Writing letters games

12 Writing Games To Help Kids Learn To Write And Have Fun Doing It

Writing can feel daunting to young learners — there are so many letters to memorize, sounds to recall, and words to spell! You might be wondering what the best writing games are to help your child learn to write.

HOMER has got you covered with these simple and engaging writing games! With minimal equipment required, these activities can be set up within minutes and provide unlimited fun.

Before we dive into our favorite writing games, let’s discover why writing is important in child development.

Why Writing Is Crucial To Development

From their early scribbles to drawing recognizable letters, writing is a useful form of self-expression for children and allows their ideas to flow more easily.

What’s more, the alphabetic code is reversible, so children who use sounds to determine words for writing are simultaneously advancing their ability to sound out words and read coherently. Win-win!

This is a lifelong skill that your child will use every day, so it’s important to know how to best nurture and develop these emergent literacy skills from a young age.

By playing the writing games outlined below and taking the time to practice, your young writer will be an expert in no time!

Why Games Are Important For Learning

You know that it’s important for your child to develop writing skills, but you may be wondering why you should incorporate games into their learning.

Why can’t your child just sit down with a pen and paper to practice writing?

Less Stressful Learning

Here’s the stitch: Being asked to sit down and practice writing skills can be daunting for some kids. It can also be frustrating when they come across letters or words they struggle with.

Games, on the other hand, decrease stress levels and get children excited about learning.

While playing learning games, your child will not only be practicing their writing skills, but they’ll also be more focused on completing the fun activity than on getting frustrated that they can’t write the uppercase Q, Z, or J.

When children see that learning doesn’t have to be tense or highly stressful, it can also change their perception of educational activities. In fact, they may be more willing to participate in future educational games.

Motivation

Motivation is one of the biggest advantages of playing writing games.

Kids are more likely to pay attention to the instructions and participate when they see the activity is fun. This is much more effective for teaching writing (and other) skills than simply handing them a worksheet.

Some educational games also allow children to play in pairs or groups. Interacting with peers or family members in this way is an excellent opportunity to develop critical social skills, such as listening to others, communicating effectively, and taking turns.

Friendly Competition

Kids can be very competitive — with their friends, siblings, and sometimes even with mom and dad. Playing writing games can foster a spirit of fun, healthy competition.

If you involve multiple children in these activities, the child who wins can learn to congratulate their fellow competitors and not just brag about their accomplishment. And the one who loses can learn to celebrate another person’s win and try harder next time.

Problem-Solving Skills

By nature, most games require participants to incorporate problem-solving skills, planning, and creativity. That’s a lot of mental work!

Playing writing — and other types of educational — games can help your child develop these essential life skills.

Now that we’re clear on why writing games are important, let’s get into the activities you can introduce to your child today.

We’ve divided these into three sections — writing games for preschoolers and kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders. So, feel free to scroll to the relevant section for your child (or children), and let the games begin!

Writing Games For Preschoolers And Kindergarteners

1) Disappearing Letters

What You’ll Need

• A chalkboard
• Chalk
• A paintbrush
• A cup of water

What To Do

Start this activity by writing a repeated letter, a word, or your child’s name on the chalkboard using your chalk. If you’re writing a single letter, start by writing it five times in a row.

Dip the paintbrush in the cup of water and have your child trace over each of the letters, erasing them one by one.

Once your child has mastered one letter, move on to multiple letters until they’re comfortable using this activity to “write” their name and short consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words such as dog and cat.

This activity is great for working on developing your little one’s fine motor skills as well as their spelling abilities, which will aid them as they take pencil to paper!

2) Hands-On Writing

What You’ll Need

• A tray or bin
• A fun material such as sand, flour, or shaving cream — anything that can hold a shape
• A pen and piece of paper (optional)

What To Do

To start this activity, grab a tray or bin that’s deep enough to hold your chosen material.

Fill your tray and bin with sand, flour, shaving cream, or anything else that can be used to form a shape. This is what your child will use to develop their writing skills!

Say a letter to your child (or write the letter on a piece of paper for them to copy, if needed) and have them write the letter into the sand, flour, or shaving cream with their finger.

Eventually, you can work your way up to having your child write whole words, like their name or things they love (the names of their friends and family or even their favorite foods or toys).

Don’t worry too much about what the letters look like — even scribbles are OK! Whatever your child writes to produce a letter or word is great progress.

This activity lets you make writing a fun, sensory experience! Try using different materials to keep your child engaged and to learn more about the world around them while they practice their writing skills.

You could also use a fingerpainting method for this game for some colorful fun — enjoy getting creative with this writing game!

3) Yarn Letters

What You’ll Need

• Blank sheets of paper
• Pencils
• Yarn
• Child-safe scissors
• Glue

What To Do

Grab the blank sheet of paper and help your child draw a letter of the alphabet with a pencil. Then, hand them the yarn, scissors, and glue, and help them trace the letter by cutting and gluing the string onto its shape.

Performing this task is an effective way for your child to develop their fine motor skills, a key component of writing. In addition, this hands-on activity allows children to continue learning their letters.

Writing Games For First Graders

4) Roll The Dice

What You’ll Need

• A piece of paper
• A pen or pencil
• A dice

What To Do

This writing game is all about creating a fun story with your child using dice to determine how many words you get to add each turn!

Start by having your child choose a main character, a setting, and a problem. For example, your character might be a cat, your setting might be a garden, and the problem might be that the cat needs to find some food.

Write the first sentence of your story based on the character, setting, and problem you’ve chosen with your child. Using our example above, the first sentence might be, “Once, there was a cat in a garden who couldn’t find any food.”

After you write the first sentence, have your child roll the dice. Whatever number the dice lands on is the number of words they’ll add to the story — not one word more or less!

You can assist your child by sounding out tricky words and helping them write if needed. Once they’ve added their words, it’s your turn to roll the dice and write your next round of words based on the dice number.

Take up to five turns each before finishing your story together by choosing an ending. Then read your story aloud to see how it all flows!

5) Speech Bubbles

What You’ll Need

• A piece of paper for drawing or a printed cartoon
• A pen or pencil

What To Do

For this activity, start by having your child draw a picture with a character or two. You could draw this scene together or even print off some characters from the internet to color and decorate together.

Once you’ve finished drawing and decorating your characters, it’s time for each of you to draw and fill in a speech bubble to create thoughts for your character (or a conversation if you drew more than one character).

For example, if your character is a dog, maybe he’s standing by an empty bowl. What might a hungry dog say? Some options could be, “Where’s my food?” or “I hope they bring pizza!”.

Let your child’s imagination run wild with possibilities for filling in the speech bubbles and enjoy this writing activity together by writing down the silly suggestions, too!

Speech bubbles are one of the most fun options for writing games as they’re quick, easy, and short for young writers.

This may help your child feel less intimidated as they explore more words to add to their vocabulary and practice forming their letters correctly.

6) Birthday Cards

What You’ll Need

• Colored pens or crayons
• Pencils
• Blank birthday card

What To Do

Birthdays are a day most people look forward to. For kids, this day usually means lots of gifts, games, a birthday cake, and, of course, a birthday card.

Help your child create a unique birthday card for their friend, neighbor, cousin, sibling, mom, or dad — whoever they want! Once they select the recipient, get the supplies you need and help them write a sweet message for their loved one.

This is a wonderful activity for your child to practice putting their thoughts on paper. They can also add flowers, hearts, and anything else that will help to make the card extra special.

Note: This activity can be used for any occasion, not just birthdays. Is it the holidays? Has the family been invited to a graduation party? Do you have a family member who’s not feeling well?

All of these are excellent opportunities to create a special card for a loved one.

7) Map Out The Story

What You’ll Need

• A blank sheet of paper
• Colored pencils (or crayons)

What To Do

The aim of this writing game is simple: create a setting for a story.

Children love when a storybook they’re reading includes some pictures and a map to bring the story to life. With this activity, they get to create their own!

All your child needs to do is draw a map of the story setting of their choosing, labeling the different areas. This can be a story they’ve read or one that’s just popped into their head. It really doesn’t matter as long as they’re excited about it.

To help them get started, you can ask prompting questions, like:

• Does your story take place on land or in water?
• If it’s on land, what and who lives on that land?
• If it takes place in water, what types of interesting creatures are there?
• What’s the weather like?
• How many characters are there?
• Where do these characters live?
• What do the characters do?
• Are there any landmarks?

Once your child is clear about the world of the story, it’s time to draw and create it. Now you can also help your child write a story that takes place in their invented world.

For this activity, we’re not expecting incredible artwork or penmanship. Instead, the main focus is to have kids practice gripping pens or pencils and writing.

Writing Games For Second Graders

8) Grocery List Writing

What You’ll Need

• A piece of paper for making your list
• A pen or pencil

What To Do

Make the task of writing your grocery list into a game!

You can do this as part of a make-believe or role-playing game with your child, or you can create a real grocery list together before the shopping gets done.

Try planning out some meals for the week ahead, and then make a list with your child for each of the ingredients needed. Explain that writing a list helps us to remember all the things we need to buy, and discuss what items you might need to purchase.

Keep it simple and help your child by sounding out words as they write. Once the list is written, your child can enjoy checking off each item one by one after it’s been put in the cart!

9) Household I-Spy

What You’ll Need

• Two pieces of paper, one for you and one for your child
• Two pens or pencils, one for you and one for your child
• A timer or timer app

What To Do

One of our favorite writing games is this version of I-Spy with a twist!

Grab your paper and write each letter of the alphabet down the left-hand side. Once you and your child have both written the alphabet on your paper, set your timer for 10 minutes.

You’ll then race from room to room to find and write down as many objects as possible that begin with each letter of the alphabet. Write each object next to its corresponding letter and fill in as many as you can within the time limit.

You could also set a handicap for this writing game to raise the stakes! For example, if your child’s time limit is 10 minutes, cut yours in half so that you have to find as many objects as possible in five minutes.

10) Accordion Storytelling

What You’ll Need

• A sheet of paper
• Pen
• Ruler

What To Do

The first player will start the story at the top of your clean sheet of paper by writing two sentences on separate lines. They can write about any topic they want.

When they’re done writing, they’ll need to fold the paper over the first sentence and pass the paper on to the next player. This means that the first sentence won’t be seen. The next writer will only be able to see the second sentence on the page.

This player will need to write their own two sentences based on the line they can see. After that, they’ll fold down the first line of what they wrote and pass it on to the next player, too. The paper will continue to be passed around and folded like an accordion.

The round ends once all the paper has been folded up, and there’s no space left to write. Once you’ve reached this stage, open it up and read the story aloud together.

What interesting story did you come up with? Get ready to have a good laugh!

Note: You can take turns reading one sentence each, or you can nominate one person to read the whole story to everyone.

This is a great game to play with the whole family or even just two people, although it is the most fun with at least three people. And it will encourage creativity and writing skills.

11) Pen Pal Writing

What You’ll Need

• Paper
• Pens or pencils
• A pen pal

What To Do

Writing letters to pen pals is very traditional. In a nutshell, it involves two people in a long-distance friendship who communicate by writing letters to each other.

Now, with the advancement of technology, very few people still do this via snail mail. But it can be a great way to encourage children to write.

Who can your child write to? They can choose a friend who’s moved schools, a cousin who lives in another state, or their grandparents. It can be anyone they’d like to send a message to!

This is a fun way to help children learn about mailing letters and how the postal system works. They also get to create memories and can keep the letters their pen pal writes to reflect on for years to come!

12) Rewrite The Ending

What You’ll Need

• Paper
• Pen or pencils
• Storybook

What To Do

Children will need to exercise their imaginations to play this game.

To get started, read a book aloud to your child. (This can be an old favorite or a new story.) Once you’ve finished reading, encourage them to create their own version of the ending.

It can be challenging for children to imagine their favorite stories in a different way, so you might need to help your child think outside the box:

• What if the frog never turned into a prince but into a big elephant instead?
• What if the three little pigs learned karate and decided to fight the wolf?
• Could the little mermaid have a twin sister she just discovered?

This activity lets your child exercise their imagination while also practicing their writing skills. If this is done with multiple children, it will be fun to see what exciting versions of the script each child comes up with.

Enjoy Learning To Write With HOMER!

We hope you’ve found some new favorite writing games from our activities in this guide!

From creating sensory play activities with sand and fingerpaints to writing a grocery list together, there are so many ways to get creative with your child and make writing a fun shared activity.

For even more writing fun, unbox a learning adventure with our Explore Letters Kit. Watch your child build their literacy skills, using their imagination to lead them through a variety of writing and spelling activities!

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Letter A Tracing Games for Kids Online

Learning to trace letters is a vital ELA skill. It allows children to get started on their journey of writing. Letter tracing emphasizes on the importance of language arts and helps to build pre-writing skills in children which are essential for communication and comprehension.

The first letter children learn to trace is ‘A’. Resources like activity books help children practice this trait on paper. Another useful resource to practice tracing letters is online games. Letter A tracing games for kids allow them to trace the letter A successfully and engagingly. And guess what, it also saves paper! Games on tracing letters allow children to practice multiple times on a digital device with ease.

Other ELA games you can explore are: reading games, writing games, phonics games, sight words games, etc.

Letter tracing begins with the letter A - the first one of the English alphabet. You can start by explaining to your child that this letter has a mix of slanted and straight lines, and the lowercase version even has a curve. Learning how to trace the letter A makes it easier for kids to write the letter and form words with it in time.

Letter A tracing games for kids online help them trace letters while having fun simultaneously. These games are bright, colorful, and visually appealing with interactive characters. They are very eye-catching and they ensure that your little one can have tons of fun while learning.

Online games on letter tracing help kids build their hand-eye coordination as they learn to trace the letter A. These games also enhance their creative and motor skills. Letter tracing also helps to pave the way for drawing and enables a child’s inert thinking skills.

The letter A is an important vowel and it helps in forming many small and large words, making it imperative for kids to learn how to trace the letter. Fun letter A tracing games are really beneficial for kids to practice this ELA skill. These games help kids trace both the uppercase ‘A’ and the lowercase ‘a’.

When teaching your kids how to trace, the best way is to start by guiding their hands and fingers. At first, it may be a little daunting for kids, but as you progress, you will find that it gets easier. If you read to your kids or help them sing or speak the alphabet series, then each time you say a letter, ask them to trace that letter with their finger. This helps them gradually develop their writing skills.

Letter A tracing games for kids online make letter tracing a fun and interactive exercise. To keep it challenging, you could point at different objects in your surroundings that start with the letter A, and then ask your kids to trace the letter in these online games.

Letter tracing games are available online and children can start by learning to trace the letter ‘A’. This helps them associate the letter with objects they see around themselves. This also enables them to practice coordination, spatial awareness, etc. Online games help children to hone their pre-writing skills in an interesting way.

Some fun activities to practice letter tracing for kids are: fill a small tray with salt or sand and trace the letter with your finger, use bright colors or paint to trace the letter, use small beans or buttons to form the shape of the letter on a piece of paper, etc.

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Ghost Letters - board game

Ghost Letters - detective board game with secret roles

Something mysterious is happening in a small town. The police have already knocked off their feet in an attempt to unravel the next crime. Fortunately, a young ambitious journalist found a mystical mailbox near the victim's house by accident. It's hard to believe, but something is happening to the photographs of evidence thrown into this box. Some of them disappear without a trace, and some return - as if a ghost is trying to tell you something. You just came to support your friend in her investigative journalism. And they were involved in the investigation themselves, like real detectives. However, it is possible that some of you were not here by chance - the killer may be hiding among your friends!

“Ghost Letters” is a secret role-playing game about investigating a crime. Detective players from 12 clues (images of objects) found at the crime scene calculate 3 true clues. The detectives are assisted by the Phantom Player (victim of the crime) with the help of other evidence-hints, associatively hinting at the true evidence. Hiding among the Detectives is a Killer who seeks to confuse the investigation.
The game lasts 4 rounds:
- players choose from their hand and pass face-down 1 clue to the Ghost;
- The ghost opens the successful ones. And unsuitable leaves closed.
The player with the covert role of the Killer seeks to confuse the investigation, both by discussing open evidence and by bluffing about evidence left closed.
After 4 rounds, players vote by majority for 3 clues and the Killer player.
The more players, the more interesting roles: Accomplices of the Killer, Witness, Expert, Blackmailer. Advanced mode adds character cards with unique abilities to the game.

4 - 12 players: competitive mode (Ghost and Detectives team vs. Killer and Conspirators team)

2 - 3 players: cooperative mode (Ghost and Detectives only)

Recommended age: 9+

- 150 clue cards
- 14 secret role cards
- 12 character cards (double-sided)
- 3 category tokens
- 1 radio token
- 1 mailbox token
- memo card
- game rules
(total 150 cards 63x63mm, 27 cards 63x89mm)

The Mailbox expansion adds 150 new clue cards, 2 new characters, 1 secret role, tier 4 token, and the box itself add-ons in the form of a Mailbox, which acts as a "box" for passing evidence to the Ghost.

Game creator: Nikita Kuznetsov

Ghost Letter release date: December 23, 2020, Mailbox add-ons: April 25, 2022

Buy: https://economicusgame.com/shop

Game Rules: https://cloud.mail.ru/public/41NA/3as6zfBCa

Mailbox Unboxing - add-ons for the game "Letters" Ghost."

Atmospheric video trailer about the game Ghost Letters by Zundra Grapes

A brief overview of the game Ghost Letters from Niza Gams channel

Video of the rules of the Ghost Letters game

Explanation of the rules of the Ghost Letters game and an example of a game game (letsplay)

• Ghost Letters, boardgame

• Ghost Letters, board game

• Letters of the Ghost, back of the game box

• Ghost Letters, game layout

• Ghost Letters Board Game, Secret Role Cards

• Ghost Letters board game, character cards

• Letters of the Ghost, illustration from the rules of the game

Photos from the other world.

Review of the game Ghost Letters.

When I think back to my tabletop journey, I always say that I started with Arkham Horror. But BEFORE it was about two years of weekly evenings in the Mafia. I do not rank them as my desktop experience, because I have never put this game in a number of board games. True, it has more psychological debate than games. These years were, and I will not call them bad. Having already stepped on the path of a desktop developer, I periodically tried “substitutes”, but could not find the right one. Until I met the Ghost Letter.

Ghost Letters is a game by Nikita Kuznetsov published by Economicus Game. This is a deductive game for 2-12 people in which the detectives are looking for the killer, and the deceased himself helps them in this! The description is similar to Paranormal Detective, but no, these games only have similar descriptions. Ghost Letters are actually games like Mafia. That is, there are secret roles, and the identification of the killer, and voting. But even with this game, Letters has enough differences.

Let's start, perhaps, with the fact that the players are looking not so much for the killer as for clues - the motive, place and method of murder. The victim, who has turned into a ghost and communicates with detectives by sending photos through the mailbox, helps them in this. The rules devoted two full spreads to a story explaining why this happens. The story is in the spirit of Scooby-Doo, but it is enough for the game.

In essence, the Ghost is acting as a leader who wants the good to win. His task here is very similar to that of the Medical Examiner in Forensic Science. The difference is in the tools and presentation of information. And this is enough not to call one game a clone of another.

The clues here are cards with images of various objects. They will be in the hands of everyone - and the detectives, and the ghost, and the killer, and other participants. If a large company has gathered at the table, a witness, an accomplice, a blackmailer and an expert can join the investigation. They will also lie on the table - four cards opposite each category.

At the very beginning of the game, the players fall asleep only once. Despite the fact that the game lasts several rounds, there are no eliminations during the game, so there is no point in intermediate nights. And the dream is needed in order for the killer to show real evidence - in one of the categories. It is with them that the ghost will associate all incoming cards. If there are other roles at the table, they will also learn some information - the witness and the blackmailer will know who the killer is, and the expert will know which evidence is real. Despite the fact that they receive important information, sharing it openly will not work - this is contrary to the winning goal.

At the start of each round, players select cards from their hand that they wish to link to some evidence on the table and send them to the ghost's mailbox. He takes them out and compares them with real evidence and leaves only those that, in his opinion, are suitable. Detectives recognize them and, based on this information, already make their assumptions.

This is the essence of Ghost Letters: as important as the roles of the players, so important are the associations to the clues. That is, the game is about the association of pictures on pictures. Dixit also wanders into a number of similar games. But here the images are much more specific - if there is a lighter in the picture, then it is there without fairies flying around. It gives a lot of information - gold, with fire, engraved, but remains a lighter. Surprisingly, even from such simple pictures, different people have different associations.

On the field of associations, the killer clashes with the detectives. After all, it is not profitable for him to give suitable tips. And there are plenty of tools for manipulating associations. The most obvious is not to put in suitable cards. So the detectives get fewer pictures for the associative series.

The next step is to bluff about the sent evidence. You can send one, and voice another, with the words that he checked the real evidence. “But since it wasn’t posted, then it’s definitely not the right one” - this is a very popular phrase during the game, which is said by both good and bad characters. The main thing is not to get caught on this bluff later. (Life hack: if you hold it on your hand or drop it yourself, you won’t get caught).

Another obvious option is to cast a shadow on the other players and divert the associations left by the ghost from the real evidence. And here they are, hello, those very debates from the Mafia. Only here they are based on specific game information, and not on the flair and stomp of a neighbor during the next night. Having a foundation under them, they are built around specifics, but the power of the player's persuasion still does not lose its weight.

Detectives at this time must both play fair and watch who causes confusion at the table. But if there are a lot of players, then others will also cause confusion: the witness should throw suspicions on the killer a little more than the rest, the blackmailer will look for real evidence, but take the rest aside along with the criminal, the expert is like that at all ... I don’t know how he should to behave, the maximum line-up that we played is eight people, and it is added to the game for ten players. And of course, no one says anything openly.

In addition, everyone can acquire unique character traits and become not a faceless detective, but a real sheriff or medium. In a game of characters, everyone has their own ability to narrow down possible clues not based on suspicion, but on information received from a ghost. True, players have to fall asleep more often than in a normal game, and there are no longer four, but five clues in each category, otherwise it would be too easy for detectives.

So, the Ghost's Letters hit me. They recalled those impressions from the evenings at the Mafia, and made them friends with new realities. After all, in recent years, association parties have been my favorites among companion games. And pictures or words - everything is there. The mechanics of secret roles are so well attached to the associations that the impressions of the game are quite fresh. The clash of what you liked a long time ago with what you like now suddenly became successful. No one is eliminated, the leader takes a full part in the game, everyone bluffs and makes associations.

But this connection may not work. At least for those who do not like the mafia component - bluff and debate. So, although my wife agrees to play Letters, in this case she prefers to sit down for the role of the Ghost, where only an associative component awaits her. In such a case, please keep the cooperative option. No killers, the ghost himself comes up with what evidence is real, and tries to point them to the detectives with the same tools.

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