Rock Pool Small World

This easy seaside themed small world is one of the activities from our At the Seaside activity box. Small world is such a great activity for firing kids imaginations and developing their language. It is inspired by the wonderful children’s book Clem and Crab by Fiona Lumbers and once your kids have set up their small world they can reenact the story helping them deepen their understanding of the story.

Set Up

To set up this seaside themed small world I simply got the blue gravel, pebbles, shells, and wooden crab shape from our At the Seaside Activity Box out. I also found each of my two a small box (the top half of a small egg box works perfectly). This small world activity was then ready for them to create their very own seaside. Of course you could get it set up for them but I wanted to let mine create their own rock pool habitat.

My two were so excited when they saw all the different bits out ready for their seaside small world. And once I explained they were going to create their own rock pools from the story they were off. M knew just what to do and needed no further instruction. F followed her sisters lead. Before I knew they both had created their own beautiful mini rock pools.

Once they had created their own seaside themed small worlds they got playing with. Their imaginations got working and they were both creating their very own narratives. They used ideas, language and characters from the story but they also went beyond this, making up their very own stories. M even involved the book as part of her play using one of the illustrations as part of the setting. This seaside themed small world is such an amazing activity to help develop children’s imagination and language but is is also so wonderfully simple!