Kids Reading Games to Help Understand Words
When learning a new skill, your child may experience periods of making progress followed by periods of frustration and self-doubt. Reading is a skill that many children are excited to learn, but hitting road blocks in the learning process can discourage them from trying. Employing reading games to help your child understand words can break up the monotony of reading practice and keep up your child's spirits as she gains her confidence with reading.
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Define and Draw
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As you read through a book with some advanced vocabulary, keep a children's dictionary and thesaurus on hand. Tell your child to stop and tell you if there is a word she does not understand. Underline the word in the book, then show your child how to find that word in the dictionary and the thesaurus. Read the definitions to her. Ask her to draw a small picture relating to the meaning of the word as it has been clarified in the definition. The drawing process should be brief so that the exercise does not take up too much reading practice time.
This can also be performed in class. As you and your students read out loud, ask students to raise their hands if you come upon a word one of them does not understand. Define that word and have a student draw a small picture describing it on the board in front of the room so that all students can benefit from the exercise.
Spelling List Stories
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As you read through a book with your child, keep a notepad and pencil at your side. When your child hits a word he does not understand, have him write that word down on the notepad. The list of words on his notepad becomes his spelling list, which he must later define and illustrate in a short story. Throughout his story, he will use each word at least once in the appropriate context. Once the story is written, your child illustrates the story, separates it into pages and binds the pages together with staples to make his own flip book.
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Context Clues
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As your students complete assigned reading for homework, have them keep a list of words they do not understand. From each child's list, assign him one word to research and define. That will be his word for the game. With this newly defined word in mind, he will stand in front of the class and have students try and guess what the word is. Similar to hangman, the only clue he will give is the amount of letters in the word, symbolized by the correct number of lines drawn on the board. Students will ask yes and no questions about the word, such as "Is it an animal?" "Does it rhyme with 'boat?'" and "Is it something you can eat?" For every question he answers yes to, the child will write one of the letters on the board. As the word becomes more clear, students can try and define it. Whoever gets the word first is next to stand at the front of the class and play a round with his assigned word.
Word Collage
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If you are performing this activity in a class, bring a large stack of magazines to class with you. Go through assigned reading as planned while having students keep a list of words they do not understand. At the end of the reading, have students raise their hands to give you their list of words. Write each list out on the board. Give each student a piece of construction paper or craft board and assign each student one word. That student uses the class dictionary or thesaurus to define her word, then makes a collage to represent the meaning of that word. She will cut pictures out of a magazine and paste them together as she sees fit. Once every student has completed her collage, she will present it to the class so that every student can benefit from her work.
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References
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