Games for Emerging Readers Isolating Sounds With these phonics games your child learns to isolate the first or last sound from the rest of the word. Guess the Animal Think of an animal and tell your child the first sound (not the letter name) of the animal’s name. Ask him/her to guess which animal you are thinking of (e.g., “I am thinking of an animal beginning with /d/. What is it?” When he/she has guessed correctly, ask him/her to choose a name for the animal that begins with the same sound as the animal’s name. (e.g., “Should the dog’s name be Dingo or Bingo?”). Sort by Sound Put several different objects that all start with one of three different sounds in a big bag. Label the outside of three small boxes with the letters associated with the sounds you have chosen. Ask your child to pick one object at a time from the bag and place it in the box that is labelled with the first sound of the object’s name. You could also play this game using picture cards, as in the Sound Detective game below. Sound Detective Cut out various pictures of objects that your child knows the names of and glue them onto index cards. Try an image search on Google if you want to find pictures of particular objects you know your child will enjoy. Several of the pictures should start with the same sound. Lay the cards on the floor, choose a sound, and pick up all the cards with pictures starting with your chosen sound. Give these cards to your child and tell him/her that you are thinking of a sound and all these pictures start with that sound. Ask him/her to be the Sound Detective and work out which sound you are thinking of. As your child’s experience grows, you can make the game more challenging by choosing a sound and having your child pick up all the cards with pictures starting with your chosen sound or having your child focus on ending sounds. Words Beginning With… Say your child’s name or ask him/her to pick a friend’s name, and then ask him/her to tell you all the words that he/she can think of that begin with the same sound as the friend’s name you have chosen. Tongue Twisters Ask your child to choose a letter (perhaps the first letter of his/her or a friend’s name) and then help him/her make up a silly sentence with lots of words that all start with the same sound (e.g., “Bouncy Boris blew bubbles by the bed.”) Going on Vacation Choose a sound and then say, “I’m going on vacation, and I’m going to take a …” Follow with the name of an object beginning with your chosen sound. Then tell your child that it is his/her turn. He/she should repeat the phrase and add his/her own object to the end, which must also start with the same sound. Continue to take turns until you run out of objects. Then you can repeat with another sound. To make the game more challenging, you and your child can repeat all of the previous answers as you add new ones (e.g., You: “I’m going on vacation, and I’m going to take a diaper.” Your child: “I’m going on vacation, and I’m going to take a diaper and a dog.” You: “I’m going on vacation, and I’m going to take a diaper, dog and dish.”) Blending Sounds With these phonics games your child learns to blend individual sounds to make a word. Blending Game Think of a three-sound word (e.g., fun, cat, red). Say each sound individually, isolating it as much as possible (e.g., for “f” say “fff” not “fuh,” otherwise your child might end up saying “fuhun.”) Ask your child to put the three sounds together to guess the word. Stretch the Story Tell your child that you are going to read him/her a story, but you will stretch out some of the words so that he/she can hear all of the sounds in the word. His/her job is to put the stretched words back together. Read your child the story and when you get to an important place, character or object in the story say that word stretched out – saying each of the individual sounds in the word isolating each sound as much as possible (e.g., for “d” say “ddd” not “duh”). Pause to allow your child to put the word back together before continuing with the story. Segmenting Sounds With these phonics games your child is practicing breaking down words into their individual sounds. Segmenting Game This is the same as the Blending Game above but with you doing the guessing. Ask your child to think of a word and, without telling you the whole word, say each sound individually. You have to guess the word. Word Building Think of a three-letter word that is simple to spell (e.g., fun, cat, red) and write each letter on a small card – one letter per card. Draw three lines on a separate piece of paper. Tell your child the word and ask him/her to make the word by arranging the three cards in the correct order on the lines of the paper. If he/she needs help, try running your finger along the three lines as you slowly say the word, but do not segment the sounds in the word for him/her. This phonics game also works particularly well with magnetic letters and a magnetic white board. More Word Building Create cards, as in the Word Building game above, of the following letters: a, c, f, m, o, p, s and t. Start by spelling ‘cot’ using three of these letters. Ask your child if he/she can change one of the letters to make ‘pot’. Then continue to make other words, always changing one letter at a time (e.g., ‘pat’, ‘fat’, ‘mat’, ‘cat’, ‘sat’, ‘sap’, ‘tap’, ‘cap’, ‘map’, ‘mop’, ‘cop’, ‘top’, ‘pop’). This phonics game also works particularly well with magnetic letters and a magnetic white board. Rhyming With these phonics games your child is learning to recognize and generate rhyming words. Point and Rhyme While you are around the house or out and about, point to an object and say its name. Then ask your child to think of as many words as he/she can that rhyme with the name of the object. Let him/her use nonsense words too – the point is that he/she gets the hang of rhyming even if the words are made up. Words that work well for this game include hat, coat, book, bed, toy, pot, chair, sink, bell, rug, car and dog. Odd One Out Say three words, two of which rhyme and one which does not (e.g., pen, bin and hen) and ask your child to tell you the two words that rhyme. Guess the Rhyme Think of two words that rhyme. Tell your child one of them and ask him/her to guess the other, based on your brief description of it. For example, say “I am an animal that rhymes with hat. I fly around at night and hang upside down when I sleep. What am I?” Awareness of Syllables With these phonics games your child is learning to break down longer words into parts, which will eventually help when reading and spelling long words. Sort by Syllables Gather together several objects that your child knows the name of and put them in a bag. Label three boxes 1, 2 and 3. Ask your child to pick one object at a time of out of the bag and place it in the box that is labelled with the number of syllables in the object’s name. Box 1 should contain all objects with one-syllable names (e.g., cup, pen, hat). Box 2 should contain all objects with two-syllable names (e.g., pencil, teddy). Box 3 should contain all objects with three-syllable names (e.g., umbrella, elephant). You could also play this game using picture cards rather than actual objects. Try an image search on Google if you want to find pictures of particular objects you know your child will enjoy. Cut out pictures of different objects with one, two and three syllables and glue them onto index cards. Ask your child to sort the cards into three piles based on the number of syllables in each word.