaside experience to every child, increasing their cultural capital and making the most of the rich learning opportunities on offer.

Start by reflecting on how the seaside offers a unique, multi-sensory experience that changes constantly. Think about what children would be seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling – children learn by using all their senses, and a day on the beach will deliver on every level.

Here are a few ideas to inspire you:

Any small shallow container that’s big enough for several children to gather around can be surrounded by larger rocks and filled with shells and seaweed (ask holidaying parents to bring some home with them!).

Make anemones with pipe cleaners and plasticine, and add some small play items such as crabs and fish to your rock pool. If you can locate some natural sea sponges, add those, too. Children will enjoy rearranging the environment, finding new hiding places for tiny creatures – and maybe even finding a new surprise each day depending on what the tide has washed in overnight. When one group has finished playing, they might enjoy rearranging the rock pool and hiding creatures for their friends to discover, too.

It’s as much fun for children to play in the sand as it is for them to play with the sand. If you have an outdoor sand pit, you’re one step ahead, but if space is an issue, make your own beach with tarpaulin and some bags of soft play sand. Add buckets, spades, diggers and other wheeled toys – in fact, just about everything that you would have in the sand tray. Cordon the beach area with windbreaks, add some beach towels and parasols.

Before you know it, a small garden area is transformed into your very own early years by the sea.

You’ll have a selection of balls for outdoor play, but do you have the traditional blow-up beachballs? They offer a whole new experience, particularly for toddlers and babies who’ll revel in their sound and feel! Your youngest children are also relatively safe from being knocked over by a mistimed throw or kick. Set up a volleyball net at a suitable height and encourage children to hit, rather than catch the beachball.

Quoits is another favourite beach game and easy to replicate – although relatively cheap to buy. You just need a small hoop – the quoit – to throw. Make your own from thick rope and fill empty plastic bottles with sand or stones, seal the tops, decorate them and observe how children refine their hand-eye coordination to land the quoit on its target. To simplify the activity, mark out an area on the grass like hopscotch squares and aim for those instead. Add further challenge by suggesting a specific target or square – for example, number or colour the targets

No seaside activity is complete without a puppet show. Though puppet theatres can be bought, it’s more fun to make your own with the children. All you need is a large cardboard box with room for children to stand below a cut out area that they can manipulate puppets from. Glove puppets are easily available, but children can really flex their imagination when they select objects that they can animate themselves. Make a start by picking up an inanimate ‘seaside’-themed object, such as a plastic spade, and giving it a ‘voice’ and a character. Before you know it, children will take up the challenge, entertaining themselves and each other while developing communication, language, physical dexterity and of course, creativity, experimentation and improvisation (expressive arts and design).

• The sounds of a seaside town are unique; look out for fairground organ music and favourite summertime tunes that children can sing along to – it all adds to the atmosphere. Circle time music-making sessions with wave drums, coconut shells and rain sticks will promote discussion as children recognise how certain tunes and sounds make them feel, or what they’re reminded of when listening to them.
• Set up a beach stall, with items found around your setting that would be useful or fun to have at the seaside.
  
• Decorate boxes with shells, or use the shells to make ‘sea creatures’ with googly eyes.
  
• Talk and dress like pirates for a day; hide your treasure with an X marks the spot clue.
  
• Press shells into plasticine or playdough for your rock pool.
  

And finally…

National Beach Day “is dedicated to celebrating the beauty and recreational value of beaches while promoting environmental awareness and conservation. It encourages people to enjoy a day at the beach, participate in beach clean-ups, and appreciate the natural coastal environments that are vital to our planet’s health and biodiversity”.

While a day at the seaside is a beautiful experience, it can also be a stark reminder of the damage that we can do when we litter out beaches.

Take every opportunity to instil the caring attitudes and good habits that will last a lifetime. Small changes add up, and it’s never too early to be environmentally aware.