Free I Spy Ocean Printable (Sea Creatures)

Using an I Spy Ocean printable is a great way to incorporate the beach and ocean into learning for young children, including preschoolers and kindergarteners.

Learning about the ocean can be such a fun activity for young kids! With these free printables, kids can practice number recognition, learn about sea animals, and work on language skills.

I Spy games are a fun way for kids to work on counting, visual discrimination, fine motor skills, new vocabulary, and just learning about marine life.

A page with many types of ocean animals and boxes at the bottom to be tallied.

They’re a great activity for classrooms, but also for summer break, a beach trip, road trips, or even a rainy day activity!

I Spy Ocean Printable

This I spy ocean printable worksheet encourages kids to count how many different ocean animals there are, such as dolphins, crabs, cute jellyfish, and more. At the bottom of the worksheet, it shows how many of each animal there is to find.

Once they’ve counted all the sea life, they can use it as a coloring page. It even comes with an answer key, which makes it handy if you want to make multiple copies for lots of kids, or the classroom.

You can also use them once or laminate them for repeated use! Or make a book out of them and you’ve got plenty of activities to keep the kids busy.

For more ocean themed activities, check out our shark coloring pages or learn how to draw a fish!

What Is I Spy And I Spy Printables?

I Spy is a fun game where one player in a small group chooses an object within sight and tells the other players that “I spy with my little eye something ______.” Other players attempt to guess what they spy.

These worksheets are just a version of that game. These free printables allow children to find thematic objects on the sheet itself, count them, and then color them according to the color key.

They’re a combination of traditional I Spy games and a color by number activity. For other color by number worksheets see our Back to School and Fall ones.

Here are some interesting facts about some of the ocean creatures in your printable game.

Jellyfish have been in our oceans for over 500 million years and they’re way more fascinating than you’d expect them to be! Here are a couple of fun things about jellyfish:

Jellyfish are made of 98% water.
They have very short lifespans. Some species only live a few hours, whereas larger species can live for a few years.
They can be tiny or rather large. Some of the smallest are nearly invisible, less than a millimeter. By comparison, the lion’s mane jellyfish can extend its tentacles as far as 120 feet.

Starfish come in different colors, shapes, and sizes, and there are over 2,000 different species. Here are a few fun facts about starfish:

Starfish can regenerate their own arms, but it can take months or even years to fully do so.
Starfish have hundreds of tiny feet. To move, the feet at the end of each arm fill with water, causing the arm to move as a foot would.
Not all starfish are shaped like a star. The Cushion Starfish has a round blob-like shape.

Seahorses are beautiful creatures that can be found all over the world. Here are a couple of facts about this unique animal:

The males carry the eggs during reproduction. Once the females have produced the eggs, they then “inject” their eggs into the males. The males then carry them in the pouch on their stomachs.
Seahorses can be found on every continent except Antarctica and in the waters of 130 countries.
Seahorses are actually terrible swimmers. They are the slowest-moving fish species. But they make up for it by being extremely stealthy and efficient.

How To Use This I Spy Ocean Printable

First click the image to print the pdf. The answer key is on page two –so no peeking! Then use a pen or pencil to mark down how many of each ocean animal you see on the printable. Then check the answer key to see if your count matches the correct number!