A rainy day meant we needed some indoor make-believe play to chase away the gray! Pulling together a bunch of items we had on hand, our indoor world was soon as watery as the rain outside… with a make-believe ocean theme, that is! This adorable idea was thanks to a prompt from Parents magazine.

To start, I laid down a blue blanket (for water) and a beach towel (for sand). Into the water went a variety of sea creatures from the stuffed animal bin, including a shark, octopus, and sea turtle!

You can add items to the “beach” portion of your layout including beach buckets, shovels, or other sand toys.

For extra points on the make-believe scale, add buried treasure!

Veronika loved digging in the sand (e.g. turning back the corner of the towel) to unearth the shining coins and jewels I’d hidden from the dress-up box.

And then loved plinking them into her bucket.

To make things extra wavy, I added blue and green streamers hanging from the ceiling above. Veronika could now parade and swim through the ocean waves!

What would you add to your make-believe sea? Please share in the comments!