Games for reading and writing

5 English Practice Games for Reading and Writing

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It’s just not possible to have too many English practice games at your disposal. They assist in both learning and retention by engaging students in a positive way. Here are 5 English games to helps students practice their reading and writing.

In case you’re wondering, this is why you should play games in class.

Alphabet Relay

This game is great for young learners.

Line up two teams, ideally of 4 or more players, as far from the whiteboard as possible. The first members of each team are given a pen and the teacher shouts “A”. Thereafter, each member runs to the board in turn, writes the next letter of the alphabet, and runs back to the next team member to hand over then pen. As your class get older and better at English, you can use more difficult target language and grammars in this game, using the same basic game rules.

Longest Sentence

Make a list of 50 words, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, etc. depending on level, and task the teams with creating the longest possible sentence they can. You can make this a writing game, or use cut-out pieces of paper with words on them that the students have to put together into sentences. You can make rules about the number of adjectives, nouns, etc. that must be used or a grammar pattern that must be followed. It all depends on the level of your students.

Phonics Wheel of Fortune

This game is best suited to younger phonics learners.

Draw a circle on the board with one or two desired phonics in the middle, e.g. aw, or, ee, etc. Around the outside of the circle write 10 initial and final phonics (f, d, th, ch, etc). The teacher shouts a word and the students have to run and stick a magnet on the initial, middle, and final phonics that make the word, then sit down and shout it out.

Phonics Teamwork Race

Again, this game is best suited to younger phonics learners.

This works with three players per team and is for use when practising phonics such a, a_e, i_e, etc. Write the phonic you’re practising on the board and surround it with magnets of other phonics, e.g., a_e written and surrounded by f, t, d, p, th, etc. The teacher shouts a word. Player one grabs the magnet of the initial phonic, player 2 the phonic from the middle, and player three places both magnets into the word. For example, if the word is gate, player one will grab g, player two t, and player three will stick them into a_e in the correct place. When they have done, the team sits down and reads the word to win.

Guess It

This game is also best suited for younger students learning phonics.

The “Guess It” game will teach students how to blend several letters to make common words. To begin, the teacher will divide the students into two groups. The teacher will then choose a word and segment it on the whiteboard (e.g., c-at). One team will have a chance to blend the word. If they blend it correctly, they will receive a point. If they do not correctly blend it, the other team will have the chance to blend and identify it. Each team will take turns blending words. The game is complete when one of the teams correctly blends 20 words.

For more game ideas, go here or here.

A version of this article originally appeared in Shane English School’s Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) program, which is part of new teachers’ orientation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1534752216040{background-color: #ededed !important;border-radius: 2px !important;}”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

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Six Games for Reading | Reading Rockets

Here are six games parents or tutors can use to help young readers practice word recognition, spelling patterns, and letter-sound knowledge. When planning to play one of these games, choose words to use from books the child is reading or has read recently. The games should also be chosen or designed to promote the child's sense of competence and success.

1. Concentration

To make

Select five to ten words from a book (or books) the child is reading. Print each word clearly and boldly on separate 3x5 inch index cards, making pairs of each word. (The child may be able to help you by copying the words you write.)

To play

Shuffle the cards and place them face down in neat rows. Take turns turning up two cards at a time and reading the words aloud. If the two cards match, the player keeps them and takes a second turn. If they do not match, the cards are replaced face down and the next player takes a turn. Play until all the cards are matched. The player with the most pairs wins. If the child has trouble recognizing a word, say the word — do not ask the child to "sound out" the word. The purpose of this game is to build automatic recognition of whole words.

You can control the difficulty of the game by the choice and number of words used: for very beginning readers, choose meaningful words that are visually distinctive: "ghost", "dark", "sister", and keep the number of words low. For a more challenging game, include some words that are less distinctive: "when", "what", "this", "that", but be careful not to overwhelm the child.

Variation 1

Instead of matching pairs, you can use rhyming pairs: look, book; dark, park.

Variation 2

This game can also be used to build letter recognition and letter/sound association. Paste or draw simple pictures on one set of cards; and on the other set, print initial consonants to go with the pictures. For example, paste the picture of a dog on one card, and write the letter "D" on a matching card.

Note: This game can be adapted to use with older children, or more advanced readers: variations can include vocabulary practice such as using homonyms, (words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings: cent/scent; dear/deer, etc.) or contractions, (can't; cannot, etc.).

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2. Go fish

This game is good for early fluent to fluent readers.

To make

Select ten to 20 words from a book (or books) the child is reading. Print the words clearly and boldly on separate 3x5 inch index cards, making pairs of each word. (Children may help by copying the words you write.) Two to four players can play this game.

To play

Shuffle and deal three to five cards to each player. Place the rest of the deck face down. Players take turns asking each other for a card to match one held in his or her hand. If the opponent has a matching card, it is given over, and the first player takes another turn. If the opponent does not have a match, he or she says "Go Fish" and the player draws from the remaining deck of cards, and the next player takes a turn. Each time a player has a match, he or she reads the words, and puts down the pair, face up. Continue the game until the cards are all used up.

Instead of matching words, rhyming words can be used. In this case, players ask for "a word that sounds like 'night'..." At the end, the child can earn extra points by dictating or writing additional words that rhyme with the base words, or creating "silly" sentences using the rhymes.

Note: This game can be adapted to use with older children, or more advanced readers: variations can include vocabulary practice such as using homonyms (words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings: cent/scent; dear/deer, etc. ), or contractions (can't; cannot, etc.).

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3. Old maid

To make

Select three words per player from a book (or books) being read. Print them clearly and boldly on separate 3x5 inch index cards, making pairs of words. Choose one more word without a match that will be the winning card.

To play

Shuffle and deal three to six cards to each player. Players take turns drawing a card from a player to their left. If a player draws a card that matches one in his or her hand, he/she reads the two matching words in order to keep the pair. Play continues until all the cards are matched, except for the one odd card. The player who holds that card at the end wins the game.

Note: This game can be adapted to use with older children, or more advanced readers: variations can include vocabulary practice such as using homonyms (words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings: cent/scent; dear/deer, etc.), or contractions (can't; cannot, etc. ).

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4. Monopoly

This is a great game to help teach word family patterns and spelling patterns. This should be used with children who write fairly comfortably, usually second grade or older.

To make

Create a game board with four or five squares on each side. Prepare word cards with families of words that emerge from the child's reading: night, light, tight; went, bent, sent; hat, cat, bat. (For beginning readers or younger children, make sure the patterns are not too similar: mat, sat, rat; man, can, ran; met, set, bet.) Color code each word family and each side of the game board.

Place the words face up around the board in sets. To add to the element of chance, have other game directions on the board, such as "take another turn", "go back 2 spaces", etc. Prepare score sheets for each player with color-coded headings for each word family.

To play

Role dice or use a spinner to move around the board. Wherever a player lands he reads the word, then writes it in the appropriate "word family" category on the score sheet. Extra points can be earned by dictating or writing sentences with the rhyming words.

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5. Rhyming games

Play rhyming games to teach about the patterns in words. Try the following, for example, for words in the same family as the word black:

• Introduce a poem or rhyming story such as Miss Mary Mack:

  Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack
  all dressed in black, black, black
  with silver buttons, buttons, buttons
  up and down her back, back, back…

• Encourage the child to point out words in books that have a similar spelling pattern as in black.
• Help the child think of other words that have this pattern. You may have to write a few words for him or her:

  sack
  pack
  stack

  Then have the child read the whole word and underline the repeated part of the word, "ack."

• Using magnetic letters or Scrabble pieces, form a word with the "ack" pattern. Ask the student to change the first letter of the word (for example: 's' in sack) to make a new word, such as pack. You should be sure to provide a limited number of letters (two or three at first) for the child to choose from.
• Remember to choose a word pattern that is useful and important to the student and that relates to something that he or she has read or will read. If possible, start with a word he or she already knows in the word family. After reading a book about being sad, for example, start with the word "cry" and then follow with "fry", "try", and "wry".
• Remember to review the word families you've chosen to work on periodically by playing some of the other games described above.
• Be sure to give the student a chance to go back to a book, poem, or other texts where he or she can apply this new reading skill. Poems, nursery rhymes, and jump rope jingles are a great resource for early readers.

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6. Fishing for sounds

This is a game for emergent readers and writers.

To make

Find and cut out small pictures of familiar objects from magazines, old workbooks, catalogues. Try to find several pictures that start with the same letter, such as book, bed, basket, boy; snake, sun, skate, slide, etc. (The child can help; this is a good language activity too.)

Cut out 12-15 fish shapes and paste or draw one picture on each fish.

On individual 3x5 inch index cards or on an 8x11 inch piece of paper or cardboard, print consonant letters with a key picture for each group of pictures found. (For example, print the letter "S" with the picture of a sun to represent all the words beginning with that letter.) (If using a sheet of paper, print only two or three letters per sheet.)

To play

Select two or three sets of fish pictures that start with the same letters and mix them up. Place face down on a table and take turns "going fishing." As each fish is turned over, the child names the picture and places it in the appropriate pile under the key letter / picture. When all the fish are caught and placed correctly, have the child "read" the pictures under each heading. If necessary, read along with him or her, saying the letter name and stressing the initial sound of the word. "Yes, here are 'S' pictures: sssun, sssnake, sssaxophone."

To add excitement, you can play as opponents, each player having one or two categories and key letter / pictures. Take turns fishing, and discard those fish that belong to the other player.

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Games at the lessons of writing and literary reading during the period of learning to read and write

Games. Literacy Application

Material for games and their content can be changed according to the requirements teacher and student opportunities. It is desirable to illustrate each games and the use of various toys (ball, doll, etc.).

Brief description of didactic games used in the process of teaching schoolchildren (adaptive stage of schooling)

Game 1. "Half a word is yours"

Purpose: Develop the speech of schoolchildren, replenish vocabulary, develop phonemic hearing.

Contents: The teacher pronounces the beginning of the word (name of the subject), students finish word. Words can be selected on certain topics, it is possible to use illustrations. Work can be carried out in pairs and frontally.

Game 2. "Describe the subject"

Purpose: Acquaintance with the concepts of "properties and features of objects", the formation of skills guess the object by its characteristics.

Contents: The teacher or student conceives the subject, others ask suggestive questions, trying to guess what was planned by the signs.

Game 3. "I know"

Goals: The development of students' speech, vocabulary replenishment, the development of observation and attention.

Contents: The teacher (child), using the ball, pronounces the following text, rhythmically hitting the ball on the floor:

- I know five names of boys:

Sasha - times,

Dima - two,

Igor - three,

Denis - four,

Volodya - five.

Next the ball is passed to the next player. He names the following five items. it can be any items (toys, flowers, trees, etc.).

Game 4. “Guess what you showed” (pantomime)

Purpose: Develop attention, observation, speech, patience.

Contents: The person who wishes depicts an object (living or inanimate) without uttering any sounds. The rest are trying to guess what is depicted. Can be used for pantomimes of several comers.

Game 5. "Decipher the letter"

Purpose: The development of observation, attention, the ability to focus on finding the necessary letters or syllables.

Contents: The teacher encrypts the letters with any icons or drawings and, using these notation, "writes" the word. Children try to guess the word by finding icons with the letters they represent.

Game 6. "Who is better"

Game is organized on the basis of game 5, where the children themselves encrypt the words using icons provided by the teacher. Solving words together, finding out who is better managed to encrypt the word.

Game 7. "Who is more observant"

Purpose: Consolidation of knowledge about letters and sounds, search for letters in the text, development of attention and observation.

Contents: The teacher offers the children a text where students find the chosen by the teacher letter.

Game 8. "Compose a fairy tale about the subject."

Purpose: The development of students' speech, vocabulary replenishment.

Contents: The teacher or children choose any subject and try to compose together a fairy tale about adventures of this subject.

Game 9. "Day - night"

Purpose: The development of students' speech, the ability to focus on finding the necessary concept.

Contents: The teacher calls the word, the children - the opposite in meaning: “Day is night, sweet - sour", etc.

Game 10. "Make friends with the letter"

Children combine sounds into syllables orally, and in writing - write down pairs of letters (syllables - mergers)

Game 11. "We're going to visit"

Children divided into groups: hosts and guests. "Hosts" must meet "guests" using "magic words". "Guests respond in kind."

Game 12. "Make a word"

Children make up words from the syllables suggested by the teacher. Syllables can be bright and colorful illustrated. For example, in the form of balls or flowers, which must be assembled into one bundle or bouquet.

Game 13. Put it in order

Suggested a series of illustrations related to the same topic, but arranged incorrectly. Children should determine which of the illustrations depicts what happened earlier or later, i.e. arrange in order.

Game 14. “Fabulous possessions of the Rainbow. Describe"

Children describe the objects surrounding them, using knowledge of the colors of the rainbow, trying Describe the subject as clearly as possible.

Game 15. Hammers

Children "tap" the rhythm of the words, striking each vowel sound in the words pronounced teacher, with a stick on the table, highlighting the percussive sound. The game helps to fix knowledge of vowel sounds and stress.

Game 16. "The letter got lost"

Children must “fix” the words where the letters are messed up by putting them in their place.

Game contributes to the development of attention, observation, as well as the development of phonemic hearing.

Game 17. “Time got angry and left. Catch up»

Children transform phrases, words, sentences using the categories “before, after, then, now". Make up your own sentences, correct incorrectly constructed phrases that suggested by the teacher.

Game 18. "When it happens"

Children guess the season (spring, summer, winter, autumn) according to the changes in nature indicated teacher. During the game, time categories are repeated. Possible use illustrations.

Game 19. "Bells"

Meaning The game is to search for voiced consonants in the words pronounced by the teacher. Children depict bells that ring for each voiced consonant sound. The game contributes to the development of attention and phonemic hearing of children.

Game 20. "Correct mistakes"

Meaning the game is to search for sounds or letters that were incorrectly indicated by the fabulous guest (Dunno, Pinocchio). The game is illustrated.

Game 21. "Words"

Teacher asking questions what? who? which? what is he doing? and others. Children find words that answer to the question asked. The game uses a ball passed to the responding children.

Game 22. "Knots for memory"

Children tie knots each on their own string, remembering the rules, questions, sounds and letters. Everything is commented out loud. The material is selected by the teacher.

Development exercises speech

Development of hearing.

If the child is weak in hearing sounds, distorted pronounces or replaces them with others, he will not be able to clearly imagine the sound form of the word itself. In this case, you will need the following group exercises.

Exercise #1. "Name the Words" (for development of auditory differentiation).

Task #1.
"Name as many words as possible that begin with the sound A" (T, O, P, K, etc.).

Task #2.
"Name as many words as possible that end with the sound P" (I, O, S, L, etc.).

Task #3.
"Name as many words as possible that have the sound L in the middle" (N, E, D, B, F, etc.).

Exercise #2. "Clap clap" (learning the sound analysis of the word).

This exercise also has several options.

1. "Now I will call you the words, and you, as soon as you hear the word, which begins with the sound C (B, O, G, D, W, etc. ), you immediately slam into hands".

Option: the child must "catch" the sound to which the word ends, or a sound in the middle of a word.

Dacha, cat, hat, fox, road, beetle, window, lump, plate, bread, rain, linden, lamp, river, hair, etc.

2. "Now I will call you words, and you, as soon as If you hear a word that has a K sound, clap your hands 1 time. If you hear in word sound G - clap 2 times. "

It is better to start the exercise at a slow pace, gradually increasing the speed.

Cow, jelly, mountain, mink, guitar, boot, bitch, hand, caught up, pushed, etc.

This exercise will also help you check how your child is doing with reaction.

Exercise #3. "Playing with the word" (learning the sound image of the word).

Task #1.
"Come up with a word that starts / ends with the same sound as in the word "frog", "flag", "table", etc.".

Task #2.
"What is the first / last sound in the word 'ray', "power", "sofa", etc. ".

Task No. 3.
"Name all the sounds in order in the word "sky", "cloud", "roof", etc.".

Task No. 4.
"What sound in the word "fish" is the second, fourth, first, third? (chair, carpet, shell, cloud), etc.".

Exercise No. 4. "Confusion".

"Listen carefully to the poem.

Ask the child: "Which words got mixed up? Why? How are these words similar to each other? How are they different?"

You can give a little hint to the child, but the main thing is to lead him to the idea that one sound can completely change the meaning of a word.

Exercise #5. "Come up with a new word".

Task: "I will now tell you a word, and you try change the second sound in it so that a new word is obtained. For example: house - smoke.
Words to change: sleep, juice, drank, chalk.
Words to change the first sound: dot, bow, varnish, day, pedal, layout.
Words to change the last sound: cheese, dream, bough, poppy, stop

Exercise No. 6. "Circle"

It will be useful if the child cannot write

Task: "Now we will write some words, but not in letters, but in circles. How many sounds in a word, so many circles you will draw. say the word "poppy". How many circles should be drawn? Three".

Sample: MAC - 000

Attention: when choosing words for the exercise, try to keep the number of sounds in them matched the number of letters. So, in the word "horse" there are 4 letters, and the sound three - [k - o - n ']. Such words can cause difficulties for the child.

Words for dictation: grass, paper, pen, roll, stick, camomile, star, pine, phone, tablet.

Exercise #7. "Longer-shorter".

Task: "Now we will compare words. I will say two words, and you decide which one is longer. Just remember that words should be compared, not the things they stand for. You know, do not you, that the word is not the thing. Take the word "nose" for example. It can be say, but you can write - but you can’t breathe with it, it’s just a word. And real you can breathe through your nose, but you can’t write or read it."

Words for comparison: table - table, pencil - pencil, antennae - mustache, dog - dog, tail - tail, snake - snake, worm - worm.

Vocabulary development.

The quality and quantity of the child's vocabulary in many ways determine the level of speech development in general. It is very important for you to pay attention to passive (that is, those words that are stored in the memory reserve), and active (words that are constantly used) vocabulary. Highly it is important that the child knows what meanings the word has, knows how to correctly use it in independent speech. This will help offered here exercises.

Exercise #8. "Word game".

Task #1 .
"Name as many words as you can for fruits" (vegetables, trees, flowers, wild and domestic animals and birds, toys, tools, furniture, professions, etc.).

Task #2.

"Now I will tell you the words, and you will tell me what this the subject can do.
Snowstorm - sweeps, and thunder - ..., wind - ..., and snow - ..., rain - ..., and sun - ....

Do not forget to ask with each answer: "What else does the sun do, it not only shines?" Let the child pick up as many words as possible, denoting action.

Then you can repeat the same game in reverse: “Who flies? Who swims? Who hammers nails? Who catches mice?"

Exercise No. 9. "Sign".

Task No. 1.

"Tell me, if the object is made of iron, then what is it called, what him?"

iron -
paper -
wood -
snow -
fluff -
glass -

Task No. 2.

"Name another object as white as snow."
(Same narrow as a ribbon; as fast as a river; as round, like the ball; as yellow as a melon).

Task #3.

"Compare:
in taste - lemon and honey, onion and apple;
in color - cloves and chamomile, pear and plum;
in strength - rope and thread, stone and clay;
in width - road and path, river and stream;
in height - a bush and a tree, a mountain and a hill.

Exercise number 10. "Guess".

Task: "Guess the riddle:

It flies, it squeaks,
It drags long legs,
It won't miss a chance -
It sits down and bites.
(Komar)

Round, striped,
Taken from the garden.
Sugar and scarlet steel -
Please eat.
(Watermelon)

How did you guess what it was about? Try to describe to me some object, and I'll try to guess who or what it is."

Exercise No. 11. "Friend words" (an exercise on synonyms).

Task #1.

"What else do you think you can say about a sad person?" (sad)
"Valuable - what is it? Hard - what is it?"

Task #2.

"What word can replace the word "horse"? The word "doctor", "cup", "food"?"

Task No. 3.

"Which word is superfluous, does not fit with other words? Why?"

Sad, sad, dull, deep
Brave, sonorous , bold, courageous
Weak, brittle, long , fragile

Strong, strong, far0007

If the child does not understand the meaning of a word, explain his.