reading

Rhyming Word Games for Kindergarten

December 11, 2019 By Kindergarten Mom Leave a Comment

Teaching children how to recognize rhyming words is an important step in the journey to reading. Beyond understanding similarities of word-families, young students should be able to identify words that rhyme based on the ending sounds they hear as they say the words aloud. If your students are working on rhyming words, then we’ve got some great review games to help solidify their skills.

Rhyming File Folder Games

File Folder Games are games that are easily contained to a manilla file folder….making them easy to store and transport for teachers, tutors, and homeschooling families. This set of Roll and Cover Rhyming games will provide you with 5 unique gingerbread house game mats, each with six rhyming word families for students to practice their rhyming skills.

Rhyming Learning Centers

You don’t have to store the games in a file folder. In fact, you can simply print out the games one at a time and use them as a learning center activity. You can even print this set in black and white or greyscale and it will still look nice, so don’t worry if you’d rather not use your color ink.

How to Play:

Students roll a single die and read the word associated with that number. Next, the student will find a rhyming word on the gingerbread house and cover it with a playing piece. We recommend using gumdrops, Spree, red-hots, peppermints, or mini-poms to add a little holiday fun. Once the roof of the gingerbread house is covered the game is over. This is a great single-player game, or you can easily turn it into a multi-player game by announcing that the person to place a cover over the last word wins the game.

Roll & Cover Rhyming Words

Print this free rhyming word game for use with your students today!

Roll & Cover Sight Words:

This game is a HIT with students, so we have a second version of this game that will cover key sight words. Roll & Cover Sight Words gives your students extra practice reading 30 common sight words.

Learn to R.E.A.D. with Kindergarten Mom!

Ready, Eager, Able and Determined to READ! This 36-week curriculum provides you with everything you need to teach your child to read. Structured over a 4-day/week program you’ll cover phonics, digraphs, blends, sight words, grammar, and writing. Hands-on activities keep your child engaged and learning with little to no-prep required. Click Here

Spin, Read, & Bump Games

Spin, Read, and BUMP will have your students giggling while they learn key vowel team words! This game is super fun and can be played as single player or multi-player with just a few adaptations. If you are looking for more games be sure to check out our Spin, Read, and BUMP Pack today!

1 Player Game: Spin and find your word on the grid. Cover it with a counter. Continue until you spin a word that is all covered. 2-3 Player Game: Spin and find your word on the grid. Cover it with your counter. If a word is taken you can BUMP the other player off and place your own counter there. First one to 5 in a row wins!

Spin, Read, and Bump: EE Words

This free printable reading game covers words with the EE vowel team: Bee, Seed, Tree, Free, See

Spin, Read, and Bump: IE Words

This free printable reading game covers words with the IE vowel team: Pie, Tie, Fries, Cried, Flies

Spin, Read, and Bump: OO Words

This free printable reading game covers words with the OO vowel team: Moon, Pool, Boot, Spoon, Zoo

Looking for more? Find 29 Vowel Teams & Controlled-R Words in our Spin, Read, & BUMP Pack

Reading Printables

Kindergarten is the perfect time to begin teaching children to read. Once students have an understanding of letter names and letter sounds, it’s time to learn how to start sounding out words. We have a huge selection of phonics printables as well as sight word activities you can use to teach your children to read for FREE! We also have complete curricula available with our R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook and our Sight Word of the Week Program. Both have been designed to work in a homeschool or classroom setting, cover (often exceeding) Kindergarten standards, and are available in an instant download.

Ready, Eager, Able, & Determined to READ!!

Start your students off on the right track with our 36-Week, Comprehensive Kindergarten Reading Curriculum. Download and Print the entire first week with our free sample pack today.

Free Phonics Printables

Over 35 Word Families are included in this collection that features charts, mini-books, handwriting pages, cut & paste activities, and matching games. Try our complete R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook today!

Sight Word Printables

Find FREE Sight Word printables you can use in your classroom. You'll find free sight word playdough mats, sight word flashcards, sight word dab and dot games, activity worksheets, bingo and more! Try our complete Sight Word of the Week Program today!

Short & Long Vowel Sounds

A collection of FREE printable worksheets, games and activities to teach students short and long vowel sounds.

Digraphs & Blends

Digraphs, Consonant Blends, and Word Families are the building blocks of reading. Children can arrange and rearrange these printable cards to form a variety of new words.

Looking for more? Try our R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook Today! Covering word families, blends, phonics, sight words, writing, grammar and even a little science, come see why this is one of our Best Selling Curriculum Notebooks. Click Here

Is It Time For a “Reading Break”?

December 30, 2017 By Kindergarten Mom Leave a Comment

When children are learning to read and write, they typically will have at least a few seasons of frustration, especially in the beginning. Take heart, this is pretty normal. When the pressure to read gets the best of your student, it’s probably time for a reading break. “What is a reading break?” you ask.

A reading break is about reviewing what your child already knows in fun, engaging ways. That’s when simple hands-on reading activities and game really come into play. They will save your homeschool sanity!

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If the reading has become overwhelming, it is time to “pause”. If you keep pressing onward, your child may get even more frustrated and you too will join them in that pool of frustration. Take a week (or more) and review where you’ve been. Chances are if reading has become too hard, your child needs a reviewing break. Show them what they already know. Look how far they’ve come.

However, don’t confuse a reading break with a complete stop in reading lessons. It may be tempting, but young readers need constant practice.

If you are finding that even the fun-filled, game-based, review lessons remain frustrating, there could be a few things going on. Your child could be too young; you could be using a method that doesn’t work for them, or they might have a learning disability. (Please speak with a professional if you suspect this might be the case.) A break allows you to assess if any of these are a possibility or not.

Here are some things you can do during a reading break.

1) Print out fun worksheets on concepts you’ve already gone over. We have fun worksheets for reviewing sight words here! Use colorful markers, bingo daubers and retell familiar stories.

2) Visit the library. Choose books that are below your child’s reading level. This will work to boost their confidence and allow you to see any learning concepts that may have been missed.

3) Have your child teach a sibling what they’ve learned and play school as a family. You’re the students, they’re the teacher. Give them worksheets to give their class; have them write on a whiteboard. Have fun with it. You’ll be amazed how much they know. Be sure to raise your hand and ask questions about the topics you want to be sure they know. “Mr. Logan, what sound does “b” make?”

4) Have your child read to a dog or other pet. Seriously, I don’t know why this is so fun, but my kids love doing it. Many classrooms are inviting dogs to visit and read “with” the children. It’s therapeutic!

5) Go to the library. Participate in story times and other activities. Look for books your kids will love. Get recommendations from the librarians; they always know the hidden gems.

6) Look on Pinterest for hands-on learning ideas and games. Pro-tip search for what you are working on specifically and you are bound to find games and activities galore.

7) Stop reading lessons completely. Yes, I know, I just finished saying you shouldn’t do this. Honestly, though, sometimes you just need a few days to regroup. Sometimes life’s circumstances call for a break. Sometimes kids just need to deal with the stress in his or her own life before learning a new skill. A breather is okay but get back to reviewing and reading as soon as possible.

Teaching reading is not always easy. You, as the teacher, may need a break more than they do. Use this time to make learning fun once again. Get silly and enjoy teaching your children. Have you tried our new R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook?

If you are not happy with your current reading curriculum, be sure to try our the first week of our R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook. This program covers all the kindergarten standards in a fun, interactive, and easy to implement format. Download the FIRST WEEK FREE here.

We encourage you to try a week to see if your child enjoys all the hands-on games and activities. Our R.E.A.D. Curriculum notebook was specifically designed for beginning or struggling readers in a homeschool or classroom setting. With daily practice, this 36-week program focuses on chunking letter sounds and building phonemic awareness. Beginning sight words are introduced in fun, engaging ways that will encourage even the most reluctant reader. From the very first week students will be reading with our short controlled mini-books that will build reading confidence. See what others have to say about our curriculum:

R.E.A.D. Curriculum Notebook

Ready, Eager, Able and Determined to READ! This 36 week curriculum provides you with everything you need to teach your child to read. Structured over a 4-day/week program you’ll cover phonics, digraphs, blends, sight words, grammar and writing. Hands-on activities keep your child engaged and learning with little to no-prep required.

R.E.A.D Curriculum Notebook: 785 pages

4 Days a Week over 36 Weeks
One Word Family per week
2-3 Sight Words per week
Beginning Blends cycle every fifth week
60 page Interactive Grammar Notebook
Weekly Writing Prompts
Science Sequencing & Drawing Activities
Daily Warm Up Activities

Sight Word Flashcards

Sight words are words that students should be able to read by sight. These are words that are difficult or impossible to sound out and thus must be memorized. For Kindergarten it is suggested that students learn Pre-primer and Primer words from the Dolch 220 word list. Below you’ll find free printable sight word flash cards for Dolch 200 Pre-Primer words. These flashcards print 8 to a sheet and can be laminated for durability.