Shark Surprise!

Science/Art Activity

Children will practice their observational skills and reinforce their familiarity with different types of fish while creating their own card game.

WHAT YOU NEED

Colored pencils or fine-point markers
Index cards
Books or magazines with pictures or illustrations of fish

WHAT TO DO

Tell children that they are going to play a card game called Shark Surprise!, but first they must make the cards.
Divide the class into groups of four. Tell children to look through the books or magazines and choose a fish they would like to draw. Then have them draw that fish on two index cards. Explain to children that they are making a matching pair of cards so the pictures on the cards should match as closely as possible. Then have them carefully label their pictures. Have each group collect their cards into a deck.
Now have each child in the group draw a shark on one index card and label it. Let each group choose one of the shark cards to insert into the deck. (They can set aside the other shark cards for the next few games.)
Tell children they are ready to play Shark Surprise! Explain that the idea of the game is to collect as many pairs as possible and not get caught holding the shark card. Encourage children to be careful not to let others know if they hold the shark card. Choose one child in each group to be the dealer. After they have shuffled the cards, have the dealers deal out all the cards face down. Tell children to look at their cards carefully, find any matching pairs and read aloud the name of the fish on those pairs before setting them aside. Then have the child to the left of the dealer in each group begin play by drawing a card from the player on his or her left. If the player draws a matching card, he or she must read aloud the name of the fish on the card, and set aside the pair. Play continues to the left. The game ends when all the pairs are "caught" and someone is left holding the shark card.
Have children replace the shark card with another shark card, shuffle the deck, and play again.

TEACHING OPTIONS

You may want to have children work with partners to create the matching pairs of cards.
For longer games, you can have children make additional pairs of fish cards to add to each deck.

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