Thirty-six ocean animal words on unique printable cards: whales, sharks, octopuses and seahorses, plus the coral reef, kelp and plankton they depend on.
36 items · a 5 × 5 card with a free space needs 24 or more. More items make the cards differ.For review bingo, type answer | clue (“56 | 7 × 8”): the card shows the answer, the caller reads the clue. Two columns pasted from a spreadsheet work too. Start a line with an emoji (“🐶 dog”) for a picture square.
Showing 4 of 31 pages. (Print always prints every page.)
To save a PDF, choose Print, then “Save as PDF” as the printer. Only the sheets print.
30 different cards. No two are the same. The card number and set number on every card let the caller check a winner (press C while calling).
About this set
An ocean unit has two kinds of learners: children who can already name a dolphin and a shark and want to meet the rest, and older students who sort sea animals into mammals, fish, mollusks and crustaceans. This list serves both. It starts with the animals everyone knows (whale, dolphin, shark, octopus, jellyfish, starfish, crab), adds the surprising ones (anglerfish, narwhal, manta ray, pufferfish, manatee) and ends with the places and food that hold the ocean together (coral reef, kelp, plankton). Several are not fish at all, which the game can bring out: whales, dolphins, seals and manatees are mammals, and octopuses, squid and clams are mollusks.
Grades: Pre-K to 5th grade. Best in: April, May, June.
Fish or not: when an animal is called, students say whether it is a fish, a mammal or something else before they cover the square.
Clue caller: read a clue instead of the word (“I have eight arms”, “I carry my babies in a pouch”) and students cover the octopus or the seahorse.
Ocean zones: after the game, students sort the squares into shallow water (clownfish, crab), open water (dolphin, blue whale) and the deep dark (anglerfish, squid).
Movement version: when an animal is called, the class moves like it for five seconds (swim like a dolphin, scuttle like a crab) and then covers the square.
Kindergarten version: make 3 × 3 cards from the nine most familiar words (whale, shark, crab, fish, starfish, octopus, seal, turtle, jellyfish) and show a picture for each call.
The whales (blue, humpback, narwhal), dolphin, orca, seal, sea lion, walrus, sea otter and manatee. All of them breathe air and feed their young milk. Sharks, rays, eels, seahorses and clownfish are fish.
Are coral reef, kelp and plankton animals?
Not all. Coral is made of tiny animals, kelp is a large seaweed (an alga), and plankton is a mix of tiny plants and tiny animals that drift in the water. They are on the cards because sea animals live in, or feed on, them.
Can I change the words?
Yes. The 36 words are in the box above the cards. Delete, add or edit any line and the cards are rebuilt at once. Nothing is saved on our servers.
How do I call the game?
Press “Call the game”. Each press of the space bar tumbles the ball cage and pops out the next item in very large type, with the list of items already called beside it. Press C and type a card number to check a winner, P to change the win pattern, V to have each call read aloud, and F to fill the projector.
How do I save the cards as a PDF?
Press Print and choose “Save as PDF” as the printer. Each page can also be saved as a PNG picture from under its preview.
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