Brilliant Bundles: Dolphin Crafts and Activities for an Ocean Theme

For DIY flash cards, sight words, and getting started with a preschool ocean theme lesson plan, please visit Ocean Theme

After exploring crabs at the start of our ocean month, we moved onto dolphins!

Dolphin Educational Activities

I like to start each introduced ocean creature with an information sheet which I print on card stock and then laminate with contact paper so we can keep it around all month without too much wear and tear. Click on the photo to download and print this one!

Show the info sheet to your child and then ask them questions about what you've just read. ex- "What does a dolphin like to eat?"

You can also have your child pretend to be a dolphin by making dolphin sounds and jumping like a dolphin would out of the water.

Recommended books:

Dolphins / Weber, Valerie

Wow! Ocean! / Neubecker, Robert

Dolphins / Lindeen, Carol

Dolphin Count and Match

What you will need:

What you will need: (makes 20 dolphins)

10 different colored and or patterned scrap booking papers

Dolphin template

Numbers

scissors

contact paper

First, cut out the dolphin from the free printout. Next, fold your first piece of scrap booking paper in half so that the white of the paper is showing and the pattern/color is on the inside. Take a pencil and trace a dolphin on the paper using the template. Fold your other colored papers the same way and put two more under the first and cut out the dolphin. This will limit the amount of cutting by giving you 6 dolphins with one cut. Repeat until you used all your paper and have 10 pairs of dolphins. Cut out all the numbers from the printout above and tack one to each dolphin. For lasting use, laminate them with contact paper. You can make so many games out of these!

Dolphin Songs

Swimming in the sea

Sung to: "Doo-wa diddy diddy"

There I was just swimming in the sea

singing oooo wah diddy diddy dum diddy dee

All the sudden there's a dolphin next to me

singing ooo wah diddy diddy dum diddy dee

She swam fast

she swam fast

she dove deep

she swam fast dove deep

Hey this dolphin's pretty neat!!

do wah diddy diddy dum diddy dee

Dolphin Family

Sung to: "Adam's Family Theme"

When they get into the notion
They jump out of the ocean
With tail fluke locomotion,

The Dolphin family
Swim in the sea, eee eee
Swim in the sea, eee eee
Swim in the sea
Live in a pod
Swim in the sea, eee eee

I bet you didn't suppose
Their blow hole was their nose
And in and out the air goes

The Dolphin family
Swim in the sea, eee eee
Swim in the sea, eee eee
Swim in the sea,
Live in a pod Swim in the sea, eee eee

and our favorite....

Stained Glass Dolphin

What you will need:

Dolphin template

Contact paper

Tissue paper

Scissors

Permanent marker

Draw a simple shaped dolphin on a piece of white paper and cut it out to use as a template. Place your template on your child's table and lay out a nice sized sheet of contact paper over the top of your template (sticky side facing up) and tape the corners down. Set out a bowl with cut up tissue paper in your choice of colors. (We used light blue and purple.) Have your child stick on all their "glass" and try to get them to stick it over top of the dolphin template they can use as a guide. Next, seal the tissue paper in with another piece of contact paper and use the dolphin template over top to cut it into the dolphin shape! You can use a permanent marker over top to put in details like an eye and mouth :) I used a hole punch at the top to slip a suction cup hook through so we could hand it where the light was showing through.

Online Dolphin Activities

Create a dolphin picture. I loved this because it ended up being a really great activity for working on computer skills with having to click and hold the mouse to drag the creatures into the ocean. (Click on photo to try it out!)

Color the dolphins! Nice and simple, click a color with the paintbrush curser and click on various parts of the picture to color it. Awesome for color recognition and computer/mouse coordination. (Click photo to try it out)

Online resources:

Ocean Theme

Dolphin info video

Dolphin encounter video

Dolphin coloring pages

Dolphin jigsaw puzzle

Cute dolphin game (demonstrates cause and effect)