The kids love playing games. Finding games that are educational and fit the needs for all ages of kids is a tough one. However, I found just the game yesterday that was perfect for two 6 year olds, two 3 year olds, and two 2 year olds: Letter Fishing.
I made a letter pool using our water table (I dyed the water green just for fun). I enlisted the two 6 year olds to be "in charge" since they know all of their letters. I had the other four kids fish the letters out one at a time. The fisher then handed the letter over to one of the six year olds. The six year olds then told all of the kids the letter, the sound it makes, and helped the younger kids put the letters correctly in the puzzle.
It was tough to keep the younger kids on track--they liked to try to get ALL of the letters in their nets at once and then throw them at the older kids. Once I explained things a few times to all of the kids and helped the younger kids letter fish a couple of times, things ran a lot more smoothly. In the end, the kids had a blast doing this letter learning activity and played it several times without my help.
This was such an easy and educational activity for summer!