Reading Games

Building academic language

Word

• Display the the text for Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson and do a brief picture walk, highlighting the letters on each page.
• Read aloud the text, encouraging students to search, or look carefully, for the letters on each page.

Sentence

• Define scavenger hunt and demonstrate how to search for letters using the Animal Alphabet worksheet. Model saying the letter sound and coloring in the letter on your worksheet when you find it in the classroom.
• Review the English names for the pictures on the worksheet.
• Explain that students will now get to go on their very own letter scavenger hunt in the classroom.
• Pass out an Animal Alphabet worksheet to each student and encourage the class to look at student name tags, word wall, signs, posters, etc. to find all of their letters.

Discourse

• Gather the class back together and have students pair-share with a partner where they found the letters. Provide students with the sentence frame: "I found the letter __ __ __ __ on the __ __ __ __." Encourage students to share words that begin with each letter if time allows.