Beach days are relatively stress-free for us now, but back when my boys were preschoolers? This mama was more than a touch frazzled on beach day.

Getting everyone changed into bathing suits, packing enough snacks and water, carrying the cooler and all of the towels and blankets and hats to our chosen spot at the beach, making sure everyone stayed protected from the sun… Oof.

The idea of bringing a load of toys on top of everything else was not appealing to me. There’s a whole beautiful beach to explore, after all! The water, the sand, the shells, the sticks…

Then I remembered my good ol’ muffin tray.

Yep, you read that right. Muffin tray.

On one glorious beach day with two little boys, I packed a muffin tray, and it was spectacular how much play and learning it provided! Not to mention some time for me to simply observe as my boys were immersed in play and exploration.

From that day forward, said muffin tray was henceforth known as Beach Muffin Tray. Upgraded to capital letter status and brought along for many-a-beach trips over the years.

So get ready, because you’re about to learn how a simple muffin tray provides some of the best beach activities for preschoolers!

FREE Printable Toadstool Counting Cards

Before we get into the beach activities for preschoolers, I invite you to download these Free Toadstool Counting Cards! These cards are part of my Nature School resource. Nature School gives you ideas for learning in nature with activities that focus on literacy, numeracy, fine motor development, sensory experiences, and crafting. In fact, some of these muffin tray activities are included with Nature School!

Grab your FREE Toadstool Counting Cards, along with a sample from Nature School, right here:

Beach Activities for Preschoolers… with a Muffin Tray!

Here are a few of our favorite ways to learn and play at the beach with a muffin tray:

Preschooler Beach Activity #1: Make Some Mudpies

This beach activity for preschoolers is excellent for fine and gross motor development, and it couldn’t be easier! Simply allow your child to mix water and sand in the muffin tray to create mudpies.

The lifting of the water, twisting to reach for items, and reaching are all excellent for gross motor development, and adding some small pebbles, sticks, or shells to the top of those mudpies is fabulous for developing fine motor skills.

It may even turn into some imaginative play where your little one can take your mud pie order, create the special dish, and serve it to you!

Preschooler Beach Activity #2: Play a Game of “Sink or Float”

Playing “Sink or Float?” is another wonderful way to practice fine and gross motor skills while also engaging in some scientific exploration!

First, your little one can gather some small nature items from the beach—small stones, shells, and sticks work perfectly.

Next, fill the muffin tray with water and have your child place each item into the muffin tray, finding out which ones sink and which ones float. Your child might also like to guess whether they think the item will sink or float, then pop it in to confirm their hypothesis!

Activities like this are fabulous for developing a pincer grip and hand strength. These skills will be very helpful down the road as your little one begins to write!

You can also chat about the different items your child found. For example, what do they look like? Feel like? Is the shell rough or smooth? Shiny or dull? Conversations like these are amazing for language building!

Preschooler Beach Activity #3: Collect and Organize Treasures

This activity can be as simple or as complex as you’d like!

Your little one can simply find small treasures on the beach and place them in the muffin tray for ‘safe keeping’ until it’s time to head home.

From there, you could practice different ways of sorting and organizing their treasures. Perhaps you sort them by size, or by the type of item, or maybe you group them by color or pattern, or even shape!

Lots of numeracy skills can also be incorporated into this activity—from one-to-one correspondence to simple math questions, comparisons, and more.

For example, you might ask, “How many shells do you have? 10? Oh wow! Is that more or less than the pebbles that you collected?” Or, “Here’s 2 more shells that I found! How many do you have now?”

Beach Activities for Preschoolers

These simple beach activities with a muffin tray activities were a wonderful way to give my little ones a focused activity while I caught my breath and relaxed into our beach day.

Some days, I was more involved, and we chatted about the interesting little items they found at the beach. Other days, my boys were so focused on their mudpie restaurant and creating meals for imaginary customers that I just sat back and enjoyed the moment.

I hope you consider designating a Beach Muffin Tray like we did oh so many years ago!

And if you enjoy simple nature-themed activities like this, you’ll love Nature School! It gives you simple ways to incorporate literacy, numeracy, fine motor development, sensory play, and crafting into your time outdoors.

Discover Nature School

Connect, Play, and Learn in Nature:
https://shop.howweelearn.com/pages/nature-school

Thank you so much for reading, my friend!

xo
Sarah