Reading Card Games

Magic Letter

• Select or create flash cards designed to teach the sounds that letters make. According to Adrian Bruce Educational Games, you need to print the emphasized sounds in red or underline them so that it is clear to the players which letter the flash card represents. For example, a flash card may have a picture of a kite and the word "kite" printed beneath the picture with the letter "i" printed in red or underlined. This flash card indicates that the magic letter is a long "i." Two or more children sit facing each other or in a circle, and then a parent or teacher shuffles the flash cards and deals five or six flash cards to each child. The parent or teacher can also play along. Place the remaining flash cards in the middle where all the children can reach them. Turn a card over and place it beside the pile of flash cards. The player who turned the card over should read the card out loud. Next, the player sounds the magic letter. The players then look in their flash cards to find a word that has the same magic letter. Those players who have the same magic letter should read the word on their cards, and then place it on top of the magic letter card. Those players who do not have a matching magic letter must draw a card from the pile that is face down. The first player to discard all of his cards is the champion of the game.

Spiders

• One child and a parent or siblings can play the game called "Spiders." To play this game, the MES English website suggests that you use flash cards with simple reading words and pictures, and then print pictures of spiders on paper and cut them out. Place the flash cards face down on a table, and have the children take turns turning over a flash card. The child then reads the flash card, and if she reads the word correctly, she should take the card. If she reads the word incorrectly, she gets a spider. The child with the fewest number of spiders at the end of the game is the winner. Play a bonus round where a child can get rid of his spiders by correctly reading words that were missed earlier in the game.

Memory Match

• Use two identical sets of flash cards to play this game. According to Flashcards for Kids, you shuffle the cards together and place them face down on a table. Cards with both pictures and words are useful to help children learn to read and recognize the words. Have the children take turns turning over two cards. A matching card means that the child must read the word and then hold onto the matching flash cards. If the child is having difficulty reading the word correctly, then the parent or teacher can assist the child with sounding out the word. The child with the most matching pairs of flash cards at the end of the game is the winner.