Ideas for learning at home

Reading

Below are some fun literacy games that you will be able to use to practice those high frequency words with your child at home. It may be that the flash cards are getting boring eventually-so why not jazz it up with a couple of fun activities?!

Here is a great game you can play with your children that is both fun and really practices that instant recognition of high frequency words. The words your child is working on will be glued into the back of their homework book.

Post-it bingo

How many people can play:

• As many as you would like. Why not get older brothers and sisters involved and see who wins? (Works well with boys)

What you will need:

• Post-it sticky notes
• Markers (These could be anything from buttons to m&m's)

How you play:

1. Together with the child, write the high frequency words on the stick it notes (one word on each note).
2. Arrange the notes in a square. E.g. if the child is working on 4 words start with 2 rows of two, if there are 9 words 3 rows of 3.
3. You say the word aloud and the child has to put a marker on the stick-it note with the right word.

Island hopping

What You Need:

• Coloured chalk
• Stretch of concrete
• A few cards and a permanent marker
• Stopwatch

How to play:

1. On one end of a paved surface, use your chalk to draw a circle big enough for a few kids to stand comfortably inside. For fun, invite your child to decorate it a bit, perhaps with drawings of palm trees or shells. This is “Shelter Island,” and it’s your home base. The object of the game is for each child to hop across a stretch of pavement to land safely on the island. Here’s the catch: the area all around may look like plain concrete, but today, it’s “Crocodile Sea,” and there are going to be the fearsome snapping of toothy jaws all around!
2. Now draw a series of circles between you and the island. Each circle is an “island hop” that can guide a lively first grader to safety. On each “island hop,” have your child help you write a sight word that he's studying. Draw enough circles so that there can be several routes to the island, but try not to make any route longer than about four hops (at least at first).
3. While the kids finish decorating the island and practice some hopping, take a minute to scope out some routes. On your cards, write out five or more different routes of about four words each that a child can hop continuously before getting to the island.
4. Time to get to the island! How fast can your child make it? Can all his friends make it, too? Pull out a card, call out a route, and let the leaping begin! If your child needs coaching on words, that’s fine: the whole idea is to practice those sight words … and get home safe for dinner too!