DIY Summer Camp: Ocean Week

Whether you’re curious about the deep sea or life along the beach, these ocean week activities are fun for summer!

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Spend your days imagining life on the beach at DIY summer camp with our ocean week ideas. Below we’ve put together a simple plan that’s full of indoor and outdoor fun, plus suggestions for snacks, books, and more.

Our Backyard Summer Camp ideas are ideal for kids ages 5 to 12 and easy to customize to fit your family.

Summer camp planning tips

Use our simple system to plan a summer-camp style staycation for your kids! It’s easy to organize a day, a week, or a whole summer of indoor and outdoor play ideas, easy crafts, and fun hands-on learning.

Ocean week lesson plan

Indoor activities

1. Make a paper bowl jellyfish
2. Mix up an ocean in a jar
3. Paint watercolor resist art
4. Turn a paper plate into a colorful fish
5. Craft a cute clothespin crab

Outdoor activities

1. Do ocean yoga poses
2. Give plastic sea creatures a toy bath
3. Use water to draw on the sidewalk
4. Set up an ocean or beach themed sensory bin
5. Go fishing for ice cube fish

Family activity

Gather the family over a snack to talk about your favorite sea creature. Have everyone prepared to share fun facts, something surprising, or just a story about why they love that animal.

Themed snack ideas

• Add Goldfish crackers to snack mix. For sweet, try graham fish with dried fruit and M&Ms; for savory, add cheese crackers to popcorn and pretzels.

Books, movies, and videos

Browse our roundup of 14 Beautiful Ocean Books for Kids.

Watch Finding Nemo or the DisneyNature Oceans documentary.

The YouTube channel SciShow Kids has a science at the beach series. See all our favorite educational YouTube channels.

Field trip suggestions

Field trip options will depend on what’s local to you. Here are some places to look for:

• Aquarium or zoo
• Virtual field trip with an ocean webcam
• Natural area to look for fossils and shells
• Take a boat tour on the ocean or lake

More fun ideas from Backyard Summer Camp:

• 24 Sand and Beach Themed Activities
• 15 Fun Beach and Ocean Printables
• 14 Creative Ocean Activities for Kids