How do you use your imagination at the beach when there is no sand? When the tide is way too far out to splash or swim in? And all you have is rocks? And LOTS of them?! Easy.. have fun with those rocks!
You create rock shapes right?! Or in our case.. dinosaur rock shapes 😆
We have a local rocky beach which they refer to as the fossil beach. Seriously some of the rocks actually look like fossils from real dinosaur times!! So cool even I was blown away. The tide is usually pretty far out when we go so it isn’t always possible to even dip your toes in. We live on the bay of fundy so you can get pretty muddy.
But there are treasures to be found at this beach! And if your kids are into dinosaurs like mine are these beaches are WAY more exciting than building sand castles lol!
The best part is hunting around for rocks that look like fossils, but you can also get very creative with rocks- who knew?!
Fun With Rocks At The Beach
My son enjoys building them up to make towers and seeing how tall he can build it. This can be a little dangerous for bare feet however if they are using bigger rocks and the tower falls so be sure to use smaller rocks for this activity. 😉
Making Shapes
My daughter and I decided to make some shapes using the rocks. She made some people and helped mama to make a dinosaur shape. Its more difficult than it looks collecting all the right sizes and placing them in the right spots to resemble the shape you are aiming for.
I loved how E made her people by adding arms, legs and facial features. She even gave them feet and hands! She was very proud of her people and announced after she was done that her people were actually dinosaurs lol! 😆
For our large dinosaur we made a T-Rex. E helped to find all the right shaped rocks whilst mama helped to build and put it together to make a dinosaur. It was kind of like doing a floor puzzle my daughter pointed out.
The hardest part of creating this was finding the right shaped rocks that would fit. But my daughter enjoyed this part so it didn’t become an issue. You can pretty much build or create anything out of rocks when you put your mind to it.
Of course building sand castles is fun too and if you have a sandy and rocky beach combined you can go to town creating! This is a great outdoor activity and can even be done closer to home if you have rocks or stones in your yard/garden.
If your kids are really into dinosaurs and you fancy making dinosaur imprints that look like fossils check out my blog post from another visit to this beach. 🦖
https://crafty-mummy.com/dinosaur_prints/
Other Ideas Using Rocks
- Rock painting is very popular nowadays and there are many different ways you can paint them. Check out some fun ideas here; https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/11822017762491273/
- You can paint the rocks and leave nice messages on them. Leave them scattered for people to find. Kids get a kick out of finding these rocks and it can truly make their day.❤️ Especially when a ‘prize’ is involved lol!
- We made these poppy painted rocks for Remembrance Day. The kids felt proud to pay their respects in some way. You can paint them & leave them at your local memorial site. https://crafty-mummy.com/remembrance-day-art/
- We have also made games with our painted rocks. Check out this cute little Tic Tac Toe game with rocks painted as bugs. https://crafty-mummy.com/tic_tac_toe_game/
- Kids can make their own fun using rocks. If they are anything like my son was when he was little he would line things up for his cars. It kept him busy for a while whilst helping with fine motor control and using his imagination.
The ideas are endless when it comes to rock play. And best of all they are easily accessible 🙂and don’t cost money! However if we ever take a trip to the beach and want to take some rocks home, we always make sure to leave some there so we don’t empty the beach. 😜
Or at least that’s what I tell the kids when they are filling their buckets lol! Have Fun!!
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