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Ocean vocabulary worksheet for ESL teachers and learners

Free ocean vocabulary worksheets

Vocabulary Worksheets
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Ocean Vocabulary Worksheets

Here is a collection of worksheets to help learners build ocean vocabulary. There are picture and word matching exercises, as well as word search puzzles and a crossword to choose from.

The first page above is an easy, fun activity for sea vocabulary. For words that students don’t know, you can give them clues. Say or write the word on the board and then describe it. For example: Stingray, it is an animal, it is black, it looks like a bat, it has a long thin tail, etc. For Island, you could say it is a piece of land, it has water all around it, and there is a palm tree on it. Use the language that is best for your class’s level of English.

The correct answers are as follows: Dolphin, Diver, Sailboat, Stingray, Island, Clownfish, Turtle, Seaweed, Lighthouse, Wave, Message in a bottle, Sea Lion, Seashell, Mermaid, Anchor, and Sunset.

ESL ocean vocabulary matching worksheet 2
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Ocean vocabulary matching worksheet 2

This second handout has silhouettes of ocean objects for students to match. The answers are –

Treasure Chest – Lantern – Telescope – Anchor

Lobster – Oar – Pirate Flag – Octopus

Snorkel – Mask – Shell – Ship

Crab – Map – Boat – Narwhal

Ocean life vocabulary worksheet
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Ocean Life Matching Worksheet

Here is a matching activity with things that live in the sea.

The answers from left to right are: Coral, Manta Ray, Crab, Seal, Starfish, Turtle, Blowfish, Whale, Lobster, Octopus, Jellyfish, Seahorse, Eel, Prawn/Shrimp, Shark, and Squid.

Once your students have completed this exercise, see if they can describe each creature accurately. You can also ask further questions about things such as what they eat, where they can be found, which ones are delicious, and so on.

Another idea is to get learners to rank the ocean creatures from smallest to biggest.

 

Ocean Word Search Puzzles

Next, we have a couple of ocean word search puzzles, which are always popular vocabulary activities. The first sheet on the left is quite easy and contains the names of sea creatures. The word search on the right is much harder and contains 19 ocean-related words.

Note that answers in the puzzles can be found horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.

ocean creatures word search worksheet
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ocean vocabulary word search worksheet
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Ocean Crossword

Finally, there is an ocean crossword that features animals only. The crossword uses picture clues, which makes it quite interesting for English learners. If  ESL students are not familiar with these words, you can let them use a multilingual dictionary to find the answers. You can also write the answers on the board in a mixed fashion or even scramble the words as well.

ocean animals crossword worksheet
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The solutions for the crossword puzzle are:

  1. Turtle
  2. Conger
  3. Crab
  4. Jellyfish
  5. Dolphin
  6. Oyster
  7. Shrimp
  8. Snail
  9. Starfish
  10. Fish
  11. Squid
  12. Octopus
  13. Seahorse
  14. Seal
  15. Stingray
  16. Whale
  17. Shark

Related activities

If you are looking for some more sea and ocean activities, there are plenty on this site to choose from. 

If you would like your class to get speaking, check out the ocean conversation questions.

To help learn and teach sea creatures, there are the ocean animal cards and the fish flashcards that have beautiful photographs.

For arts and crafts, you will find many outlines and templates here, including pages for whales, stingrays, starfish, octopuses, jellyfish, fish, and coral reef cutouts.

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