Free reading games make reading practice fun and help your kids develop the skills they need to read!
I have lost count of the number of kids I’ve met who knew their letters and sounds but couldn’t read! It breaks my heart every time.
Let me help you to either prevent this, or fix it, if this is what’s happening in your home! You can practice the needed (phonological awareness) skills easily, without any special apps, tools, or books. And the best part is, you can practice free reading games anywhere!
Practice reading with play
Let me help you out with this quick game reference sheet you can keep on your fridge! You’ll have it front and center to remind you to play a quick purposeful reading game every day.
Reading games to start with
Kids will learn to read with ease if different so called “pre-reading” skills are well established before they learn to read books. One of these main skills is to be able to identify beginning or initial sounds.
When you play free reading games together, you’ll want to make sure they include this essential skill.
Why are beginning sounds important
Before kids will be ready to read words, they not only need to know the sounds letters make, but they also need to have a firm grasp on language and how sounds in language work.
One very important skill to work on is for them to recognize beginning sounds in words. It gets them started on their path to be able to identify sounds and blend them into words.
How can I help my child hear initial sounds?
Learning to hear the beginning or initial sounds in words can be hard at first. You can use a few tricks to make it a little easier for your kids. Practice is definitely the main key to unlocking this skill! That’s where free reading games can make learning a new skill fun.
- Using words that begin with long sounds like f, l, m, n, s, or v as you start to practice this skill will help your child out a lot.
- Encourage your child to watch your lips as you say the words.
- Help by repeatedly separating or elongating the beginning sound from the rest of the word before you ask your child what the beginning sound was. Have them join you in saying the word the “funny” way.
Free reading games for beginning sounds
You can either watch the video above or check the free reading games out here. These are easy to learn, don’t require any materials, and can be played anywhere!
I spy something that begins with “___”
I’m pretty sure you are familiar with the traditional game “I spy”. You can play this game by simply inserting a beginning sound the object you see begins with.
Let’s say you are playing this game in the produce department at the grocery store. You could say, “I spy something that begins with “Llllll” and elongate the sound to help your child really hear the beginning sound. Have fun with wild guesses! If your child does not get it, you can direct them towards the lettuce and say the word.
Model saying the beginning sound long and keep playing. This skill will take a little while to learn, this is why you wan to play free reading games on a regular basis.
My friend’s name begins with ___
For this free reading game, pick the name of a friend and model identifying the beginning sound of the name. Let’s say my friend’s name is Mike. I could say, “I have a friend named Mike. Mmmmmike. I hear mmmm at the beginning of Mike. Let’s say it together. Mmmmmike.”
Then have your child pick a friend and work on identifying the beginning sound together until s/he is ready to do it on her own.
My favorite food begins with “___”
Take turns identifying the beginning sound of your favorite foods.
Let’s say salad was my favorite food. I would say, “I really like to eat salad. What does ssssalad begin with? I hear ssss in the beginning of salad.”
Help kids identify the beginning sounds of their favorite foods. Have fun dreaming of all the foods you wish you could always eat as you play.
Think of a word that begins with ___
Kids typically love saying the ABC, which adds to the fun of this game.
Take turns as you go through the entire ABC and come up with words that begin with each letter. For letters like c and k, you get to discuss spelling and how some letters sound the same. This is such a simple and yet really powerful reading readiness activity that preschoolers, kindergarteners, and even older kids enjoy.
It definitely is still a favorite in our family. When we first started playing this game my daughter was about 2. She was an early talker and had the best time coming up with words for each letter in the alphabet. You can never start too young!
If you want a little more of a challenge, pick a category the word you say should belong to, like food, animal, job, school, etc.
Think of words that begin with “___”
Instead of going through the entire ABC you can also pick a single sound and challenge your kids to come up with as many words as they can think of, that begin with this particular sound.
Just like with the ABC version, you can make this free reading game more challenging by assigning a category the word is supposed to fit with.
Tell me the beginning sound of words that are “category”
In this game you pick a category your words need to fall under and you encourage your kids to come up with as many words for this category as possible.
Let’s say you are on a road trip, or just stuck in traffic, you could pick the category vehicles. You could say, “Tell me the beginning sound of words that are vehicles.” Now you and your kids can take turns identifying vehicles around you and then identifying what sound they begin with. Some examples are (b)us, (t)ruck, (c)ar, m(otorcycle).
You could play this same game in your kids’ room and they identify the beginning sounds of their toys. Or you can play this in the grocery store to distract them or switch the mood.
Make it work
Playing free reading games to practice beginning sounds on a regular basis will help your child out immensely when it is time to go from knowing letter sounds to actually reading words.
The earlier you start playing these games, the better prepared your child will be for reading. Remember, my family started playing these games once my kids could talk.
When I taught my ELL students, many needed to catch up on skills like this one first, before they were able to learn to read!