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BONUS GAME IDEAS!

The best way to get your youngster reading is to PRACTICE! And there is
more to practicing than just pulling out book after book to read. Make
practice fun and do different activities to help motivate your young
reader. There are many games and activities you can play that will
help build your youngster's budding reading skills. Some activity ideas
are below, with printouts on the following pages to help get you
started. Feel free to improvise and make up your own activities as you
go!

Scavenger Hunt – Hide any word cards that you want to practice
around the house or in a room, letting your child go on a scavenger
hunt to find the words, yelling them out as he/she finds them (or
checking them off of a list you've made).

Pass the Story – This is a game for as many people as you can find to
play. You will work as a team to create a silly story. Give each player a
piece of paper and a pencil. Ask each player to write the first word of a
sentence on his or her paper then pass the paper to the right. The next
player must add to the story with one word then pass to the right again.
Continue writing one word and passing the paper until each player has
written at least five words. Then take turns reading the silly sentences
aloud.

Bottle Bowling – Collect 10 empty plastic bottles and find a ball. Choose
10 words your child needs to practice. Write them on masking tape
strips and stick them on the bottles. Set up the bottles in a 4-3-2-1
arrangement, like bowling pins. Give your child two turns to knock down
all the bottles. Your child must read the words on the bottles that did
not fall. Change the arrangement, change the words, change the
distance from the bottles, and play again!

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Collage/Scrapbook – For those who like to craft, create a collage,
scrapbook page, or poster for whatever concept you choose to focus
on (ABCs, short vowels, sight words), drawing and adding pictures and
words from magazines and newspapers.

Alphabet Race – When you travel in a car, keep your child busy finding
words for each letter of the alphabet in order from A–Z. For example,
you might see the words Ahead, Bump, Caution, Do not enter, Exit, and
so on. Can you make it all the way to Z before you reach your
destination?

Bag of Blends – Put blend cards into a bag, box, or hat, then the child
pulls out one, says the blend and a word that starts or ends with that
blend. Some beginning blends: bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl, br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr, sl,
sm, sn, sp, st, sw. Ending blends: ct, ft, ld, lk, lp, lt, mp, nd, nk, nt, pt, sk,
sp, st, ing.

Spelling Fun – Choose any of the following ways to practice spelling


and writing words: magazine letter cut-outs, stamps, letter magnets on
a cookie sheet or the fridge, letter tiles from a game like Scrabble,
whiteboard with colorful markers, letter stickers, letter flash cards, use
finger in sugar, sand or shaving cream in a pan or shallow dish, window
markers, glitter pens, smelly markers, sidewalk chalk.

Sight Word Buckets – Find a basket (or bucket, or box) and a ball. Use
sidewalk chalk to write 10 sight words on the ground around the basket.
See if your child can make a shot from each sight word spot. Ask your
child to read the sight word and shoot!

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Keep It Up! – Blow up a balloon and play a game where the balloon
must not touch the ground. You or your child must say a word with the
-ing suffix (like clapping, kissing, dancing) before hitting the balloon to
keep it in the air. How many words can you say? If the balloon touches
the ground, you must start over. Try with other prefixes and suffixes.

Memory – Use any of the flash cards in the Downloads section of the
Dashboard for this activity, or make your own on paper or index cards.
Place the cards you want to play with face down next to each other.
Turn 2 cards over at a time and try to make a match. This game works
best if you use 5 to 10 words at a time, or use more for a bigger
challenge.

Build-a-Word – Use any type of letter tiles or letter cards to put together
the sounds of a word (Scrabble tiles, magnet letters, letter stickers, or
use the cut-out letters on the next page). Give the child a word to
sound out (e.g. “cat”) and encourage the child to repeat the word
slowly, finding the letter that matches each sound heard.

Word Building with Elkonin boxes - Also called "sound" boxes, this
activity helps build sound awareness by segmenting words into sounds,
or phonemes. Younger children can use an object of some kind (coin,
button, candy) to fill in a box for each sound they hear in any word you
give them. Children already familiar with their alphabet sounds can use
letter cards that represent the sounds they hear (find cut-out letters on
the next page).

For example, the word "frog" would have the letters f-r-o-g each in a
separate box. The word "wish" would have w-i-sh, using only 3 boxes for
the 3 sounds.

You can Google "Elkonin boxes" for more information if you wish.

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Word Building Tiles

a a b b c c d
d e e f f g g
h i i j j k k
l l m m n n o
o p p q r r s
s t t u u v w
w x y z th sh ch
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Word Building Tiles

br cr dr fr gr pr

tr sc sk sm sn sp

st sw bl cl fl gl

pl sl tw qu ft ld

lt mp nd ng nk nt

scr spl spr str thr


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Word Building Tiles

ab ad ag am an ap

at ax ed eg en et

ib id ig ill im in
ip it ob od og op
ot ub ug um un ut

ack and ell est ick

ing ink ock uck unk


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Elkonin Boxes

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Guess the Secret Word – (Variation of Hangman)
Choose a word from any lesson. Cross out any extra spaces that you do not
need for your word. Have your child guess a letter.
If your secret word has that letter, write it in the correct space.
If your word does not have that letter, cross out that letter in the alphabet and
color in one part of the caterpillar’s body.
Ask your child to keep guessing letters until he or she can guess the secret word,
or until you have colored in the caterpillar’s body.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

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Bingo! Use the flash cards as your calling cards. Choose 24 words and ask your
child to write them wherever he or she chooses on the board. Use pennies as
markers. Then play Bingo!

B I N G O

FREE

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Prefix Spinner – Cut along the dotted lines.
Attach the arrow to the center with a
brad or clip. Spin the arrow. Can you
name 5 words with that prefix?

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Suffix Spinner – Cut along the dotted lines.
Attach the arrow to the center with a
brad or clip. Spin the arrow. Can you
name 5 words with that suffix?

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Say that Sight Word – Cut along the dotted line on this page and the
next page. Tape the pages together. Write a sight word on each space.
Use the characters on the next page as game pieces. Roll a die, move
that many spaces. Read the word. Make a sentence with the word. Who
can make it to FINISH first?

START

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FINISH

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Build a Word – Have your child practice writing 5, 6, and 7 letter words by
writing one letter in each square.

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16 Squares – Ask your child to think of a word for each square (i.e. a long a
word like cake). Draw it and write the word in each square! Play often and
change the categories if you choose.

long a long e long i long o

long u long a long e long i

long u oo oy ar

er ir or ur

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Sequence a Story – Cut along the dotted line. Choose a character. Draw
what happens first, next, and last in the story. Then tell someone the story.

First… Next… Last…

First… Next… Last…

First… Next… Last…

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