Ocean-themed activities are always a hit in our house, and we have been gathering, buying, reading as many under the sea books as possible. I started noticing my son gravitating toward the ocean, counting books the most. Since we have so many aquatic math books, this was the perfect time to incorporate ocean-themed counting activities into our morning sensory play. I included a list of our favorite books below and linked to our favorite activities to play with after reading these beloved sea stories.
Preschool Ocean Counting Books
Underwater Counting Even Numbers Jerry Pallotta & David Biedrzycki
Read Aloud Focus Skills:
- Counting by 2’s 0-50
- Identifying even numbers
- Numeral and word match 0-50 (even numbers only)
Ages: 4-8 yrs
Facts about ocean creatures are weaved perfectly with counting even numbers 0-50 in Underwater Counting Even Numbers by Jerry Pallotta & Davis Biedrzycki. The other ocean counting books we have read lately focused on 1-10, which were perfect for my younger child. But since my preschooler loves a challenge, this book helped push her to count higher numbers. We ended up playing with Underwater Counting & Ocean Counting book activities for days!
The kids the ocean critters chosen for this book, these image make for great text to self connections to the animals they have seen at our beach. Each even number gets a 1-2 page spread in the book with corresponding sea animals for children to be able to find and count. The numeral and word numbers are present for even numbers 0-50 on their related page.
After reading this preschool ocean counting book, I created some math practice lessons for my children. Please see the details about those math activities in my post Ocean Themed Math Activities.
Ocean Counting Odd Numbers by Jerry Pallotta and Shennen Bersani
Read Aloud Focus Skills for Ocean Counting Odd Numbers
- Counting by 2’s with odd numbers 1-49
- Odd numbers 1-49
- Numeral and word match 1-49 (odd numbers only)
Ages: 4-8 yrs
Learning to count will be fun and engaging for your child when using the Ocean Counting Odd Numbers book by Jerry Pallotta and Shennen Bersani. My daughter always forgets the numbers 13 and 16 when counting. Therefore, I have been trying to help reinforce counting through books lately. This book was an excellent read-aloud for me this week and helped my daughter practice counting correctly multiple times while searching for ocean animals on each page.
My kids loved the illustrations in this book, as well as the challenge of counting higher numbers than they usually count. I love a good book that is entertaining or has a great story and can bridge the gap to other subject areas, such as math.
Each page included vivid colors of underwater life and under the sea animals. The creatures varied in size, which was ideal for comparison mini-lesson focus. As more sea life appeared using larger numbers, my daughter used a pointer to help her keep track of counting.
We loved learning while playing with this book. Please visit my post Ocean Themed Math Activities for activity ideas.
Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood Illustrated by Bruce Wood
Read Aloud Focus Skills
Counting 1-10 (from 1-10 and 10-1)
Ages: Baby-5 yrs
My children love, love, love this book! They enjoy the colorful illustrations, the rhyme, and turning the pages quickly to continue the counting in the story. For example, “There are ten little fish, swimming in a line. One dives down, and now there are…” The kids try and flip the page quickly to get to yell, “nine!” (Ten Little Fish, Audrey Wood).
We used this story for a bedtime book for a while because my kids enjoyed the pacing of the story as a game to see how fast we could count 10-1. The illustrations created by Bruce Wood are incredibly colorful and filled with motion.
Audrey Wood is my all-time favorite children’s book author and this book is one of my kid’s favorite of all of her books.
To see details about our favorite activities that relate to this book, please see my blog post Activities with Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood . Or, for other play ideas after reading Audrey Wood’s books, please see my post Best Activities and Lessons for Preschool Children using Books Written by Audrey Wood.
Island Counting 1 2 3 by Frané Lessac
Read Aloud Focus Skills
Counting 1-10
Ages: Baby-4 yrs
This book, at first, looks simple and can easily be read through quickly. But with further inspection, you see the detail added to layer the counting opportunities for young readers on every page of this board book. For example, the page for “three painted houses sitting high on a hill” (Island Counting 1 2 3, Frané Lessac) shows three houses. But looking closely, there are also three children, three cats, three windows on each home, three blades of grass drawn together, and so much more.
This book was excellent for me to help my son build his vocabulary and practice talking more. I would ask him to identify colors, items, as well as say the words. My kids loved the bright colors found throughout the pages. We compared the illustrations in this book to photographs we took when we visited family in Cuba a few years ago.
We completed sensory activities after reading this book. For details about this play idea please see my post Counting Activity after reading Island Counting 1 2 3 by Frané Lessac.
Over In The Ocean: In a Coral Reef by Marianne Berkes and illustrated by Jeanette Canyon
Read Aloud Focus Skills
Counting 1-10
Ages: 3-8 yrs
Over in the Ocean is a book filled with rhymes, action, and counting. The illustrations pop off the page with incredibly intricate detail that weaves beautifully with the text. The images are vibrant and use such great texture that makes the pictures look like they can leap off the page. This book will work well as my children age since the illustrations include great counting opportunities for more significant numbers. For example, on page 2, the story only counts two seagrasses growing. Yet I would ask my daughter to count the scales on the fish, or the layers of the waves in the ocean as well.
Also, the back of this book is filled with ideas of things to do with little learners. They included the song “Over in the Ocean,” ocean animal facts, and tips from the author and illustrator.
We loved playing and creating with playdough after reading this book. For detail about our activities please visit my article Counting Activities with Over In The Ocean Book.
10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle
Read Aloud Focus Skills
Numerical values 1-10, directions, counting 1-10
Ages: Baby- 5 yrs
The inside cover shows how Eric Carle wrote this story from a real-life cargo ship dropping toys, including rubber ducks, in the ocean by accident. This book lends itself well to math skill practice during and after reading the book.
10 Little Rubber Ducks allows your child to explore counting. The book uses directionality on most of the pages. The words used include; up/down, left/right, north/south, east/west, and water/sky. The book had descriptive verbs that would be fun for your child to act out from the book. For example, try using the words drift, float, bobbing, blinks, screeches, glides, and chatters.
We played for days with water and rubber ducks after reading this book. For play idea activities, please visit my post Counting Activity with 10 Little Rubber Ducks. For other Eric Carle book activities please visit my post Activities For Toddlers & Preschoolers to Learn and Play After Reading Eric Carle Books.
Links for books on this page are affiliate links. I earn from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate, but also I just love these stories and authors!
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I hope you enjoyed it. If you have other books, you would like educational activities to connect to, please contact me at ChrisC@morenomade.com or on Instagram @LiveLearnLiteracy.
