Reading Game

by Lauri Griffin | More from this Blogger

12 Jan 2008 02:27 PM

I'm very proud of the reading game I created with a Toss Across and stickers. It's for early readers who are learning simple sight words and those who still are sounding out words. I took the Toss Across board and put large letter stickers on each side of the spinning triangles. So instead of X's and O's I have consonants and vowels. I arranged the letters with purpose.

The idea is for the child to throw the bean bags which rearrange the letter. Then they try to spell out words. If they can read a word on the board, they get to go again. If they can't read a word then it becomes someone else's turn. An adult or older child can help point out words, or provide clues, and help with sounding them out.

Each side of the triangles got a letter. Here's how I arranged the letters. Each group represents a triangle and the position from left to right and top to bottom on the Toss Across board.

B, Y, M A, I, N G, P, C A, O, E C, N, O E, D, A R, S, W T, E, A G, D, T

With the letters arranged this way, word possibilities are Y-E-S (straight down on the left), B-I-G (across the top), A-N-D (across the middle) and so on. There is almost always a word or two, no matter what side of the triangle is facing up.

This game is also great at introducing word families. You can have the child position the bottom row to read R-A-T, then show them the word S-A-T. You can continue, saying, pretend this is a B or a C, then what would the word be. Kids love to play as they learn.

As a bonus, it's easy to convert the game back to Tic-Tac-Toe once your children have mastered those three letter words.

Also See:

Visual Brainstorms - Game Review

Bulls and Cows - a logic game

PBS Games

Learn more about Lauri Griffin

Lauri lives in Colorado with her husband and three sons. Amidst all the laundry and packing of lunches, she tries to keep parenting fun.

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