Roll and Say alphabet games are so easy to prep, and kids have so much fun with them. PLUS you can practice a wide range of early phonics skills with these easy game mats. Our Fall Roll and Say ABC Game has been so popular that I decided to create one for each season. This Roll and Say Summer ABC game ties in well with end of year activities, summer learning at home, or preschool summer camps. Use it as part of a shell, beach, or ocean theme activity with preschoolers or kindergarteners.
Get a full week of summer learning! Try our beach theme, shell theme, or ocean theme lesson plans.
Setting up the Roll and Say Summer ABC Game
I mentioned before that roll and say games are super easy to set up. Simply choose the printable game mat you’d like to use, and print it out.
Then gather any manipulative you’d like to use as a game piece. In the photo below you can see a few options. Small shells, glass beads, pom poms, pony beads and mini toys all work well. You’ll want something that isn’t completely round so that it will stop rolling and land on a shell.
I also like to place the game mat on a surface with borders to help prevent that game piece from rolling off the mat too frequently. A small cookie sheet works perfectly for this!
As an extension activity you can also include a set of letter manipulatives that matches the letters on the game mat.
Time to Play the Summer ABC Game
To play kids shake, roll and say! It’s that easy, but they get a ton of letter practice along the way.
First they shake and roll the game piece.
Sometimes it lands right on a shell. Other times it lands close to a shell, especially if you are using a smaller game piece. We just say the letter for the shell our piece is closest to or roll again if we can’t decide.
If you include different game piece options kids will often experiment with them to see how they roll and spin in different ways. It may look like they’re just playing, but along the way they are identifying and saying a lot of letters…so let them play!
Depending on your focus for the activity you can practice naming the letters, letters sounds, or a word beginning with the letter.
You can also extend the activity by having kids find the matching letter as they cover it on their game board.
You can use one of each letter to use as a way to make sure they land on each shell before the game is over.
Or you can include a bin with more than one of each letter and have kids create a real graph to show which letter was rolled most frequently. This option is a great way to play the game together in small group.
The free printable set includes 6 game mats. Three of them have uppercase letters on them, and three of them have lowercase letters on them.
Click Here to Get Your Free Summer Roll and Say ABC Game
More Seashell Inspired Learning and Play Ideas
GET A FULL WEEK OF SHELL THEME LEARNING AND PLAY
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
This shell theme set is full of hands-on activity ideas and the following printables:
1) Collecting Seashells Counting Emergent Reader (three variations)
2) Dissolving Shells Science Experiment Recording Sheet (in color and b/w)
3) 0-35 Shell Theme Number Cards
4) Shell Roll and Graph Math Activity
5) Types of Shells Photograph and Label Cards
6) Alphabet Recording Sheet for Seashell ABC Hunt (3 versions in both color and b/w)
7) Seashell Shapes Mats and Activity
8) Beginning Sound Seashell Sort Activity
9) My Shell Words Sight Word Recording Sheets (in color and b/w)
10) A to Z Shell Theme Letter Formation Work Mats
Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers
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