Beach Numbers 1–20 Activity Pack | Counting, Number Words, Games & Centers

This resource (Beach Numbers 1–20 Activity Pack — Printable ESL Counting Games & Number Cards) is included in Beach Unit for Elementary at this link:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beach-Unit-for-Elementary-ESL-4075972

Young learners need repeated, hands-on practice to understand numbers beyond 10. Counting shells on a sandcastle gives students concrete, visual support as they learn to recognize quantities, compare numbers, and count accurately. This boosts students’ language comprehension while practicing math. All materials are ready to print — just cut & go!  

Flashcards are flexible and allow teachers to create many short, meaningful tasks without needing to prep more materials.

Number Recognition Drill. Match the Beach Numeral to the Sandcastle. Students work individually or in pairs to match the number flashcard to the sandcastle quantity card.

 

Ordering Activity. Use one set of printable number cards for ESL kids at a time: Students place numeral cards in order from 1–20.

Flashcard number beach theme Bingo. Give students bingo sheets with numerals or quantities. Flash the opposite card (sandcastle or number) as the calling card.

Fly Swatter Number Game. Place several of the sandcastle quantity flashcards and numeral cards on the board. Call out a number or show a flashcard, and students race to swat the matching card with a fly swatter. This game helps learners strengthen number recognition.

Flashlight Reveal. Cover each small flashcard with yellow paper. Students take turns shining a flashlight behind the covered card to reveal the hidden sandcastle or numeral. When they see the image appear, they say the number out loud. This adds a fun element of surprise that keeps students engaged!

Listen and Color – Beach Numbers Worksheets. Students listen to the teacher call out a shell number and its color, then find the matching shell in the sandcastle and color it correctly. The second page reinforces learning as students independently complete the color sentences for numbers 1–20.

Follow the Code – Write the Numeral. Students follow a simple color code to identify how many shells are in each sandcastle. After coloring the shells according to the instructions, students write the correct numeral beside each castle.

Match the Number Words. Students look at the number words in the center of the page and match each one to the correct numeral around the sandcastle border. They draw a line from each word to its corresponding number.

Numeral–Word–Quantity Matching Cards. Students use three types of cards: the numeral, the number word, and the sandcastle with the matching quantity of shells. They cut out the cards and work at the table to match the three pieces that belong together.

Students can work individually, with a partner, or in small groups to complete each matching set. Great for centers, early finishers, and hands-on number practice!

Spin and Cover worksheet. Students use the spinners to generate a random number, then look for the matching sandcastle on their worksheet. They cover the correct sandcastle with a counter, token, or small manipulative or color. Players continue spinning and covering until all the sandcastles are matched.

Beach Number Board Game.  Students roll the dice, move their game piece along the colorful path, and identify each number they land on. Perfect for math centers, small-group rotations, or partner games.

Number Word Building. Students use the letter tiles to complete number words. They look at each card, identify the missing beginning letter, and place the correct tile to spell the number correctly. This activity helps learners number vocabulary in a hands-on way!

Shell Number Match. Students choose a numbered shell and place it on top of the matching number word in the sandcastle. They continue selecting shells until the entire castle is covered. This hands-on activity helps learners connect numerals with number words.

Check the blog post of  the low-prep small cards for your “Beach” unit — perfect for games, grammar drills, writing prompts, or fast finishers, all in the full beach resource.  These Beach Unit Small Cards make it easy to bring beach vocabulary to life in elementary ELL classes — and save you time prepping. Go here:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/04/beach-unit-small-cards.html

Visit my blog for preschool teachers here: EFL Preschool Teachers Blog. You'll find practical activities, tips, and resources designed to make learning fun and effective for little ones!

Beach Prepositions Activities with Sandcastle and Crab | ESL ELL

 This resource (Beach Prepositions Activities with Sandcastle & Crab — Printable ESL Beach Unit Pack)  is included in Beach Unit for Elementary at this link:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beach-Unit-for-Elementary-ESL-4075972

This resource gives students a fun and meaningful way to practice prepositions in context to include in your lesson plan. Using a playful sandcastle and a red crab helps young learners visualize spatial relationships. The activities support comprehension, speaking, and sentence-building skills. Help elementary ESL/ELL learners practise spatial prepositions with fun beach-themed worksheets, flashcards, and games — sandcastle & crab included!

Teaching spatial relationships (in/on/under/next to / behind / in front of) can be challenging for young ESL learners — but using the flashcards can be helpful.

Copy Cat Writing and Drawing  Flashcard Activity. Use thin paper to place it over the top of the flash card and copy with markers and crayons. They can also copy out the prepositions.

Show your class any preposition flashcard and ask questions: Where is the crab?

Ask questions to your students, but fold the preposition word on the flash card, like I show here: 

Listen & Draw the Crab Worksheet. Students practice understanding prepositions in context. Then, show the flashcard for them to check.

Write a Sentence. Students draw a picture small card and a preposition card, then say or write a sentence (e.g., The crab is under the sandcastle.).

Roll and color the Prepositions Worksheet. A student rolls the preposition die. Depending on the preposition it lands on (e.g., on, under, next to, in front of, behind, in), they find the matching picture on the worksheet. As a speaking practice: After rolling, students say the sentence aloud (The crab is under the sandcastle.) before coloring.

Fill-in-the-blank worksheet with prepositions. Provide a word bank with prepositions (in, on, under, behind, next to, in front of) using the small cards or flashcrads from the resource.

Color-by-instruction printable worksheets for prepositions beach — very effective for ELLs because it combines reading comprehension, vocabulary, and coloring fun.

A Q&A worksheet helps students practice both forming and answering questions with prepositions. Then do a Pair Work Role-Play, where One student asks: “Where is the red crab?”The partner answers: “It is under the sandcastle.”

Read the sentence on the worksheet and draw + color the crab in the correct place on the sandcastle. It encourages careful reading and understanding of simple preposition sentences.

Sandcastle + Crab Cutouts. Teacher says: “Put the crab under the sandcastle.” Students move the crab cutout to the correct position. It builds listening comprehension and preposition vocabulary.

I also added a printable sentence puzzle set to the resource! Each puzzle piece has part of a sentence with the sandcastle and crab images. Students put the pieces together to form complete sentences, such as “The red crab is next to the sandcastle.” This activity helps learners practice reading, sentence structure, and preposition vocabulary in a hands-on way.

Students move along the path on the beach preposition board game, read the spaces, and practice prepositions in a playful way. It’s a great way to bring all the activities together and give students extra practice in a fun, cooperative format.

 

Check the ready-to-use Beach Unit Flashcards provide colourful, engaging visuals that help kids remember words — while giving you flexible materials for games, matching, speaking, writing and class activities. Perfect for beginners or young learners, these cards help with vocabulary recognition, production, spelling, and interactive use. All included in the full Beach Unit resource. Check the blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/04/beach-unit-flashcards.html

Check out my Pinterest board for printable materials and creative activities!

From flashcards to worksheets, you'll find tons of useful resources to make your lessons fun and interactive.
Visit the board here: https://www.pinterest.com/ei98srl/esl-beach-theme/

 

Beach Unit printable Book

 This resource (Beach Unit Printable Book — Teach Future “Be Going to” + Beach Vocabulary to Elementary ELLs) is included in Beach Unit for Elementary at this link to download:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beach-Unit-for-Elementary-ESL-4075972

Print the full-color version of “The Frog is Going to the Beach” as a way to develop grammar and vocabulary in a meaningful way. It is good for helping learners internalize a grammatical structure (future “be going to”).

The bright and engaging illustrations help students understand the meaning of the text, even if they are still learning to decode or read independently.

Each page uses the structure “The frog is going to...” in a natural and repetitive way. The visual cues make it easier for learners to understand “be going to” for future plans. The same goes for the printable coloring version.

Reading Activity Idea with the Book. Start doing the Echo Reading (Teacher Models, Students Repeat).  Read each page aloud while pointing to the words. Students repeat after you, focusing on pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm.

 Benefit: Builds fluency and helps students internalize the sentence pattern: “The frog is going to build a sandcastle”

Take a look of the whole book assembled.

Why This Beach Book  Works (Benefits for Teachers & Students)

• Simple, predictable sentence structure — every page uses “The frog is going to …” which helps children internalize future tense and builds confidence.

• Beach-themed context — vocabulary related to sand, sea, beach activities makes the story more engaging, relevant and memorable for young learners.

• Builds multiple skills — reading, speaking, fluency, vocabulary, listening (through echo-reading), and comprehension — all in one resource.

• Visual support — bright, colourful illustrations help even early or struggling readers understand meaning without needing full decoding.

• Low-prep for teachers — just print and fold/assemble: no fancy materials or lengthy prep time. Perfect for busy classrooms or online teaching.

Beach Unit Games — printable beach vocabulary cards and fun ESL games for elementary learners. Includes board game, matching, Bingo, sentence-building and more for vocabulary, spelling and speaking practice. All included in the complete resource. Go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/05/beach-unit-games.html 

Explore a world of engaging links tailored for young English language learners! Click below to access resources designed to support early language.

https://linktr.ee/HolisticEnglishResources

 I use Creative Fabrica for most of the covers. Here is my affliate link:

https://www.creativefabrica.com/product/free-tropical-beach-summer-digital-paper/ref/2670802/?sharedby=user-3080428

Beach Unit Games

  This resource ( Beach Unit Games — Printable Beach Vocabulary & English Activities for Elementary ELL) is included in Beach Unit for Elementary at this link, ready to download:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Beach-Unit-for-Elementary-ESL-4075972

The games are ideal for children beginner ESL,mixed classrooms. With this Beach Unit Games Pack, you get a variety of interactive games that reinforce vocabulary, spelling, reading, speaking, and creativity — all built around a beach theme. Great for summer lessons, thematic units, or just a fun review class.

Print the beach-themed board game and play with a twist. Each time they land on an item, they "collect" it in an imaginary beach template that has been assigned to each player.
At the end, they list or draw the things in their beach and describe them: “I have a towel and sunglasses.”

Spelling Activities Matter: Learners internalize the correct spelling of new beach-related words (e.g., bucket, mask) by physically constructing them.

Develop early reading and vocabulary skills with this picture-word matching card game. Students will match beach-themed word cards (e.g., sandcastle) with corresponding picture cards to build vocabulary recognition, strengthen spelling awareness, and support reading fluency.

The cards are ready for print & cut; suitable for pair work, small groups, or whole-class games.

Students will review and reinforce their beach vocabulary by writing words on their own Bingo boards and listening carefully during a picture-word calling game using the cards from the previous activity.

The blank Bingo boards provided are for students to write in 8 beach-themed words. Prepare a master list of the words you want to use. As each word is called, students check their boards. If they have the word, they cover it with a token. The first student to cover all 8 words and call out “BINGO!” wins. You can keep playing any other day, they just save the board that is already prepared.

 Matching Words. Lay out the picture cards on one side of the table and the word cards on the other. Students take turns matching the correct word to each image.

Animals on the Beach – Sentence Building Game. Students will use a variety of animal-on-the-beach picture cards to create complete and meaningful sentences using a variety of word cards (nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and more).

Students will write their sentences on their notebooks and share to the class or a partner. The teacher or peers can help check for grammar and sentence structure.

After using these beach games your students will:

• Know and recall 15–25 beach-related vocabulary words (objects, items, beach items)

• Improve spelling, reading, and word–picture association

• Gain confidence speaking and writing simple sentences about familiar contexts (“I have…, I see…, I build…”)

• Practice listening comprehension (during Bingo or teacher calls)

• Develop creativity through storytelling or drawings — combining vocabulary, grammar and imagination

What You Get with the Printable Beach Book: Full-colour version of “The Frog Is Going to the Beach” — illustrated story for kids.Printable colouring version — useful for colouring, drawing, and integrating art + language.Simple, repetitive, and student-friendly language — ideal for elementary-grade ELLs.Flexibility — story can be used in many ways: echo reading, shared reading, reading comprehension, vocabulary introduction, listening & speaking activities. Included in the complete resource. Go to this blog post:   https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/05/beach-unit-printable-book.html 

All my interactive games, worksheets, and creative ideas to make learning English exciting! 📌 Follow my Pinterest boards and save time and bring fun learning into your classroom! https://www.pinterest.com/ei98srl