Owen has been really interested in reading lately, so I’m trying to roll with it without pushing him or having him lose interest–so games have been my go-to.
He’s trying desperately to grab the words that he can, whether it be words in the book we’re reading, words on the screen of his Leapster Explorer, or words on Mario Kart–it doesn’t matter. He’s in a really cool stage right now, and it’s been an absolute riot.
So very simply, we’ve been doing some work with family names, with basic word families, with fun reasons to write, and with words in the environment. But I’ve also added something a little more focused and ‘kindergarten-prep’ to the mix, and for the time being, the O-Man’s loving it: Early Emergent Words.
I know it sounds like a laugh a minute, but when thrown in at the just-right times and in just-right ways, word play can be pretty rockin’.
All we need are a few fun sight word games to prepare him for Kindergarten. Go Fish is one of them.
Here’s one thing we’ve done:
- Early Emergent Word Go-Fish!: Yes, it’s true. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again–Go Fish! can be played with just about anything, for just about any reason. So maybe it’s not as colorful or crazy as our Family Card Go Fish!, but Early Emergent Word Go-Fish! is not to be scoffed at.
In fact, if you’d like to play it at home with your soon-to-be-kindergartner, go for it! The early emergent words are here to download if you’d like.
Owen prepares for game two–the BIG game with all of the cards!
The way we play is very easy–I print out two copies of each set of words so that there are two of each word. Then we turn all of the cards face-down in the big ‘fish pond’ and we each pick five cards.
If we have any pairs, we lay them down and choose other cards so that before we start, each player has five cards in his or her hand.
Then we get rolling–no monkey business when Owen plays games. We say, Do you have the word, ‘look’ (or whatever)? If the other person does have the card, she hands it over. If not, she says, Nope. I don’t have ‘look’. Go fish!
And if the player is lucky enough to pick up the desired card, we say You fished your wish!! If not, it’s the next person’s turn. At the end of the game, the only pairs that count are the ones that the player reads–no pressure–we always help if necessary, but it just sneaks in one more reading of a word that will soon be committed to memory!
And that’s it–just 10 or 15 minutes every few days to make learning to read fun and doing what we can to get our kiddos ready for school! Woot!
If your children are at different stages of the literacy game, consider using these cards for Go-Fish!:
- alphabet cards and number cards (uppercase and lowercase)
- early emergent words
- upper emergent words
- early fluency words
- fluency words
OR if Go-Fish! isn’t your game, take a look at these other ways of playing with Sight Words. . .
What a fun way to practice the early emergent words : ) My daughter Grace sounds like she is going through the same phase as Owen in reading right now. She is sooo excited about finding words everywhere and I am loving it! Any suggestions about this…she is trying to sound out every word as she finds them…on books, signs, in the grocery store by using picture and context clues and then asks…’is that what the word really says mommy?’ Trying to think of ways to respond while keeping it positive. Thanks for you posts! I printed out a set of the early emergent words and she loves them.
hey Kelly–you’re right! Grace and Owen sound like they’re at just about the same stage–which means they’d be an early-literacy force to be reckoned with if they ever got together!
Sounds like you’re doing the best thing–I’d just respond as positively as possible and point to the letters as you repeat the word for her (if you don’t lose your mind by the end of the shopping trip!). Maybe have her bring along a little notebook so SHE can copy the words as she goes. . . might slow down your trip but at least she’d be focused (?)–
🙂
amy
I used this game a lot in the classroom (as well as Concentration). I taught the students how to fold a 9X12 piece of paper into 16 small rectangles. They picked 8 words to write 2x in their rectangles, cut them out, then played with a partner for about 10 mintues. When the timer went off, they switched partners and did it again. I loved this activity because the prep work for me = nada! 🙂 The kids loved this and begged to play, even though they did all the work! It reviewed reading, writing, counting, cutting, and social skills. Pretty cool.
I really like your adaptation to the classic game!
Becky–
LOVE this idea!! So smart, so simple, but so many skills are hit–you’re right! Will definitely try it out during homework time w/ my kids or w/ my tutoring students!
Thanks for the great suggestion! We have to pick up some food for Easter dinner tomorrow so we will give that a shot and I think she will really enjoy it.
awesome–let me know how it goes, and let’s definitely stay in touch! xo
What a great way to work on sight words!! This is a lot more fun than flipping through the cards – my kids would love this!! Thanks.
thanks so much, Camille!! You are so kind for writing!
My Jeb is right there with Owen….really starting to read! So exciting! I’m loving this idea because it sounds fun and because you’ve made it entirely too easy for me! Jeb loves to practice reading by himself on his terms, no pressure, so if I want to lead some of the learning I have to sneak it into a game. Here are two things we’ve done this week so far.
The first is a sight word Easter egg hunt. Just write the words on slips of paper, put in eggs, and hide. He (and his little brother) got to go on a hunt. He found the eggs and then we looked inside each to read the words. Beside each word I had written either a 1 or 2. This corresponded to how many pennies he got when he/we figured out the word. CVC words he got 1 penny because he’s pretty good at sounding those out. For sight words he got 2 pennies because some of those can’t be sounded out. Now, I don’t usually pay my kids to read (actually, I’ve never done it), but I used to love getting the prize egg with the coins in it when I was a kid, so for some reason I associate those little plastic eggs with money. I’m telling myself it was a great math lesson as well….especially when we switched pennies for nickels and nickels for dimes.
The second game we played was this: I drew a circle, divided it into several equal parts, labeled each part with a word, and used a pencil/paper clip to make a spinner. Then, on a separate sheet of paper I made a bar graph labeled with the same words. He spun the spinner and graphed which word it landed on. He did this until one of the words reached the top of the graph. It was funny, because he started cheering for one particular word to win. Again, what a great math lesson. Which word had the most? The least? Which two words both had four?
My oldest just laughed because she understood that I was getting him to practice reading through these games. What she doesn’t realize, is that I do it with her too!
BRANDY!! YOU are incredible! HUGE thanks for sharing these two FUN, fun ideas with me–and you’re right–it sounds like your Jeb is right along with my Owen. Again, this is why we’d be great neighbors. . . xoxo
I just realized that I seem to always write a ton when I leave a comment here. Seriously, I don’t mean to do it. My fingers just fly through typing whatever I’m thinking and the next thing I know, I’ve written a book. It usually only takes two or three minutes to type so it doesn’t feel like I’m writing that much. But look, here I am, about to do it again. Sigh.
You are a riot, my friend! I LOVE IT!!
What a fantastic way to practice sight words! I have a soon-to-be kindergartner who will enjoy, this, thank you!
thanks, Maryanne!!
Hope it works out for your soon-to-be kindergartner!!