Build Literacy Skills Through Games
When you read to your child or recite the alphabet with them, you are helping them build literacy skills. A fun way to work on these skills is through games that encourage your child to learn the alphabet, recognize words, and practice sentence-building and writing. You can make games at home to help your child develop literacy skills with letters, sounds, and words.
Contents
Steps
Identifying Letters and Sounds
- Play with magnetic letters. Put a letter on a magnetic surface and ask your child to identify it. Say a letter and ask your child to put it on the magnetic surface. Take turns and let your child name letters for you to identify and find.
- Play these games using the sounds the letters make. For example, ask your child to find the letter that sounds like “ess.”
- Your child can use magnetic letters to create words and sentences when they are at a higher literacy level.
- If you want to take this game on the go, put the letters on a metal baking sheet.
- Be careful of choking hazards like loose magnets or small letters. Do not leave a small child alone with the letters.
- Turn your floor into a letter matching game. Find a space where your child can move around freely. Make capital letters on the floor out of painter’s tape, duct tape, or masking tape. Call out the name of a letter. Have your child move to that letter.
- When your child moves to the letter, they can say the sound the letter makes or a word that begins with that letter.
- Your child can also call out the names of the letters and ask someone else to move to them.
- Lead an alphabet hunt. Say a letter and ask your child to find that letter somewhere in the room where you are playing. For example they can find letters on food packages in your kitchen or in magazines in the doctor’s office. Play this game anyplace your child can find letters, including on street signs around town.
- If your child can write, ask them to write down the letter.
- If your child is at a more advanced level, have them find objects that begin with the letter you call out (like a pencil for the letter “p”).
- To take this game on the go, write random letters down on a piece of paper and ask your child to find each of them.
Making Basic Alphabet Games
- Make alphabet dominoes. Cut 2 in x 1 in (5 cm x 2.5 cm) rectangles out of thick paper or cardboard. Draw a line down the center of the rectangle. Write one letter in each space. Make several dominoes.
- Play with letter dominoes just like you play with standard dominoes.
- Have your child say the name of the letter they match to a new domino.
- Create an alphabet bingo game. Divide some pieces of paper into nine equal squares. Draw or paste a simple picture in each square. These are the bingo cards. Write letters on smaller pieces of paper and put them in a cup. These are the tokens. Take a token from the cup and say the letter on it. Your child will find a picture on their bingo card that starts with that letter. They can cover the picture with a marker.
- On the bingo cards use very simple pictures that represent one word, for example a bird, umbrella, or tree.
- Label the pictures so all players can agree what the picture is. This will also help your child recognize words.
- The words in the pictures should all start with a different letter of the alphabet.
- Make markers from small pieces of paper or take them from another game you have.
- Play alphabet bingo with alphabet dice. Fold and glue a piece of paper into a cube. Write a letter of the alphabet on each face of the cube. Make a few dice and write different letters on each. Ask your child to roll the dice. They will say the name of a letter they see on the dice and then find a picture starting with that letter on an alphabet bingo card. They can cover the picture with a marker.
- To make one big die using all 26 letters in the English alphabet, write six letters on two of the faces and four letters on the other four faces.
- The player can choose which letters on the die to match to a picture on a bingo card.
- For more advanced play, the player tries to match the first letter on the die to a picture on the bingo cards. For example, if the die face shows “DGZK,” the player first tries to find a picture that starts with “D.” If all pictures starting with “D” are covered, the player tries to find a picture beginning with “G.” If necessary this continues through “Z” or “K.”
Practicing with Words
- Make a word box. Get a stack of index cards and write one word on each card. Your child can also write the words. Store the index cards in a shoebox. Make cards with words from stories that you read with your child. Vocabulary and spelling words from school are also good choices for the word box.
- Spread some of the words on the floor. Give silly commands about how your child should move to the cards, for example, “skip to the word ‘penguin’” or “crawl to the word ‘blue’.”
- Ask your child to sort the words into different categories. For example, they can sort them into words for animals (dog, tiger, horse, etc.) or words that make them think about nighttime (stars, moon, sleep, etc.).
- Give your child a stack of word cards. Ask them to match the words on the cards to objects in the house. You might let them tape the card to the object.
- Play charades with the words in the box. Pull a word from the box and act it out while others try to guess the word.
- Go on a word hunt. Give your child a pad of paper and a pencil when you go on errands. Have them write down words that you ask them to find. For example, you can ask them to find words beginning with the letter “M” or words with 7 letters. Or ask them to write down specific things that you buy, like the fruits and vegetables in the grocery store.
- Have your child read the list to you and help them correct spelling and pronunciation.
- You can offer a prize for collecting a certain number of words that begin with a given letter as a way to motivate your child.
- To incorporate technology, provide your child with a child-safe camera and ask them to take pictures of objects that begin with a certain letter.
- Get word magnets. You can find magnetic word kits at bookstores. Sometimes they have a theme. Use them to practice reading skills, or to create sentences, stories, and poems.
- Have your child practice reading the words on the magnets.
- Ask your child to sort the magnets into specific groups of words, for example, words that start with the same letters or words that rhyme.
- Your child can create the groups and ask you to guess how they sorted the words.
- Ask your child to create sentences with the words. You can try to see who can make the longest or silliest sentences.
- Have your child write a short story or a poem with the words.
- Create a picture book. Write a letter at the top of a piece of paper. Ask your child to draw or glue pictures of words that start with that letter on the paper. Help your child label the words for each picture. Make a page for every letter in the alphabet and bind them together into a book.
- Your child can do all of the writing.
- Design a menu. Glue some pictures of food onto a sheet of paper. Help your child label all of the foods on the paper. Next ask them to decorate the paper like a restaurant menu. Play restaurant by asking your child to read the menu and pretend to order from it.
- You can make menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
References
- paper.http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2012/09/move-groove-gross-motor-alphabet-game.html
- http://www.domino-games.com/domino-rules/domino-basics.html
- http://www.childrens-books-and-reading.com/literacy-games.html
- http://www.getreadytoread.org/early-learning-childhood-basics/early-literacy/building-literacy-every-day
