Phonics

These games focus on phonemic awareness and decoding. The atmosphere should be light and enjoyable, and your child should never be frustrated. Please provide whatever support is necessary for this to happen.

Presto Chango
This game focuses on word families. A child who knows the word cat and the word family /-at/, for example, can figure out many related words: bat, hat, mat, pat, and so on. Select a word family, and think of several words that belong to it. Now, using cat as an example, say to your child, “Let’s start with cat. If we take the /c/ off, we have /-at/. Now add /m/ and PRESTO CHANGO, what do we have?”
Odd Word Out
This activity, (Rasinski et al., 2008), is a variation of the Sesame Street sketch that asks viewers to decide which three of these things belong together. To play it, assemble sets of three words, two of which share a feature. For example, with beginning sounds, you could select cat, cake, and tree. With word families, you could select pin, tin, and tip. Say each set of words to your child and ask, “Which one doesn’t belong? Why?”
Games with Words
These games focus on words. For the last four, you will need word cards which can easily be prepared using index card. The games are useful for developing sight vocabulary, providing additional practice with new vocabulary words and, of course, having fun!

20 Questions

Select a word from a text you have read to your child. (It is helpful to have the text available for your child to see.) Tell your child to guess the word you have in mind by asking up to 20 yes-or-no questions.

Concentration

Use about 10 pairs of word cards (20 words all together). These can be the same word on two cards, a word paired with a word family or definition, pairs of words from the same word family, synonyms, antonyms, homophones or some other logical pairing of words. Shuffle the cards and lay them upside down in a rectangle. Now you and your child can take turns turning up two cards at a time. If the cards match, you keep them. If they do not match, turn them back over. The winner is the one with the most cards when all cards are matched.

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