Learning doesn't stop while we're on vacation. The kids thrive on routines and always love to have things to do. 

This week we continue our Life at Sea series of activities and printables with a Vacation Edition of activities that all enjoyed!

This post contains activities with the following themes:

• Boats/Nautical
• Astronomy: Stars and Moon
• Land and Water Forms
• Water Animals

We hope you enjoy these Life at Sea Activities for Kids with Free Printables.

Life at Sea Activities for Kids with Free Printables

Boat Memory Game

Last year we used these cards as nomenclature cards and paired them up with boat figures. This year I printed two copies out and we're using them as a memory game.  The kiddos loved the cards!

Source:  I created the printable for this activity. The Boat Nomenclature Cards are a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Life at Sea Vacation Phonograms

This is a brand new printable, created specifically for our vacation, but would work with any nautical unit.  The kiddos match up the pictures with the phonograms.

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Vacation Phonograms Printable is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Boating Addition

With this new printable to the Life At Sea collection, the kiddos will use boat figures as counters and glass beads as markers to solve and answer the addition problems.  I just love how this activity turned out!

Source: I created the printable for this activity. The Life At Sea: Vacation Edition Math Printable Pack is a Subscriber's Only Freebie.  For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Vacation Time Activity

This is also a new printable to the Life At Sea collection!  The kiddos will match clocks with their time.  The clock cards show pictures of what one might do while on vacation or camping.

Source:  I created the printable for this activity.  The Life At Sea: Vacation Edition Math Printable Pack is a Subscriber's Only Freebie.  For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Boating Supplies Money Activity

Here's another new printable to the Life At Sea collection!  The kiddos will match up coin cards to money amount cards.  All of the cards show supplies one might need while boating.

Source:  I created the printable for this activity. The Life At Sea: Vacation Edition Match Printable Pack is a Subscriber's Only Freebie.   For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Marshmallow Constellation Activity

This is an activity we've done before, but the kiddos love it.  I attribute their great knowledge of constellations to it.  Using toothpicks and marshmallows, the kiddos create the constellations on the cards.

Source:  The printable for this activity can be found HERE.  I originally saw the printable at Counting Coconuts.

Moon Cycle Activity

This activity is a favorite in our house.  Bulldozer especially loves it.  You create the moons in the cycle using Oreos.  It's so much fun!

Source: The free printable for this activity can be found at Noon Janan Homeschool.

Land & Water Forms

I thought it would be very appropriate to review land and water forms on our vacation in the 1000 Islands.  I love these felt cut outs I created a while back.  They're so easy to use.

Source: I found the free printable cards at Montessori Mom.

Water Creatures

We've used this activity in the past, but I thought it would be fun to bring it out again.  Dinomite LOVES it.  Other kiddos on vacation tended to enjoy it as well.  The kiddos separate the creature cards into the correct categories.

Source:  I created the printable for this activity. The Creatures of the Ocean Printable is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Boat Lacing Card

It was a little difficult bringing along practical life activities, but I did manage to bring this, since it was easily packable.  The kiddos are getting better and better at lacing cards!  Hooray!

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Kids Learning Printables Linky Party #10

This post may contain affiliate links.

Welcome to the Kids Learning Printables Linky Party #10

Co-host:   Montessori Nature

Our linky party last week had a few hiccups.  I'm so appreciative that my wonderful friend and partner Anastasia from Montessori Nature handles that side of things.  Hopefully this week it will run more smoothly.  Despite hiccups we have some fabulous features.  I just love seeing all of the amazing printables people create!

1.  5 Ways to Learn about Our Eyes from Suzie's Home Education

2.  Free Counting Book Printable for Any Theme from Living Montessori Now

3.  Pattern Blocks Freebie from A Thinker's Toolbox

4.  Letter E Printable Cars and Activity Ideas from Suzie's Homeschool

5.  Shapes Matching Printable from Montessori Nature

Here's how this works!

You:

1.  Link up to 3 educational printables for kiddos.  Free, paid, and giveaway printables are welcome.

2.  Add our Kids Learning Printables Linky Party Button to your post or blog.

3.  Support your fellow educators by commenting, pinning, and/or sharing the post published before yours.

4.  If you're not already doing so, follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and/or through my blog.
5.  You give me permission to use and repost images from your blog.

Me:

1.  Visit all posts.
2.  Share and pin as many links as possible throughout the week.

2.  Feature my favorite posts in next week's link up.

3.  Get to know you, your blog, and your printables for future use.

Let's get this party started!

<div align="center">
<a href="http://everystarisdifferent.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Kids%20Learning%20Printables" title="Every Star Is Different" target="_blank"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/zdN_47sX_k7OS2i1c_ORCv4HPY8Us8WaXNZiOyUjpvU=w169-h100-no" alt="Every Star Is Different" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Nighttime Vacation Activities

This post may contain affiliate links.

During the day it was easy to keep the kiddos entertained on our vacation last week.  There was the shore, the beach, busy bags, and so much more.  At night I knew it would be a little more difficult.  In preparation for the trip I came up with a few activities to have on hand just in case.  They proved to be fabulous!

1.  Shadow Finger Games

I've always wondered how to make animals with my fingers.  I stumbled across this guide on Pinterest.  Unfortunately it was a dead link, so I'm unable to source where it came from.  If someone knows, PLEASE let me know so I can give the proper credit.

Some of the animals are a bit difficult for children to create, but it's a great way to get parents and kiddos playing a guessing game together etc.  We didn't have time for this activity on vacation, but the kiddos and I did a little with it before we left.  I can't wait to try again next time we go somewhere.

Source:  For the Pinterest Pin, click HERE.

2.  Flashlight Games

Due to rain we didn't play flashlight games on vacation, however we've done it multiple times at home.  The kiddos love their flashlights.  There are so many games you can play with them.  We like flashlight tag!  I purchased the flashlights at Walmart with batteries for $1.50 each.

3.  Star Gazing

We were blessed with an clear night on vacation. The sky was beautiful and full of stars.  The boys and I had so much fun star gazing.  Dinomite was able to find the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia.  I was so proud.

Source: We used these cards as a resource to finding constellations. For your free copy click HERE.  My apologies for another link without a source. These cards were recommended by Counting Coconuts, where the link was shared originally.  

4.  Glow Stick Games

This was by far the most favorite nighttime activity ever.  I purchased several packs of glow sticks in different sizes from Walmart and our local dollar store.  Each kiddo was given a different color.  (I'm a HUGE fan of color coding to eliminate fights and arguments.)  We put glow sticks in water bottles for lights. We put mini glow sticks in 12'' balloons for games.  Then the kiddos had more glow sticks in their hands to use as light sabers, and so many other things.  They had such a fun time!

Source:  The idea for the balloon activity came from HERE.

I will definitely be bringing these simple items along with us next time we vacation.  They were so much fun.  It's so easy to vary what you do with the materials to accommodate different ages and games.

Coming soon is our vacation learning time unit and another Special Needs Perspective post!  This week is the last week of our school year. Next week we start our new year (we do school year round).  It's amazing how time flies!

Vacation Busy Bags for Kiddos Ages 3-8

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Last week the four special needs kiddos and I went on vacation with my forever friend and her three children.  Our husbands stayed home due to work responsibilities.  We both agreed we wanted a media free week, and so operation busy bag commenced.  I love busy bags, but admit it's very hard to find ideas for children older than 3 years of age.  The bags I've created are made for ages 3 to 8.  One may say portable mini invitations to play may be a better name for them, but since they all had to fit in bags and were presented that way, I'll stick with busy bags.

The kiddos had a blast with all of the bags!  They worked perfectly during clean up and meal preparation times.  I only wish I would have created more.  On our next vacation I'm determined to convince Dinomite that it's okay that I use his superhero figures and possible Star Wars figures.  He was not at all down with sharing them this time around.  All of the materials used for the bags were items we had on hand at home from past units and kids' toy collections.

Here are our bags:

Pirate Play Dough Busy Bag

I admit, this is one of my favorite busy bags.  It includes a ball of homemade sand play dough, a package of dollar store mardi gras beads, plastic pirate coins, square glass beads, and our pirate figures.  The kiddos could play with this bag for hours.  It was one of the most popular bags.

Fairy Play Dough Busy Bag

This bag smelled delicious. Not only was the play dough purple, but was grape scented with glitter sparkles.  Also included in the busy bag were plastic flowers, fairy figures, and foam flowers.  The girls went nuts over this activity.

Insect Play Dough Busy Bag

This bag included green play dough, green and plain popsicle sticks, green pipe cleaners, and insect figures.  The boys played with this one some, but no nearly as much as I thought they would.

Mermaid Busy Bag

This bag was a "just add water" bag, whether it be at the beach or in a bowl at the table.  Sunshine really loved this bag.  It included 6 mermaid figures, foam sea life figures, and sea shells.  I made sure to include two of each kind of shell and two of each kind of foam figure, so Sunshine could practice her matching.

Alligator Busy Bag

This was another one of Sunshine's favorite busy bags.  It was also a "just add water" bag, however she didn't even need it to keep her occupied.  The bag included blue, green, and brown glass beads, popsicle sticks, and alligator figures.

Princess Stamp & Color Busy Bag

This busy bag included small pieces of white paper, stamps, ink pad, and colored pencils. All of the girls did this activity at least once during the trip.

Vehicle Stamp & Color Busy Bag

For those boys who prefer not to stamp and color princesses, I brought along a bag full of vehicle stamps.

Bead & Pipe Cleaner Busy Bag

I decided to use pipe cleaners in this bag instead of string, to make it easier for the littler ones.  A couple of the kiddos had a lot of fun making bracelets.

My Little Pony Busy Bag

Princess loves My Little Pony. I thought it might be fun to include one of her favorite books with ponies so she could act out some of the scenarios in the book.  It was a hit!

Space & Astronaut Portable Sensory Bin

 This sensory bin originally came in a plastic container with a lid.  We found this beautiful glass tray where we were staying, which worked fabulous for the activity.  Contents include dried black beans, dried white beans, marbles that look like planets, sun, & moon, and astronaut figures.  I can't think of a kiddo who didn't play with this.

Make Up & Accessory Busy Bag

I wanted to save the best for last.  This busy bag was a HUGE hit with the girls.  It worked because we weren't going anywhere except for the outside and the beach.  The bag included children's make up-lipstick, lip gloss, eye shadow, etc., bangles and bracelets, rings, easy to put in hair accessories, a portable stand up mirror and Q-tips for application.  There wasn't a day that went by that the girls didn't put on make up.

These bags were so successful, I don't think I'll ever leave for vacation without some again.  None of the kiddos brought any of their own toys.  Everyone shared the bags so well.  There were no arguments that involved the word "Mine!"  The only issue we had was that some bags were so popular it was hard for some kiddos to wait their turn.  In total, I had twelve bags for six kiddos. The one not shown here was a water dropper activity.  I highly recommend three bags per one kid to make the rotation go well.  I love it when plans go so well!  These bags were such life savers. I can't say enough about them.