Nice Book Club

Great Game Ideas for Home Grade 1-2

We hope you enjoy trying these ideas with your child at home. We have tested these activities in classrooms with teachers and teachers' aides and have found them successful and fun.

Spend Some Rhyme Time Rhyming Word Game

For a fun and easy game you can play any time, all you need is a word. Choose an easy word to rhyme, and have your child think up a rhyming word. Then it's your turn to think up a rhyme for the same word, and then your child's. Keep going back and forth until one of you gets stuck, and then have your child pick a new word to rhyme.

Do a Little Decoding

To help your child learn to recognize and decode word sounds, try the following fun activities:

• Play rhyming games, rhyming as many words as you can.
• See how many words you can make by keeping the ending and just changing the first letter.
• Use magnetic letters or word cards to emphasize the link between letters and sounds.
• Help your child sound out new words that interest her.

Sight Special Words

To build up a bank of words your child will recognize on sight, make a word book. Write down words that are special to your child, such as the names of animals or words like "love" and "hug," and encourage him to illustrate them. You can also take pictures of signs or labels your child will recognize and put them in the book to make the words on them more familiar.

Critical Thinking - Be a Spy

To develop critical thinking skills, play "I Spy." Decide on an object within your view and say, "I spy with my little eye...," then add a clue such as "something that begins with 'H'." Let your children ask you yes-or-no questions to help them hone in on the object. After they guess, the kids get a turn to "spy."

Letter Recognition - Learn Those Letters

To help your child learn to match the letters of the alphabet with the sounds they make, try the following fun activities:

• Make 3D letters by covering construction-paper cutouts with pasta, popcorn, cereal or other materials.
• Cut out pictures of objects from magazines and have your child match them to the letters with which they start.
• Blindfold your child, paint "lotion letters" on her arm and have her guess which letter you were painting and the sound it makes.
• Go on a hunt to find objects that start with each letter of the alphabet.

Sentence Building - Puzzle Out a Sentence

Write a sentence from your child's favorite story on a piece of paper or cardboard, and cut it into a puzzle your child can put back together.

Revamp Reading Time

Reading time is vital, and something you should share with your child every day. To add to the fun, be sure to discuss what you read. Create new endings to favorite stories, or have your child guess what happens next. You should also encourage your child to "read" to you, even if he is just reciting a memorized story.


Motivating Children To Read Grade 3-5

By 3rd grade, children will begin to read independently. Hopefully this is a time when children begin to find that reading can provide hours of personal enjoyment. Parents play an important role in helping children find pleasure in reading. During these critical years, continue to read aloud to your children and encourage them to read aloud to you. Create family reading times and practice sharing books that all of you can enjoy together. Talking about books with your children is a way of helping them into adulthood by sharing thoughts, opinions and dreams that books can help shape. Here are a few tips to help create motivated readers in your home:

Introduce Your Child to Different Types of Reading Materials

Reading opportunities are everywhere. As children grow up, they develop strong interests. Is your child interested in sports, art, music, humor? Find out what subjects are motivating to your child and help him or her find reading materials about that subject. There are plenty of “real world” materials for special interests. Sports pages, gossip columns, comics, music reviews can motivate even reluctant readers to read. Show an interest in the articles your children read and ask them to read aloud the parts of the articles that are most interesting. Good conversations are great rewards for readers of all ages.

Set Reading Goals

Parents can create rewards to help encourage reluctant readers. Set realistic and achievable reading goals on a regular basis. Reward young readers as they reach their goals. Make sure the goals go beyond simply opening a book and turning pages for a specified period of time. And make sure that as a parent, you are reading the material with your child. Follow up each session with conversation about the passage. Ask questions that encourage opinion or thought and discussion.

Write to Read

Writing is an important part of the literacy experience. Find ways to encourage writing as part of daily home life. Children can write down telephone messages, write letters to friends and family members, create lists, compose directions for visitors.

Read as a Family

Put aside reading time that is family time. Older children can read to younger sisters or brothers. Parents can read to the family. Or everyone can simply share quiet time reading silently. Children need to have quiet time scheduled when reading materials are available and the reading is rewarded. It is a positive thing for children to see that their parents value the experience as well.

Read...learn...lead!