Games For Reading

I am soooooo excited to share my latest HOT reading find!!!  Somewhere during my hoppin’ around at the Heart of the Matter Curriculum Blog Hop I discovered a FANTASTIC book by Peggy Kaye, “Games For Reading.”  I’ve always got my eye out for any kind of reading activities – I just couldn’t help but to order it!  And I am I EVER SO GLAD I DID!!!  This book is WONDERFUL!!!  It is full of playful ways to help your child read.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to have found this book right before I begin helping my Mustangs read.  It is perfect!  I love how Peggy explains, “If you have fun with a game, your child will begin to associate reading with enjoyment.  Nothing could be more valuable.  And if some memorization takes place, too, all the better.”  This is exactly the philosophy I want to have with my Mustangs as we begin to read.  I want to make reading fun.  I want to get my boys excited about about learning to read!  And Games For Reading is going to be the tool that helps me to make this process fun.

Throughout the book Peggy suggests games to specifically strengthen possible weak areas for visual & auditory learning.  You can choose games from several different target areas:

• Games for Learning Words
• Games for Learning Sounds
• Games for Understanding
• Games for Reading Every Day

My favorite game for learning words is “Gift Words” – Think of a word that has special significance, write the word onto an index card & decorate it, then give it to your child as a gift.  Here are a couple of my “Gift Words” for my Mustangs:

 

I can’t wait to go on a word hunt the next time we are grocery shopping & you better believe we are going to have some major picture labeling going on as well!!!

My favorite games for the eye are “Set the Table” – use 3-4 objects & arrange them in a design on the table.  Your child looks at this arrangement, & takes the identical objects from his own bag & duplicates the design.  My boys are going to have a blast with the “Goofy Sentences”  Peggy suggests.  I can only imagine what they are going to come up with . . .

In addition to playing lots of rhyming games, I am also going to play “Talk a Drawing” – Tell you child what to draw with clarified instructions.

I know my boys are going to LOVE the “Chickens & Whales” game!!  - You gotta buy the book to learn how to play this one!