How to Help Your Child Read with Word Games While Fixing Dinner
Many parents know that finding an adequate amount of time to help their children succeed in school is difficult at best. Having been a classroom teacher for more years than I care to admit, I know that as hard as the teacher tries to meet all of the needs of the students in her class, the students that seem to do the best are the ones whose parents are actively involved with their child’s education.
So the big question is, “How do I find the time?”
When I started teaching, I was not married and had no children. Life was not too complicated. As time went on life changed. With a husband and a child in the picture, I found myself dealing with the role of a teacher and a parent. My child needed extra help just like most other children. I started figuring out ways to help my child while we did other things.
One of my favorites was word games. One doesn’t need to be a super multitasker to do these with their child while fixing dinner. Hence: Small Bites. This doesn’t take the place of sitting with your child one-on-one if they are really struggling, but it is a very useful way to keep your child thinking and learning while you are cooking.
Game #1 “Rhyming Words”
The beauty of this simple game is that it helps a child with reading sounds. If they can read one word with the end sound, it actually opens up a whole chain of words that they will be able to read by just changing out the beginning sound.
Maybe your child’s job is to feed the cat, so let’s start by coming up with as many words as you can that rhyme with cat. Remember, they all must have the at sound at the end of the word.
(Examples: bat, brat, chat, fat, flat, gnat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, scat, slat, splat, that, vat)
If your child feeds the dog, then you can rhyme words with dog.
(Examples: bog, clog, fog, frog, grog, hog, jog, log, smog)
Goats seem to have become popular again. See how many words you can come up with that rhyme with goat. Notice that all of the words do not end with the same letters: oat and ote.
(Examples: bloat, boat, coat, dote, float, gloat, moat, note, oat, quote, smote, throat, tote, vote, wrote)
Since I’m on a roll with animals, how about words that rhyme with pig.
(Examples: big, brig, dig, fig, gig, jig, rig, sprig, twig, wig, zig)
Game #2 “Sounds to Words”
This game is intended for beginning readers who are working on putting sounds together to form words.
Start by giving 3 or 4 sounds such as /d//o//g/. Have the child repeat back the 3 sounds and then put them together to make the word dog. Obviously, the words are endless, but I’m giving you a few so you can concentrate on fixing dinner.
/f//u//n/ fun
/h//a//t/ hat
/r//a//t/ rat
/m//o//m/ mom
/d//i//g/ dig
/j//u//m//p/ jump
/s//w//i//m/ swim
/r//e//d/ red
This game can be played until you or the child are tired and want to stop. Sometimes when you are doing word games, it’s better to keep them short, especially at the beginning. The length of the game is totally up to you.
Game #3 “Geography Chain”
This game is better with children who are a little older, and was one of my family’s favorites. Acceptable answers include the names of: countries, states, provinces (Canada), cities, etc. Set the rules of what’s acceptable before you start.
Start with the name of one of the above categories such as: Spain. Because Spain ends with the letter N, the next geographical place would need to start with the letter N, such as New Mexico. This ends with an O, so the next response might be Ontario. Another location that starts with O could be Oregon. We could use New York and so on. Take turns and when someone cannot think of a place to continue the chain, they can drop out if more than 2 are playing or you can start over.
Another chain might look something like this:
Kentucky, Yemen, Nigeria, Alaska, Antarctica, Alpine (city), Escondido (city), Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc.
As you can see, many places end with an A or an O. It is helpful if you try to think of places that don’t end with one of these letters.
Word to the Wise
These untimed interactive games work well for learning math facts also. Through my many years of experience, memorizing addition facts, subtraction facts, multiplication facts, and division facts are a major key in being successful in math. Memorization of multiplication facts are the most important. Without actually memorizing these, all other math becomes tedious and frustrating in elementary school, and we want are kids to love math without the frustration that it can bring. When I have had kids in my classes who are totally frustrated with math, the main cause is not learning multiplication facts by the end of 3rd grade. If your child is past 3rd grade and they have not memorized these facts yet, do not despair, it’s never too late to work on this skill.
Beginning Sight Words
I to he
can me look
for some many
have and with
his this where
from says done
the go is
of what good
goes any should
we you little
they help who
Mr. could again
see do she
said put come
your would was
a my does
want has Mrs.
as been there
like are how
hear play walk
Note to Parents:
Remember when teaching sight words to your child, it’s best to put them on 3”x 5” cards and start with 5 at a time. When your child is comfortable with the first 5, add in 2 or 3 more at a time.
I would probably look at the list with a reading book in hand. Start with the sight words that they will need to be able to read fluently in their reader. Since different readers have different sight words, this is the best way to get started.
You can start by having them just read the word. When they are proficient with remembering the word, you can also have them learn to spell it. That is the goal: reading and spelling each sight word correctly.
Important Kindergarten Skills to Practice During the Summer and Beyond
A lot of kindergarten work is oral. There are only a few things on this list that requires writing. Here are some ideas to help you get started:
1. High Frequency and Sight Words: (Put them on flash cards if you can)
a. List 1: I, am, see, a, can, we, the, in, and, go, to, like, said, you, is, it, here, come, up, look, at, me, on, this, my
b. List 2: she, was, he, went, by, out, big, little, yes, with, no, not, going, down, where, are, they, from, have, for, run, his, will, one, of
2. Practice identifying upper and lowercase letters and their sound, including the digraphs ch, ck, sh, th, wh.
3. Practice writing their name legibly.
4. If your child knows his/her sounds, they may practice sounding out CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words. To do this say each sound and then put them together to say the word. Here is a list of sample words to start with: mat, bam, map, Sam, fat, tap, cab, pig, rim, ban, tag, gap, nag, bin, am, pin, rat, lip, at, hit, cat, rat, sat, fig, dog, jam, lid, dim, bog, dip, dig, kid, cob, cub, gum, us, wax, quit, wag, ox, cut, yum, path, neck, chin, rock, back, rush, chop
5. Work on Rhyming Words. Examples Set One: mat, bat, sat, cat, etc. Set Two: jump, bump, lump, etc. Set Three: sing, ring, bring, etc. Set Four: run, bun, fun, etc. (Rhyming words are strictly by ending sound and not the spelling such as fun and done.
6. Math Skills:
a. Practice counting from 1 to 100 by 1’s and practice counting by 10’s to 100.
b. Practice writing numbers from 1 to 20.
c. Practice adding numbers reaching 5, such as 1+2=3, 2+3=5, etc.
d. Practice recognizing flat shapes: triangle, square, rectangle, circle, hexagon.
e. Practice 3-D shapes: sphere, cone, cylinder, prism, cube.
7. Besides these academics, working on small motor skills is also critical for kindergarten children. Suggestions include:
a. Practice cutting with scissors – straight lines and curves
b. Coloring – Staying in the lines
c. Playdough – pinching and shaping
d. Any other activity that requires using fingers with small things
Spending 10 to 15 minutes each day practicing some of these things will really help your child excel.
