TeachingSpace
Home » What to do
shell

The Memory Game

Source:

'Natural Leaders' - Environmental Games and Activities by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) /Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) available from NTS

OBJECTIVES

Time

15 minutes or longer

You will need

Items collected from the shore. 

Did you know?

If you find a large hermit crab with quite a small shell, in a small rock pool, offer it a similar but larger shell which you have found, by lying it down close to the crab. It will probably inspect the shell very carefully with its claws. If it likes the new shell, it will quickly pop out of its original home and wriggle into the new one.

Before the activity

Collect about 10 items including pebbles, shells and bits of seaweed such as kelp and bladder wrack

The activity

  1. Ask the children to gather around in a circle.
  2. Tell a story or give a little information about each object. For example, this seaweed has bladders to keep it afloat, this shell would make a great home for a hermit crab, this feather fell from herring gull, this limpet was eaten by a dog whelk you can see the little hole the dog whelk drilled into the shell, this piece of dog whelk shell has been rolled around in the sand on the shore line and been worn smooth by the sea, this pebble has also been worn smooth because of the sea, it probably fell into the sea as a bit of rock falling from the cliff etc. 
  3. Give the children a minute to closely look at all the objects and touch them, they can ask you to remind them of the names of each one
  4. When the leader says ''big storm coming'' the children turn around and crouch down and shut their eyes. The leader removes one of the items and mixes the others around. The leader then  says ''storm over''
  5. The children have to spot which item is missing, remember it's name and tell you the story about it. 

Suggested Follow up

Additional Information

Rocky shore name trail - A fold-out, laminated, simple guide to commonly found plants and animals, available from the Field Studies Council  

Curriculum Links

Age Range

1,2