Help Your Child Learn To Read With A Fun Reading Game

Playing games with your kids is not only fun but can be educational too! Reading games that your child can play with you is a great tool to get them started reading. 

 This post was written in partnership with Zulily. For more great posts click here. Looking for more fun games to help teach your kindergartner how to read? Check out these 7 Fun Sight Word Games To Play With Your Kindergartner you can make today.

Fostering a love of reading in your children early in their lives is critical to their reading success as they get older. Reading out loud to your kids is one of the most beneficial reading activities you can do as a parent. 

At some point however your child will begin to show interest and curiosity in knowing what the words are that they see on the pages of the books, you have been reading to them. Encouraging them to start sounding out the letters of each word is a good start towards learning how to read but it can get boring and frustrating. 

Fun Reading Game For Kids To Help Them Learn How To Read

Since kids love to play games why not try some fun reading games with your kids to help them learn how to read. Here is an awesome reading game you can play with your preschooler or kindergartner to help them learn how to read.

Word Family Apple Tree Game

To prepare for this game you will need the following:

• white poster board
• red construction paper
• brown craft paint (washable)
• green craft paint (washable)
• scissors
• thick tip black marker

1. Lightly trace out a large tree trunk on the poster board and have your child help you paint it brown. 
2. Next paint the palm of your child's hands with the green paint and press their hands on the space above the tree trunk to make the tree's leaves. Repeat this step several times until the tree leaves cover the top portion of the poser board. 
3. While the paint is drying cut out several (10-15) circles from the red construction paper that are about 3 inches in diameter. 

Playing The Game:

For this game, the "AT" word family is a great place to start with since so many words are part of this group. On one red circle write "___at", then place the circle in the center of the tree. Encourage your child to think of words that rhyme with "AT". As they say words write the first letter of the word on a new red circle and have your child put the red circle (apple) on the tree. When they are all done thinking of words let them "pick" an apple, hold it next to the center apple, and try to say the word that their apple + the center apple make. 

Continue playing this game by adding a new center apple from a new word family. Here are some word families you can use as you play the game:

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Feel free to change this game up a little by using different colored "fruit" circles too orange for peach tree, yellow for a lemon tree, and blue for a blueberry (bush) tree.

For more fun reading games to play with your child check out this post I shared on the Zulily blog, The Find 7 Fun Sight Word Games To Teach Your Kindergartner How To Read