Learn to Read
the Wholesome Way
Keen-to-Read Books
WORD AND LETTER GAMES TO PLAY
TO HELP YOUR CHILD IMPROVE HIS OR HER READING SKILLS
1. Reading games based on familiar books can help your child progress faster.
Most children progress faster if their attention is drawn to specific textual features, such as letter sounds and high-frequency words. Games played with familiar books not only heighten your child’s interest in these features, but they also help your child learn them in a meaningful and memorable way.
The familiar text creates a strong association that makes the letter sounds and words more memorable. Plus, there is an added bonus. Whenever you reread the story, your child’s memory will be jogged. This is what makes reading games played with favourite stories effective.
2. The best books to use to play these games
Any book with clear print and good spacing between the words that your child enjoys is a good book to use, as these games are generally best played during subsequent readings and not during the initial reading of a story, where the emphasis is usually more appropriately placed on reading for meaning. Ted’s Tales make ideal books as you can also adapt and increase the level of difficulty as your child improves.
3. The time it takes to play these reading games
The games take only 30 seconds to 5 minutes to play, but they can make a big difference in furthering your child’s reading ability.
The Word & Letter Games - Simple / Fast / Effective - Help Your Child Learn Faster.
(All you need is a book with clear print that your child enjoys, plus paper and pencil for game 8.)
If appropriate, play the following games or variations of them when the timing feels right for your child. His or her personality, age, attention span, and experience are all influencing factors.
1. The Matching-Letter Game
(Helps develop letter and sound recognition, observation and scanning skills.)
This word begins with the letter…. (insert a letter). Listen to the sound it makes. Can you find another word on this page that begins the same way?
2. The Matching-Word Game
(Helps develop word recognition, observation, memory, and scanning skills.)
This word says… (insert a word). Can you spot another word that is the same?
3. The Word-Count Game
(an extension of the previous game)
Let’s look through the story and find as many words as we can that say… (insert a word). How many do you think we will find? Let’s have a guess. Look, here’s one. Now it’s your turn to find one. I wonder if you can find the next one before me.
4. The Chiming-In Game
(This game not only helps children learn words, but it also helps children learn to focus, as they needs to follow the text as you read. It also helps develop memory skills as children need to remember the word and remember to chime in.)
I’m going to read this sentence. When I reach the word that says… (insert a word), I am going to pause so you can read it for me. Let me know if I forget to pause. Sometimes forget, so your child can correct you. They love doing that. Then you can say something like, I’ll read the sentence again. I won’t forget this time. This can be a lot of fun. Have turns. Let your child read and pause to let you chime in.
5. The Word-Memory Game
(As children need to keep their attention on the words you are reading and also remember the word you want them to keep in mind, this game helps children learn words, helps develop their ability to focus, and helps develop memory skills.)
A word in this sentence says… (insert a word). I am going to read the sentence ( verse, or page) and point to the words. When I get to the end, do you think you will be able to show me the word.
6. The I-Spy Game
(Helps children learn initial letter sounds and helps develop their observation and scanning skills.)
I spy with my little eye a word beginning with… (insert a letter) as in… (insert a word beginning with that letter). Have turns.
A Variation.
Play I spy not only within the framework of the text but also include the pictures.
7. The Mystery-Word Game
(This encourages children to look more closely at words and see their differences and to learn to scan.)
I am thinking of a word on this page. I’ll give you a clue. It begins with… (insert a letter). Sometimes give another clue. It ends in… (insert an ending or just a letter). What could it be? Have turns.
8. The Letter-List Game
(Helps children remember initial letter sounds. Helps develop listening, observation, and scanning skills.)
Let’s make a list of all the words we can find that begin with a… (insert a letter) as in… (insert a word). I wonder if we can find… (insert a number) words. We could have turns. You find one, and then I’ll find one. (This gives your child’s mind and eyes a rest from intense concentration and induces more interaction.)
PS These reading games can help develop an understanding of the word as a unit. But they can also help develop scanning skills (an essential skill to speed up reading for information and thus learning) in those children who fully understand that one written word represents one spoken word. In time, as children practise searching for words or words beginning or ending with the same letters, they learn to glance over the text. They learn to look at and read silently more than one word at a time.
Our Shared Readers are great for playing these word & letter games because of the varying levels of reading difficulty within each book and their rich vocabulary, which means you can adapt the level of difficulty of these games to suit your child, and also increase that level as your child gets more and more adept at playing them.
Our Easy Readers, although they lack the scope of our Shared Readers are also useful for playing these games, as they can help beginner readers consolidate basic high-frequency words and learn letter sounds.
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