Bring the beach indoors through thematic game play.
Many children delight in spending lazy summer days relaxing on the beach. While you can't likely go to the beach daily, you can engage children in thematically connected games that give them the opportunity to reflect upon their enjoyable time in the sand. Through the completion of these games, participants not only pass some time but also develop their academic skills.
Bucket-Shovel Sort
Build a beach-tastic math practice game by preparing a bucket-shovel sort activity. To create this activity, purchase an assortment of plastic shovels and sand buckets. Using a permanent marker, write a math problem on the outside of each bucket. Write the solution to each problem on a shovel. Place the problem-bearing shovels in a bag and mix them to jumble them up. When game time comes, lay the buckets out in front of the player and challenge him to sort through the shovels, placing the one with the matching solution, inside each bucket.
If more than one child is playing the game, allow each player to complete the task individually, timing his efforts, then compare the times to determine a winner.
Beachy Object ABC Practice
Give your players the opportunity to practice their alphabetization skills by creating a Beachy Object ABC Practice. To prepare for this game, gather an assortment of beach-related objects such as flip-flops, beach balls and towels. Place all of your gathered objects in a laundry basket along with some tape, index cards and a marker. When you are ready to play the game, give the players the basket. Ask them to pull the objects out one at a time, write the name of the object on an index card, and attach that card to the object using tape. Once all of the objects have been labeled, ask the players to put them in alphabetical order based on the object's title.
Beach Bingo
Create a beachy version of bingo. To craft this game, create a blank five-by-five grid. Produce copies of this prepared grid. Inside each square, write a beach-themed word. Repeat some of the words on each grid, but avoid making the grids completely identical by jumbling the terms and tossing new ones here and there. After creating your grids, write each of the words you used on the grids on a slip of paper. Fold these slips of paper and place them in a hat or basket. When game time comes, give each player one of these prepared grids. Draw the slips of paper, one at a time, announcing each word as you pull it from the container. Instruct the players to mark off these words on their cards and, upon creating a row of marked off spaces, to yell Bingo or another more summer appropriate term.
Tags: Beachy Object, Beachy Object Practice, each bucket, each player, game time, game time comes, Object Practice