Reviewing with Sea Turtles and Jellyfish

We combined two days today and I really enjoyed the review games from both units.  This month we are working on the letters O, W, X, numbers 8 and 18 and sight words WHAT, AM and I.  When I worked as a speech therapist, I found that I could get my students to practice their target sounds or concepts most easily if I couched them in a game, especially a game they could take home and use with their parents.  That's why I think these activities were fantastic for teaching/reviewing those academic concepts that have been introduced.

Since the girls are still quite young and new to playing games with other people, I simplified the rules as much as possible and concentrated on making sure they were reviewing the concept and taking turns nicely.  Strict adherence to "rules" other than waiting for a turn respectfully is not vital at 2 and barely 3 so I didn't push it.  If they wanted to share their pieces with each other so they could all have matches instead of keeping them to themselves, that was fine.

With the sea turtle hatching game, I kept the board with just the letters, numbers and words intact and they rolled their giant pompom on it so they knew which one to look for, then named the color of the sea turtle hatchling on the back.  However, I thought of three alternate ways to use these materials that were slightly more difficult (and better suited to late preschool/kindergarten age).  Option one involved turning the turtle cards over so you couldn't see the letter/number/word and then trying to find the match to the concept your pompom fell on.  Option two is harder and more true to the rules of Memory; you cut up two sets of turtle cards and then find the matches of the concepts, ignoring turtle color.  Option three is the opposite of number two, trying to match the turtle colors and having to name the concept you are turning over before you can take a turn.

The other game the girls liked was the initial letter sound review and they actually did a lot better than I expected.  We played it like it was written, turning over the sea creature cards and taking turns drawing a card and matching it to the beginning letter.  You could up the difficulty level a bit and cut up both sets, turn them over and play a matching game that way.


The jellyfish hats were a big hit, partly because of the chance to cut with their new scissors and partly because hats are fun.  We counted out eight tentacles and talked about which ones were long and which ones were short as we taped the ribbon onto the shower caps.  After they were done, they donned their hats and danced with Maria to "Jellyfish Jiggle" on our Dance N Beats DVD.

We ended the day with an island picnic while watching a documentary about ocean life on Netflix.  They loved watching the pretty fish and eating in the living room, which is not an everyday occurrence (you can see why in the photo).