I love the beginning of the school year – all the fresh faces coming into the classroom just eager and ready to learn! I also love all of the fun learning games we play at the beginning of the year! Today, I’m going to share with you a freebie game that I found on Making Learning Fun. There are TONS of free resources on that site, so go on over and check it out! One of the freebies they had was this super fun crocodile game: I first saw this little fella last year, and told my husband we needed to switch our dishwasher detergent! It’s a cascade pouch container! (BTW, I LOVE these!) You can download everything you need from the Making Learning Fun website, but I wanted to spruce it up a little ;) So, here is my version: I used craft foam for the top and also wrapped it around the entire container. It was too hard to get off the Cascade label! I retyped the poem, and fancied up the alphabet cards. The game can be played in a large or small group. It is played like the classic game “bam.” Children reach in, pull out a letter card and say the letter or sound (or both!). If they have said the letter correctly, they place the card in the middle. I like to put it in the middle so it is a class effort, rather than an individual effort. If a child pulls out a snap card – all the children put out their arms (like an crocodile mouth) and say “snap! snap!” and all the cards go back inside. You can print off as many letter cards as you need if you need to focus on certain letter for kiddos. Just put the letter cards that those kiddos need to work on inside the crocodile. I love playing these fun games with kiddos! I’ve made up a bunch more whole group games like this if you would like to check them out! Just click the image below! Would you like to make the crocodile game for your class? You could either head on over to Making Learning Fun and download the simple game for yourself. Or download the fancier version here! Have fun!