Join the fun with your dive team as you swim around collecting shells to trade in SimplyFun’s newest early childhood education game, Shelly’s Pearl! This Life & Thinking Skills game is intended for ages 4 and up and helps young players achieve goals and practice strategy while building fine motor skills. Play Shelly’s Pearl with 2-4 players in as little as 10 minutes.
Game Overview
Let’s swim the shimmering sea and trade colorful seashells with Shelly the octopus! Players use teamwork to help their dive team swim around the game board and collect shells, big and small, to trade with Shelly. Visit Shelly and her under-the-sea friends at the trading bubbles to either collect more shells, or trade smaller pairs of shells for larger ones. Once players have collected two of the largest red shells, trade up for a prize shell from Shelly and discover a surprise inside – a shiny pearl! Continue helping the rest of your dive team collect and trade shells until everyone has one of Shelly’s pearls and you can all “shellebrate” together!
Who is Shelly?
There are many amazing creatures of all different colors, shapes, sizes, and identities in the ocean. Some creatures identify as she, others as he, and some as they. Shelly the octopus uses “they/them” pronouns. Shelly’s personal pronouns are shared only in the instruction booklet. The game does not utilize pronouns in the gameplay but does provide the opportunity to discuss personal pronouns if desired.
Shelly loves helping others collect and trade seashells on the colorful seafloor, and they love to gather the other sea creatures to help cheer and watch with excitement.
Let’s Play!
10 BIG bubbles make up the bubble path on the colorful seafloor. Seven are ‘collecting’ bubbles and contain images of either a yellow or orange shell. Three are ‘trading’ bubbles that allow you to trade shells with other divers.
Shelly’s Tip: Collect shells when you land on a collecting bubble and trade shells when you land on a trading bubble!
Now, let’s roll the die! Did you roll a 1, 2, 3, or 4? Then move your diver towards the arrow on the board according to the number of dots on the die.
Or, if your die lands on Shelly’s sea creature friends, get ready to trade and move your diver to the next trading bubble on the board. Depending on your roll, either collect and add shells to your collection bag or trade smaller shells for larger ones.
Shell Trading
Get ready to trade pairs of seashells when you land on the trading bubbles! Let’s ‘sea’ how it all works!
- Two blue sand dollar shells can be traded for one yellow snail shell.
- Two yellow snail shells can be traded for one orange bonnet shell.
- Two orange bonnet shells can be traded for one red scallop shell.
- Two red scallop shells can be traded for one of Shelly’s prize shells!
Remember, you can only trade up your collected shells when your die roll allows your diver to stop on a trading bubble or you roll one of the trading-bubble symbols. Anytime you stop on a trading bubble, collect one of the blue shells and add it to your collection bag. From there, you may trade up any pairs of shells you have collected for larger ones.
Fun fact: You can make multiple trades if you have the correct number of shells needed for each trade. You may even find that you can trade up again and again on the same turn!
Life & Thinking Skills
Trading and achieving goals are the main skills to practice in Shelly’s Pearl. Players interact with characters in the game and practice trading, learning that smaller values can combine to make larger values. Collecting the prize shell is the goal of this game and allows players to achieve these goals either individually or as a team. Does your little one love to practice these kinds of skills? Be sure to check out a few more of our top Life & Thinking Skills games, here.