Christmas Word Games and Activities

For my last post of 2015, I'm offering a couple of printable board games with a Christmas theme, for children to play and practice Sight Words - they can be used with any words that need to be practised or revised over the holidays.

The first is a black-and-white version of "Santa Words", which can be cheaply printed/photocopied onto thick paper for children to take home over the holidays and colour in.

Santa Words B&W printable game

"Santa's Helpers" is another fun game for Sight Words practice:



Santa's Helpers col. Printable Reading Game 

These games are best printed onto A4 size light card; they can be laminated before use. 
They will also need "Sight Words' cards (these can be words written on small pieces of card) a die/dice or spinner, and small tokens or 'movers' (buttons, small pieces of coloured card etc). 
The games will be available for free download (for educational, non-commercial use) during the rest of December and the beginning of January.

As it's getting near the end of December, I thought I should also add links to some of my free Christmas activities on my other websites…

Christmas computer Jigsaws, clipart - http://www.epuzzled.net/holidayfun.htm

Christmas songs (also links to clipart, eCards) - http://www.cathyschords.com/christmassongs.htm

                            These song sheets have lyrics and chords for guitar; 
                            there are also some song sheets on the site for ukulele and banjo.

Christmas games –  Santa Snatch, Santa Swap http://www.free-fun-n-games.com/funstuff.htm

                               These games are lots of fun for a Christmas gathering – they don’t need expensive gifts, and are suitable for all age groups. 

I wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season... I will be back next year with more ideas and resources for teaching reading.

Sight Words practice- "Christmas Movers" for board games

Oops... I thought I had scheduled this post for the beginning of December, when I went away for a few days, but I just realised it hadn't been published... so I'll post it now along with this week's post!

Board games are a great way to get children to practise their Sight Words- whether you use flash cards or just cut up pieces of light card or thick paper and write on the words your child needs to practise.

You can use almost any board game, if you make a rule that when a player has a turn, he has to read a word card correctly before he rolls the dice!

Last week I posted a Christmas-themed board game for use with sight words cards, and this week I'm posting some 'movers' to use with the game (or with any other board games to give them a Christmas theme).

Christmas Games Movers 

You just need to print them onto light card, then cut out and glue them (assembly instructions are included). Your child may also like to copy the design to make their own movers with small stickers or their own drawings.

This sheet of Christmas Games Movers will be available for free download in December (for educational, non-commercial use).

Christmas Sight Word game

Here is a printable board game with a Christmas theme that you can use to help children practise their Sight Words; just use any words they need to practise, written onto small cards.
You will also need some 'Movers' or tokens and a die or spinner.

                                                   Santa Words printable board game

For best results, print the game board onto light card, and laminate before use.
This game will be available for free download (for educational, non-commercial use) until Christmas.

Next week, I'll post some "movers" to print, assemble and use with the game - and later in the month, I'll post a 'colour-in' version that you can print or copy to send home with your students to encourage them to keep practising their sight words over the holidays.

Sight Words Practice - Motorbike Race board game

Appealing to the boys...

I developed this simple board game a couple of years ago to appeal to several of my boys who would much rather be out riding their dirt bikes than practising their reading skills!

The game can be used with any sight vocab cards; I laminated a coloured-in copy on card for use at school with small groups, and gave the children their own paper copy to colour in and keep for use at home.

Motorbike Race -printable game board

It just needs some word cards, some kind of tokens (‘movers’) and a die or spinner to go with the game board. It's a very simple game to play, with lots of picture spaces on the board to give the players more chances to read word cards.

You can download this game for free during November (for private/educational use). Click on the picture or caption for the PDF file.

"Long E" - ea

/ea/ is a common way of writing the 'long e' sound, and it's in many simple words, so it's fun for children to explore.

I've made a couple of worksheets for this letter pattern: one is a poem with spaces to fill in, and the other has room for children to make their own poem using -eat words.

You can download and print off the sheets by clicking on the links below:

MyFlea Fear worksheet 

ea worksheet_eat poem

"Long E" - ee

The 'long e' sound spelled /ee/ is very common in many basic vocab words, so it's a good one to introduce early.

Children can have lots of fun making up poems with -ee words: see, bee, tree, three, free, knee, agree etc. (the, be, me, he, we and she are also useful words to use).

This week, I'm posting a game with /ee/ words. I've done this one as a 'colour-in' game that children can colour and play (cheap to print and copy, too). You are welcome to use this game for educational, non-commercial use. It will be available for free download for a week.

Bee in the Tree - Game board

Bee in the Tree - Word Cards, Movers

Click on the links to open the PDF document to print. For best result, print on light card before colouring.  Colour the bee 'mover' tokens different colours, and glue onto small squares or circles of thicker card (or just glue on small pieces of different coloured thick card or counters).

You will also need a die(dice) to play this game.

Long I sound -y

This week's post is about words using y with a 'long I' sound. I've made a short poem using these words. You can print it for children to highlight or circle the 'long I' sounds.

Click on the link below to open the .PDF to print. This worksheet will be available for free download this month, for educational, non-commercial use.

My Shy Fly

Children may be able to think of other _y words (e.g. by, fry, sty, sly); they could write a list of these words then make up and illustrate their own sentences or poems.