My 4 and 5 year old love playing this version of go fish! I love that it has animals and both upper case letters and lower case letters so it is teaching letter recognition through play. There are some confusing and uncommon animals and several birds that kids may not recognize at first but after playing a few times they will.

My kids love this and it's helped them learn so much

I absolutely love this resource! Most sets of alphabet cards are confusing because they mix some long vowel sounds in with the mix, so when you are introducing the basics it gets confusing for beginning sound introductions. Not only does this set use the short vowel sounds, because it is a card game (Go Fish) it also introduces the concept of uppercase letters (with a picture of the grownup animal on the uppercase letter cards) and lowercase letters (with a picture of the baby animal on the lowercase cards). There are SO many different ways to use these cards and after using them in classrooms with small groups as a Paraeducator, and using them to help my nephew who was adopted from Ghana transition to English…this resource is the best out there! In addition to teaching sounds in a fun, interactive way, it teaches young communicators how to speak and listen and how to take turns. It teaches these young participants how to share and how to be excited for someone else when they match a pair of letters/animals. The variation of Go Fish that I used in classroom small groups was to have the person whose turn it is to ask the question “Does anyone have a D “D” Duck?” to EVERYONE in the group. Then ALL of the participants could check their cards and whoever had it would give the card to the “caller” so that everyone was engaged every time! And if nobody had it then the caller got to go fishing and take the card off of the top of the deck! Thank you for creating such a consistent, quality product! You’ve transformed many an emerging reader from bored an uninterested because it was too hard, to excited to reunite a baby animal with its mother and to be the one to share their letter animal card with their friend…totally unaware that they were learning the building blocks of reading!

As a former kindergarten teacher, I find this game a good one to play with my 4-year-old grandson who enjoys the animal theme. The quality of the colorful cards is good. The suggestions of various ways to play are valuable. A good learning tool.

I had to review these because I have had a set for over a year and have purchased 2 more for gifts. I really enjoy the versatility and simplicity of this game! Before I did this review, I looked at other things people were saying and was surprised at some of the comments. So I took a few minutes to grab some information and pictures to really give this card game a good review. This was a gift a year ago from an Amazon list I had for my son. This is a great game for the family to play with our little one who was 4 and now is 5. It is a very versatile game! We use the cards to play go fish, memory and to practice ABC knowledge. This is an easy card game for the little's to play together with minor supervision. The cards have upper and lower case letters. At first we just aimed for the kids to say do you have F for frog. If they didn't know they had to hold their card up and we would say what it was and they would have to repeat it back to us. Then as they were able to get most of the letters we were able to progress to having them ask for the little f for frog because they have the big F for frog. Again having to repeat it if they don't know it or get it wrong. The pictures are of the big animal and a baby animal for each letter. This helps them know whether it is a big or little letter. Most of the baby animals look very similar to their big versions which helps as well. When we test their knowledge, we put out the big letter cards in ABC order and keep the small letters mixed in a stack. We then hold up a card and ask them what it is. If they get it right they get to put it on top of the big card. If they are not sure they can look at the big letter cards and compare it. However they still need to be able to say f for frog after looking at the big letter card to be able to stack it on top of it's big letter. If they miss it, we have them repeat what it is and then put it at the bottom of the stack. We review the ones they missed and give them more chances. We play memory as well with these cards, just lay them out in rows, face down. The cards include a set that has the baby animals actual name which is another teaching tool as well. These cards are big for little hands. They are have a glossy texture on the front and a more cardstock feel on the back. I have included a picture the back of the cards in my old set that are most damaged. You can see they are not that bad at all. I have also included a picture that has the brand new deck I just bought for a gift and our 1 year old set. The cards have held up very well with our son who is very hard on everything!!! You can see a few bends in some of the cards. The deck is small enough for me to keep it out of their reach so the cards do not get lost or damaged. When we play, we do so using clean hands and without food or liquids around and they have held up. There are a few cards that are tricky, but let's be honest, there are always a few letters in the alphabet that are tricky. Especially when we are naming things that start with. U, V and Q are all birds, so that can be confusing. I taught my son to look at the background and the color of the letter to see if it matches. The baby frog is naturally a tadpole. I appreciate this accuracy and educated the littles on what a frog starts out as. I saw some complaints about the use of some animals for certain letters. I simply googled animals that start with those letters and pasted what was listed. Looking at the options and their choices, I honestly feel like they made the best choice possible that was easiest to pronounce and recognize. The X has a fox. Again I don't really see another option. I have the kids say X like the end/last letter of fox. Overall this card set is easy and fun for the littles! My son and his best friend who lives next door play this together often! We all use it as a way to play games with our 5 year old that he can understand and win! He often does win too! We like that it's versatility and the different uses and levels to educate the kids. I have been able to keep our set in good condition. Like any game and kids, it can easily get parts lost or damaged if your not careful. If I had to replace it, it is such a reasonable price that it's really no big deal. I feel like it's fun, has educational purposes and it's low price are perfect addition to a little 4 and up! I have purchased 2 for gifts in the last month, finally allowing me to be able to leave a verified review! Get a set!