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by Mary Anne Edwards
Topics: Kindergarten, Reading

Does your child love to play guessing games? Does she need help reading common words? Kill two birds with one stone, by making a family board game that’s so fun, she won’t even realize she’s learning!

What You Need:

word list (provided below)
marker
80 index cards (or construction paper cut into cards)

What You Do:

Step 1:

Write 2 copies of each word from the following list on index cards, using the marker:

a  and away big blue can come down
find for funny go help here I in
is it jump little look make me my
not one play red run said see the
three to two up we where yellow you

Step 2:

Have your child lay the index cards on a table in rows, in a face down position. You should have a total of 80 cards. Once all the cards are laid out, it’s time to play! This game is played like Concentration, or Memory Match, only instead of matching Jacks or Queens, your child will be matching common words. (Which will help her read more smoothly!)

Step 3:

When it's their turn, each player turns over a card, and reads the word aloud. Then they flip over a second card and read that one aloud. If the two words are the same, they’ve found a match! They can set aside their pair and go again. However, if the two cards are not a match, the player turns them face down again, and the next player gets a turn. Repeat this process until all of the cards have been matched.

This memory game is a fantastic way for emerging readers to practice high frequency, or “sight” words. As their reading improves, feel free to add more challenging words to the deck. Until then, game on!