Practice Reading with a Word Hunt

What You Do:

1. On each of the 10 index cards, write a different word. Then make a second set of cards using the same words. Words like "the," "was," "have," "all," and "some" are all great examples of words you might want to put on the cards.
2. Have your child hide her eyes or go into another room while you place the cards from one set around a room. Put them in easy-to-find places, like on the floor, on the coffee table, or on the arm of the couch. If your child is an expert at finding things, feel free to make it a bit more difficult by hiding the cards in less obvious places, like sticking out of a book or half-hidden under a coffee cup--just be sure you don't forget where you hid them!
3. Hand the other set of cards to your child and ask her to read the word on the first card. If she struggles, help her sound it out.
4. Tell her she is a detective and needs to find the matching word for the card. Maybe even create a story to make it more fun, such as a the two cards are friends but one got lost and it's up to your child to reunite the two.
5. The object is the game is to have her hunting for the match to each card. She might come across a card that doesn't match the one she's looking for, which means she'll have to recognize that it isn't the same word and keep searching.
6. When she finds the match to the first card, put the pair of words into the basket.
7. Have her continue until all of the cards have been found and returned to their matching card.
8. Once she can easily find the matches to the words, try a new variation of the game. Instead of giving her a second set of cards, you read off the word that she needs to find and she hunts for the card with the word on it.
9. Once she's mastered these words, make another set of words and keep on playing! She'll be a great reader in no time.