Simple Small Worlds: Fizzing Hidden Ocean World

You can also read about our other Simple Small Worlds:

Insect World

Frog World

Farm World

Dinosaurs and Sticky Mud

Dragon World

Butterfly World

S and I are HUGE fans of Safari Ltd and all of their amazing models (both large and miniature), so when Safari Ltd asked if I would be interested in reviewing some of their products on my blog, I jumped at the opportunity!  Safari Ltd provided me with their Ocean TOOB free of charge, but all opinions expressed in this post are my own and were not influenced by the free product.

Though we have LOTS of miniature "guys", Safari Ltd's are our favorites.  Not only are they brightly colored (and hand painted!), but they are Phthalate and Lead-free.  They even list the names of the various animals on each model, which is SO handy...I have a hard time keeping all my dinos straight and S is always wanting to know the right names for them.  :)

Safari Ltd TOOBS are just perfect for small world imaginative play.  When I heard they were sending us an Ocean TOOB  I began to scheme.  When I think of oceans, I think of sand, shells, and beautiful blue water.  Rather than just fill a tub with blue water, though, I wanted to come up with something a little more creative.  To stay true to my goal with my Simple Small Worlds series, I wanted to keep prep and materials to a minimum.

We had SO much fun with our fizzing treasure rocks (which we learned about here) during our Find the Leprechaun's Gold Hunt - it gave me the idea to make some baking soda dough and shape it like shells around several of the Ocean TOOB creatures.  

I promise that this is SUPER easy.  Really.  In fact, I did it in less than five minutes as I was needing to pick S up from preschool!  You will need to make the dough/baking soda shells a day in advance, though, to give them time to dry and harden.  That's the only hard part!

To make baking soda dough, you just need baking soda and water.  I used two boxes of baking soda to make six shells.

Once you've emptied the baking soda into the bowl, add just enough water that the dough is crumbly.  Err on the side of too little water.  Here I could have actually done a little less - so think of the below picture as showing you the maximum amount of water to add.  :)

After that, I took six of the Ocean TOOB figures and using a shell as a reference point, made the general shape of a shell by hand (this took about 15 seconds per "shell") and then placed the shells on a sheet of wax paper.  After making the shape, I used the back of a real shell to make some grooves like the shells I was planning to use in the small world.  Like I said, the whole thing took less than five minutes - I happened to be watching a clock.  I hope a lot of you will give these a try because they are just so much fun.

One of my favorite things about the Safari Ltd TOOBS is that they have natural groupings that lend themselves to both cohesive small world play and to learning about different groups of animals.  I knew that the Ocean TOOB would include a sea lion, eagle ray, starfish, two turtles, penguin, octopus, moray eel, humpback whale, sperm whale, hammerhead shark, tiger shark, and a dolphin - so I headed to the library last weekend and picked up a variety of both fiction and non-fiction books on those animals.  When she saw the small world, S was able to identify a few of the animals because of the reading we'd done, which was pretty cool!

 So for the set-up, I set out our splat matand filled our plastic storage bin with the now dry baking soda shells, several different shells,the glass gemsI used in Frog World (we found ours at the Dollar Store), and the remaining Ocean TOOB animals.

S was already so excited that she sat down to play for a few minutes before she realized - "wait, Mama, where's the water?  Shouldn't there be water in the ocean?"

To get the "ocean" started, I provided her with four squeeze bottles full of blue vinegar.  I used four drops of blue food coloring per bottle, though you could absolutely use liquid watercolors.  In fact, I would have used liquid watercolors, only our blue (from the tropical series) is really more of a green-blue, and I had my heart set on a bright blue ocean.  :)  

I instructed her to use the squirt bottles on the white shells to see what happened.  She gleefully went to work dissolving the first shell...which revealed a turtle!

After removing each animal, she loved squirting more vinegar to watch them fizz and "to clean them off".  

Moving on to the next shell!

"A cute little penguin, Mama!"

This one had the best reveal!  The octopus' eyes peeking out as its shell dissolved were cracking me up.

"Ooh!  Mama!  A ray!"  Once S was finished finding all the hidden creatures, I added several containers of water from our sink to make the "ocean" a bit deeper.

After all the shells were dissolved, the baking soda doubled as "white sand" at the bottom of her ocean world.  She smoothed out the "sand" and kept commenting on how soft it was.  I couldn't resist playing in it myself, and she was right!  The baking soda is silky smooth at the bottom.  We could even write and make designs in it, which was fun.

S found out that adding some of the residual vinegar in the squeeze bottles would still make little foamy eruptions, so she used every last drop of the blue vinegar.  :)

Safari Ltd TOOB creatures are just the right size for little hands to maneuver and play with.  Here S was helping the whale swim over to his friends on the other side of the ocean. 

We had so much fun with this world!  S played with it for almost 3 hours and declared it "the best project you've ever thought of, Mama!"  The bright blue ocean was so beautiful paired with the vibrant colors of the hand-painted Ocean TOOB creatures.  They were the perfect addition to our Fizzing Hidden Ocean World!

CONTEST OVER AS OF 3/30/13 at 9am.  Winner has been selected - Thank you to all who entered!

And now for even more fun: 

A SAFARI LTD. GIVEAWAY

The Details:

Safari Ltd has graciously offered a free product to one lucky reader - their choice of one Safari Ltd TOOB or replica.  As an added bonus, if the selected winner is found to be following Safari Ltd on any of their social media sites, that winner will win an additional product!

So for your chance to win TWO products from Safari Ltd, follow them on any of the following:

Facebook

Google+

Pinterest
Twitter

The contest will run for one week and will end at 9am on Saturday, March 30th.  At that time, one winner will be chosen using a randomly generated number from Random.org.  The winner will be announced both on the blog and on Facebook (I will also email you if you leave your contact info in your comment) and will have 72 hours to get me their mailing address.  If the chosen winner has not responded in 72 hours, a new winner will be chosen.

Due to the high cost of international shipping, the contest is only open to US residents.

To enter, leave ONE comment below.

If you'd like to increase your chances of winning, you may add ONE additional entry (comment) for "liking" Fun At Home With Kids on Facebook.  Once you have "liked" us, come back and leave the comment - "Now Following Fun At Home With Kids on Facebook" (if you are currently following Fun At Home With Kids on Facebook, you may leave a comment stating that instead).

You may also add ONE more additional entry (comment) for "liking" Safari Ltd. on Facebook.  Once you have "liked" them, come back and leave the comment - "Now Following Safari Ltd on Facebook"  (if you are currently following Safari Ltd on Facebook, you may leave a comment stating that instead).

Good luck!

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.