This printable ocean charades game is an easy, low prep activity the kids can play at home or school. It’s also a great option anytime of year since it can be played indoors or outdoors.
To start playing, use the form at the end of this post to the ocean themed printable charades cards. We also share tips on how to play as well as how to extend this with additional learning opportunities. For more activities like this, check out our list of printable games for kids.
What Age Can Play Charades?
If your child enjoys playing pretend or acting scenes out from their favorite movie, then they will have a blast playing charades. Younger children may need more assistance if they aren’t reading independently yet or don’t recognize the word.
Most of the prompts are single words or very short phrases in order to keep the clues easy enough for kids of all ages to enjoy playing. This set of word cards pairs perfectly with our beach charades and summer charades games.
Benefits of Playing Charades For Kids
Games like this provide opportunities to be imaginative and practice communication skills. Children need to be observant of nonverbal cues as they try to make guesses. They also need to think creatively about how to silently portray their word to someone else.
This takes a lot of thought and some problem-solving to figure out, even though it merely looks like goofing around and having fun. It can be quite interesting to see what they do and how they interpret their game prompts.
What is Included in the Printable Ocean Charades Game
Our Ocean Charades game is a two page PDF file that includes 36 printable ocean charades words. Fill out the form at the bottom of this post to download it.
All of the words are ocean themed or associated with being in or around the ocean. There are words and phrases for different items, animals, activities, and even two movies. There is a mix of easy and medium difficulty cards.
Here are a few example words:
- Scuba diving
- Jellyfish
- Shark
- Anchor
- Lighthouse
How to Play Ocean Charades
The overall rules for how to play charades are simple: act out your secretly drawn word or phrase without speaking while others try to figure it out.
Classic party games tend to be played with a partner or a team. When playing charades with kids, I recommend teams or individually.
Playing individually means one person goes up and acts out the word from the card while everyone else tries to guess. You don’t have to keep score, but the point can go to the correct guess.
With teams, there is less pressure to get the answer right than the traditional partner scenario. Each team takes turns having an “actor” while the rest of the team tries to guess.
Guessing correctly earns the team a point. Another option is to give other teams a chance to “steal” the point if no one said the right answer when the timer is up.
Recommended Items For Playing
- Self Laminating Sheets – Laminating the cards makes them more durable and last for multiple playthroughs.
- Paper Cutter – Save some time cutting the cards apart by using one of these instead of scissors.
- Timer – Use sand timers or digital timers to keep the game moving along.
More Ocean Activities for Kids
This game along with the crafts, printables, and books below are perfect for including in an ocean theme week of summer camp at home or for planning an ocean unit study. These are all great ideas to engage kids in learning more about the deep blue sea and the creatures living within it.
Ocean Printables for Kids
Kids are fascinated by sharks! Grab our Shark Life Cycle printable to help kids learn the different life stages.
These ocean zones worksheets for kids go perfectly with our ocean zone density jar activity. Both activities help kids learn about the different areas in a visual and hands-on way.
Do you have a budding author? Allow kids to tell their own stories about what happens on the high seas using our Ocean DIY Pop Up Book printables.
Need to keep the kids occupied at the table? They’ll have fun completing the activities on this free printable ocean activity placemat.
Ocean Books for Kids
There is a vast amount of books about the ocean for kids. Some are filled with facts and others are entertaining fictional stories. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.
The Ultimate Oceanpedia from National Geographic Kids is full of gorgeous photos, amazing facts, illustrations, and diagrams. It is chock full of information for kids to use and create mini research reports.
For even more facts, kids will love looking through The Fascinating Ocean Book for Kids: 500 Incredible Facts! You are bound to learn a thing or two along with your child.
Enjoy a fun read aloud with Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae. This collection of rhyming poems is all about animals that live in and around the ocean.
A book with a bit of both worlds, check out Inky the Octopus by Erin Guendelsberger. It is based on the true story of a brave and daring octopus that escaped from his tank at the National Aquarium of New Zealand.
Ocean Games for Kids
Ecosystem: Coral Reef by Genius Games is a family card game that teaches the importance of balance in nature through an engaging card game. The cards are divided by predators, prey, and producers and you need to diversify your food web to earn points. It’s strategic, yet simple to play. Plus, the artwork on each card is gorgeous.
Professor Noggin’s Life in the Ocean is perfect for trivia lovers! This card game helps kids discover cool facts about ocean plants and animals with a combination of trivia, true/false, and multiple choice questions.
Ocean Labyrinth by Ravensburger has players racing to collect treasures under the sea in an ever changing maze. It is a fun family game you can play in about 20 minutes.
Ocean Animal Crafts for Kids
Craft projects make excellent extension activities, so we provided a few ideas for you. From paper plates to origami, these ocean animal crafts are fun to make.