Reading Game to Make

Busy times at work... today I had a mixed class of Grade 4 & 6 students (their Grade 3 and 5 classmates were sitting tests).
Some of the Grade 4's finished their work early so I quickly adapted and printed off a Reading Game board I made a while ago. The task I gave the students was to think of words either suitable for Grade 1's or words they themselves need to work on, then fill in the game board and decorate it.

A couple made some very good games that I can use with my Grade 1's (colour photocopied onto light card and laminated). The others can play their games with friends or family.

The game board will be available for free download until the end of May (click on the picture below) ... but children also love to design their own game boards!

The game is very simple - if a player lands on a word and can read the word correctly, they move on an extra space. If you want to make it more complex, you can make a rule that anyone who rolls a 6 has an extra turn, any player who rolls a 3 misses a turn (or 2=go back 2, 1= go on one), etc.

New printable board game for Sight Words

Term 2 began here last week, and I have been working with my Reading Intervention children on the "Bridges" reading program.

At the end of each session, I play a quick game with the child, highlighting a teaching point. Often I want to practise some Sight Words, so I have been going through my collection of games to find simple ones that won't take too long to play.

I thought I'd make a new one with cat pictures, as most children like cats.... so here it is.

Cat on the Mat - printable board game

You can download the game for the rest of April. Print it on light card and laminate for best results.

You can make or use word cards, or if you are playing the game with the child, you can just write a list of words and point to the word you want the child to read - I do this if I'm short of time as each child will be working on different words, and they can vary from session to session.

You will also need tokens or 'movers' and a die (dice).

Easter is coming early this year, so I thought I'd get organised with a couple of  printable board games - one to use with Sight Words cards and one to focus on the ‘short u’ sound.  

Both games are 'colour-in' sheets, which can be copied cheaply onto paper or light card to give to children so they can decorate their own game boards (a good Easter Holiday activity to get children to keep practising their Sight Words). 

Click on the pictures below to open a printable .PDF document.

            

Players will also need tokens or movers (counters/buttons/small shells etc.) and a spinner or die/dice.

These games can be downloaded for free during the rest of March- April, for private/educational, non-commercial use.

Easter games for Reading

Easter is coming early this year, so I thought I'd get organised with a couple of  printable board games - one to use with Sight Words cards and one to focus on the ‘short u’ sound.  

Both games are 'colour-in' sheets, which can be copied cheaply onto paper or light card to give to children so they can decorate their own game boards (a good Easter Holiday activity to get children to keep practising their Sight Words). 

Click on the pictures below to open a printable .PDF document.

            

Players will also need tokens or movers (counters/buttons/small shells etc.) and a spinner or die/dice.

These games can be downloaded for free during the rest of March- April, for private/educational, non-commercial use.

Shamrock Memory Game (and -at words cards)

It's almost St Patrick's Day, and I've posted a Shamrock-themed Memory game on my free-fun-n-games website, so I thought I should mention it here.

I was having problems with my file sharing site, but it's all sorted now and the printable cards will be available for free download the rest of this month at http://free-fun-n-games.webs.com/readinggamestoprint.htm. You will also find other reading games that you can print.

The 'Shamrock' card backs can be used with any words written on the blank side (use pencil so the writing doesn't show through), or you can print the '_at' words on the back.

Just remember to make two sets of cards, and start with maybe 5 or 6 pairs to play the game.

Me or my?

This week I have finally started Reading Intervention programs with my new students, as I had been filling in for classroom teachers over the past month so they could do testing of their students.

One problem I notice that keeps cropping up with the Grade 1 children is the difficulty with words me/my, be/by etc.

Here is a strategy I use to help them differentiate between these 2 vowel sounds:

When you say a long 'e' sound, as in 'me', your mouth is wide and smiley, a bit like a letter 'e':

When when you say a long 'y' sound, as in 'my', your mouth hangs down, like a letter 'y':

I draw a diagram like those above, then write a list of words, with an exaggerated wide letter 'e' or extra long letter 'y'. e.g.

me    my
be     by
we    why
she   shy

We then practise reading the words with exaggerated mouth actions, and I encourage the children to use the exaggerated actions when they read those words, or similar words (he, cry, fly, etc.).

After a while, the children will no longer need to actually make the exaggerated mouth action as they read (though they may need reminders at times).

If you like, you can download the pictures above and print them for use with your child or students.

Reading Games to Print

As my working hours and duties have increased this year, I will not be posting each week. However I will try to manage one or two posts each month.

I missed out on posting the January Reading Game here (Internet problems), so I'll post links for January and February games , and leave them available until the end of Feb.

These games are designed to be printed onto light A4-size card, and laminated for use in small groups. You will need some tokens or "movers", a die (dice) or spinner, and if you are using them as reading games, you will also need Sight Words vocabulary cards.

The First Games below are scans of games I made to help children to develop the idea of playing board games, including taking turns and following instructions, and to practise ‘one-to-one correspondence’ with counting, i.e. moving their token one space for each number counted (this can be difficult for young children who are still unsure of number skills). If using a die, children also practice counting the dots on the die.

If you want to use the games for reading practice with word cards, you can write ‘WORD CARD’ in the first of each pair of blank spaces (before you laminate the board). Then when a player lands on the WORD CARD space, they can read a word card and move on an extra space if correct.

I'm also re-posting a Hearts- themed game as it's almost Valentine's Day. This game needs Word Cards as it's for practising Sight Words.

These games are available for free download through to the end of February, for educational, non-commercial use. Click on the images to open the .PDF document for printing.