We don’t live close to the ocean, but we aren’t far from the Great Lakes. At the beginning of our unit we took a trip to Lake Ontario. In just a few minutes I collected everything for our Nature Exploration Bin.
Materials:
Driftwood pieces
Shells
Sea Glass
Flat stones
Pretty stones
Feathers
After putting together the bin I found a package of 6 unique shells at Michaels on clearance for $0.50 so I added those as well.
To introduce the bin I picked up each type of item, told the children the name of the item and described it a little. I passed around the sample, showing them how to carefully handle it. They all sat and explored together for quite awhile, and revisited it throughout the month.