Teach your kindergarteners about waves with this hands-on activity. Set up a large flat pan filled most of the way with water. One by one, have children come to one side of the pan and blow across it to make waves. Show students that the harder the wind blows the bigger the waves will be. Place a toy boat on the water and tell a story about the boat's captain trying to sail the ocean without the boat tipping over from the waves.
Teach students about the bottom of the ocean and have them paint pictures of it. Let them use blue paint to represent water. While the paint is still wet, help students put a small amount of sand at the bottom of their pictures and let the sand dry into the paint. When the paint is dry, let students glue some to the floor of the ocean. Provide pictures of ocean animals for students to glue to their paintings.
Teach the class about different kinds of ocean animals such as whales, sharks, jellyfish, starfish and crabs. Have each student draw a different ocean animal on a piece of paper or a paper plate. Hang them all on the wall or bulletin board. Group the drawings by animal to help students remember types of sea life.
Dedicate one day to the theme of the ocean. Have kids help decorate the room to look like the bottom of the ocean. Hang blue tissue and wrapping paper from the ceiling. Put pictures of starfish and other animals on the walls. Have each child pick an animal to represent in actions and simple costumes. Set aside a special playtime when the kindergarteners can walk like lobsters, lie on the ground like starfish and make loud noises like whales.