The Beach Experience at Stone Bay Beach and Viking Bay Beach
"Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, oh I do like to be beside the sea!"
Stone Bay Montessori and Beach School is proud to offer a beach programme for children aged 3 years and above. Our nursery in Broadstairs, Kent, is ideally located near both Stone Bay Beach and Viking Bay Beach, which enables us to take small groups of children to the beach weekly in the summer term (weather permitting), for play, exploration, and group-based lessons.
What Is a Beach School?
Similar to forest schools, beach schools use the coast as a platform for a whole new learning experience where children can explore their natural surroundings in an organised setting. Beach schools are lots of fun for children, but they can also learn new skills, test their limits and improve their confidence and self-esteem.
What’s more, this instils a love for the environment – children are free to explore and scavenge items on the beach, which they can then bring back to the nature table at our nursery. Each week, these items are returned to the beach, where they belong, to reinforce the importance of protecting our natural spaces and coastal environments.
Focusing on both the prime and specific areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage, we incorporate fun-based learning into everything we do at beach school. Please click the link below to learn more about EYFS.
Activities
Our beach experience is led by the children’s interests, in addition to some of the following activities:
Rock Pooling
Scavenger Hunts
Beach Cleans with Litter Pickers
Land Art
Mindfulness and Yoga
Creature Identification
Floating and Sinking with Scavenged Natural Items
Erupting Volcanoes, Sculpted from Sand
Name Writing (in Sand, and on Cliffs with Chalk)
Nature Rubbings
Shadow Marking
Boat Making
Grading Sea Shells
Sorting Sea Shells by Type
Shell Painting
Book-Inspired Roleplay and Learning, e.g., Stanley’s Stick
Digging Holes and Rolling/Throwing Balls to Score Points
