Interactive Literacy Games for Kids

Interactive literacy games combine fun and learning.

The Internet is a vast resource for education. Outside of research materials and teaching tools, the online world offers plenty of interactive literacy games for kids. From interactive takes on old classics to completely new graphical adventures, interactive literacy games entertain just as much as they educate.

Spellbound

From BBC Education, Spellbound helps kids learn a variety of words recommended by the National Literacy Project. In a colorful animated window, words are momentarily flashed on screen. The word then scrambles, and players must drag the letters back into the proper order. Spellbound offers three levels of difficulty, each level suited for different age ranges between 5 and 9 years old.

Alien Scavenger Hunt

From the Hougton Mifflin Company's Game Goo web site, this graphically interesting literacy game helps elementary-aged kids recognize letter sounds and identify and spell small words. Kids control cartoon-style alien characters. A narrator pronounces simple words and various creatures with large letters printed on them fly through the sky; players must "shoot" the creatures with the letters to spell the word using the alien's vacuum cleaner like ray gun. The sequel, Alien Scavenger Hunt II, is a bit more advanced, as players must now select word sounds instead of individual letters. Both games feature fun animations and upbeat music.

Wordz

PrimaryGames.com presents Wordz, a colorful crossword-style interactive literacy game. Wordz presents players with a colorful board of mixed-up works, each word featuring two highlighted letters. Players must complete the words by swapping the highlighted letters--all the letters become one color when the word is complete. Once all the worlds on a board are complete, players move on to the next level. Wordz offers online play and keeps track of high scores across the world, which are printable so kids and parents can keep a physical record of players' achievements. Wordz is suited for elementary schoolers and younger junior high students.

Crazy Libs

In the style of the perennial party game Mad Libs, Crazy Libs is a free online literacy game suitable for elementary children and beyond. As in the classic game, players must choose a word of a certain type (noun, adjective, verb, location, number) and the words are then automatically inserted into a story, usually to very humorous results. Crazy Libs offers myriad types of stories to play with--from original simple stories to takes on classics works like Gulliver's Travels and Alice in Wonderland. This simple game encourages knowledge of word types, expands vocabularies and makes reading fun for a wide range of ages.

References

• BBC Education: Spellbound
• Game Goo: Alien Scavenger Hunt
• Primary Games: Wordz
• Crazy Libs