Ocean Activities

Little Passports is celebrating our Animals Wild subscription for kids ages 3-5 with a flood of free activities to share with your school, pod, or shoal. Explore the mighty oceans with a poem about the leafy sea dragon, four printable activities, and quick facts about two of the sea’s coolest creatures.

The Smallest Dragon

I see you! But do you see me?
Look closer—deep down in the sea.
I must admit, I’m hard to spot
With all the leafy parts I’ve got!
I blend in with seaweed and kelp.
For staying safe, it sure does help.
To copy them, I move and sway
So I don’t give myself away.
And while I hide, I also eat
Sea lice and mysids—what a treat!
I slurp up hundreds with my snout.
I love to snack, without a doubt!
When I have someplace new to go
My dorsal fins wave to and fro.
They propel me through the ocean
In a graceful, but slow, motion.
Off the Australian coast I roam.
It is the one place I call home.
Seahorses and I look the same—
But leafy sea dragon is my name!

Printable Activities

Enjoy these four free printable ocean activities for kids! Tap or click on the picture to download and print the activity.

 Anglerfish Chomper Puppet

 Sea Turtle Pal

 Whale of a Maze

What Are You Doing Here?

Ocean Creature Quick Facts

Arm in Arm

Is that a basket in the ocean? Nope! It’s a creature called a basket star. Like its relative the starfish, the basket star has a body with five main arms. But a basket star’s main arms have arms of their own! And those arms have tiny hooks that help it hunt for food by catching creatures that pass by, including shrimp. Once the arms snag something tasty, they curl up and deliver the meal to the basket star’s mouth. Yum!

Nice and Clean

Like cars at a car wash, reef manta rays line up for their turn at one of the most popular spots in the ocean—the cleaning station! This area among the coral is where small fish called cleaner wrasses nibble away at algae and itchy little creatures that have made the reef manta rays their home. The wrasses are so thorough, they will even swim into the manta rays’ mouths and gills! When the visit is over, everyone is happy. The cleaner wrasses have enjoyed some snacks and the reef manta rays swim away clean and healthy.