Kids' Board Games to Teach Spelling and Reading
Games for Children to Learn Language Arts Skills While Playing
Sep 25, 2009
There are many games on the market that teach children to read and to spell. Some, however, are blatantly teaching the child and some are sneaky about it. The most successful teaching styles are those that encompass distraction techniques – teaching through participation and fun. These games disguise themselves as just being fun, but are really explicitly built for learning.
Board Games for Preschool Aged Reading and Spelling
Snap It Up Word Families reading game by Learning Resources is a fast-paced card game that encourages phonics and reading skills. It is for two or more players, ages six years and up. Children pick cards and pass them a fast as they can to try and combine them into words. The first person to form words with their cards wins.
AlphaBug Step-n-Spell by Learning Resources, Inc. is an active participation game for preschoolers. It utilizes an interactive talking floor mat to teach letter recognition, letter sounds and spelling of small simple words. Includes a step-along to the ABC's song, encouraging a child to not only memorize their alphabet, but to recognize the letters as well.
Board Games for Elementary School Aged Reading and Spelling
Coodju (pronounced "could you") Lite by Anomaly Games is an award winning fun spelling game designed for younger players than its original version, Coodju –originally designed for children aged 12 years and up. Coodju Lite encourages children to learn to spell and to really understand the spellings. The game cards come in two spelling levels – for ages seven and up and for ages nine and up – and the game is fully adjustable to each child's learning ability and skill level.
Password by Endless Games is based on the old TV game where one player reads a secret word and has to try and give their partner hints – single word clues –to get them to guess the secret word. Designed for ages eight and above, this game will encourage children to read and also teach them vocabulary and synonyms.
Board Games for Middle School Age Reading and Spelling
Smart Mouth by Think Fun is an award winning fast-paced game where children are "dealt" two letters through their "letter getter". These letters represent the first and last letter in a word. The first person to think of and shout out a word that begins and ends in those letters wins.
Word Storm by Educational Insights is a fast-paced crossword racing game that pits everyone against everyone – all at the same time. Everyone plays, building words from tiles that are scattered around the game board while other players are trying to build, sometimes on the same letters, their own words. This game is for players aged eight and above.
Learning doesn't have to be a boring adventure and memorization will only get a child so far, but when they learn while playing, the things they learn stay with them longer. An article from the University of Missouri Extension entitled, Young Children Learning With all Five Senses, Nina Chen states that in infants, "social, emotional, cognitive, physical and language development is stimulated during multisensory experiences." Using this multisensory learning strategy also can be applied with older children and through adulthood. Learning through experiencing is an easier and more fulfilling way to learn. Board games can also be effective for learning math, logic and strategy.
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