Reading Games for Kindergarteners

Kindergartners – the most bubbly, enthusiastic learners of all! Always up for a challenge, looking for ways to enjoy themselves, and forever trying to make us happy.

Learning can sometimes be challenging with kindergartners, especially when building skills like reading, writing, and spelling. While the process in itself may not be troubling, children may lose motivation and run out of interest when things start getting predictable and monotonous.

That’s why reading games for kindergartners are always a hit. They teach, inspire, and help children enjoy the journey from start to end.

Learn more about SplashLearn’s array of fun practice and learning resources that can grow your little bookworms.

Innovative Reading Approaches With Kindergarteners

Learning to read is a continuous process. After all, we’re still learning, aren’t we? To get your kindergartners started right, we have some of the best reading games for kindergartners and tricks that you can try:

• Reading cups: Kindergartners are typically picking up two and three-letter words. Take some paper cups and write down two-letter word endings (like ‘ad,’ ‘in,’ ‘up,’ ‘ot,’ ‘ed’). 

Now take some disposable spoons. Write down three-letter words like fin, pot, red, pup, and bad. You can make a whole list that ties into the word formations on the cups. Get your child to pick up a spoon, read the letters, and place the spoon in the right cup. 

Remember that the child may only recognize letters at this stage and learn to match, but it is a strong start. As each word is identified, spend a moment reading the word and sounding it out. With repetition, children will learn to read these words as soon as they see them. Mission accomplished!

• Running corners: This is an amazing game for children with boundless energy. It’s also a great way to build their appetite and get them to exhaust themselves. So many gains with one little game!

To play this game, stick some words randomly around the rooms. Use the walls, your furniture, just about anything. Ensure these are simple two-or three-letter words your child is familiar with. Now call out a word, and count slowly to ten. Before you have reached ten, your child needs to find the word and run and bring it to you. To start with, you may need to call out and show the word to your child. So, keep an extra set of cards handy.

• Word flowers: Words often exist in groups. Look at this one – hat, pat, mat, cat, rat, fat. That’s only a few we have named. Make flowers with the theme (‘at,’ in this case) in the center, and write down the various words on the petals. This will make it very easy for children to understand sound groups and themes.
• Picture grids: Pictures work brilliantly with children. That’s precisely why we have picture books and colorful illustrations for them. You can make pictures work for you too. Make a large grid with the words the child is learning to read. Now draw simple, colorful pictures of the words. Use a pointer to indicate a word, and ask your child to read it. Once they read it, they can find the picture and cover the word with it. The picture can also be a great clue for those struggling to identify the written word. You will notice the task getting easier as the child practices.

Teaching Your Kindergartener to Read

Reading involves various steps. Interestingly, it can happen in multiple ways. Have you noticed these patterns in your reader?

• Reading by sight: Some children prefer looking at words and forming visual images of them. That’s how they read. They do not sound them. These are visual readers.
• Reading by sound: Phonetic sounds and blends form the basis of these readers. Focusing on letter sounds and reading to them repeatedly is how they learn well.
• Reading in combination: This is ideally how reading occurs. We use sounds for phonetic words and visual reading for sight words.

Now that we know our readers, we need to follow certain steps:

• Begin gradually. Introduce letters, build slowly into two-letter words, and finally three-letter words. You may notice your child being comfortable only around certain words, and that’s ok. There’s a lifetime of learning left for them.
• Repeat as often as you can. You will have to take it slow. Although we are using the simplest of words, this is the most challenging stage because your child is learning a whole new skill.
• Revisit concepts. Children can forget when they are not in touch. Even after you have made some progress, come back to previously taught letters and sounds, so children stay in touch.

Supporting your Kindergartners

Children feel a host of emotions as they learn – they can begin with hesitation, excitement, or even fear. As they go along, they may feel interested, challenged, afraid, anxious, or even enthused. How a child experiences reading is essentially the result of how the parent or teacher goes about the entire process. Here are some things we strongly urge:

• Be very patient
• Motivate your child, whether they are right or wrong
• Give them feedback, so they know how they are doing
• Make them collaborators in the process. Discuss the next letter or sound, so they feel they have a say
• Learn with them

You can teach your child to read with just a few tools and some innovative reading games for kindergartners. With SplashLearn’s online educational games and resources, you can make reading your child’s favorite activity.