Growing up in Michigan meant we spent a lot of time playing games indoors during the winter. Two of my most memorable games were Authors and Park and Shop. Authors was a a regular set of 52 cards with the 4 suits: hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades but the graphics on the cards were classical authors like Twain, Alcott, Dickens, Shakespeare and a few others. 4 of each author’s most famous works were listed below their pictures so you couldn’t help but learn those titles for each author. The other kind of weird game for kids was Park and Shop. This board game was covered with shops like the Butcher, Tailor, Hay Grain & Feed store, and the one I remember the most, the HABERDASHERY! Really…..what 7 year old knows that word and its meaning! Throwing the dice got you moving around the board completing your shopping list. We played this one a LOT! Guess it might have been like a version of Monopoly! Playing games is a great way to learn a new skill such as math facts, vocabulary or High Frequency words. We LOVE to engage our students with a variety of learning games. Below are 6 of our most popular formats.

Game 1 – SWIPE

Swipe uses cards with any type of phonic or word skill that needs practicing. Our game below features Vowel Digraphs. A player turns over the top card and reads the word below the Snowman graphic. Play passes to the next player who turns and reads the next card. Play continues until a SWIPE card is turned over. That player can take a card from any other player! Play continues until the “SUN” card is turned and the game ends…because the sun would melt all the snowmen! The player with the most cards wins! We offer this game in a lot of different themes- bats, insects, sports, trolls etc. All come with EDITABLE cards so ANY words can be added. Check out SNOWMAN SWIPE!

Game 2 – TRICKY

Tricky is one of our students FAVORITE games! Again, we offer it in a variety of themes. Tricky involves taking a bit of a risk. Players turn over cards one at a time and read them. Hidden in the deck are several TRICKY cards. Players must decide whether to risk the cards just read and continue to draw and read words. If a TRICKY card shows up they lose the cards drawn on that turn. It’s fun to see which of your students are the risktakers and which ones are more cautious! Play continues until all cards have been played. Again the player with the most cards wins! EDITABLE cards are available with these games too. You will LOVE this Tricky game too! TRICKY SNOWBIRDIES

Game 3 – Path Games

Path games can be a lot of fun. Play is determined by the roll of a die so everyone has an equal chance to win! Cards with high frequency words are turned over and read after player has rolled and moved that many spaces. If a child can’t read the word an adult or more capable student helps them. The goal of a learning game is to learn and no one is penalized for not knowing something yet! It’s not an enjoyable experience to play something too hard…so we provide a bit of support. EDITABLE cards again are provided so you can customize the cards to suit the level of your students. Just run the cards on different colors of card stock or paper and differentiate the levels that way. SNOWBALL FUN

Game 4 – BUMPER

We modeled this game after the popular math game BUMP. Using word cards or a word spinner, players place unifix cubes on the words they draw. If another player turns over a word with an opponent’s cube on it they can BUMP them off! This is done is a joyful manner so no feelings are hurt. Children love to BUMP each other’s cubes off time and time again. Of course they must read the words each time so lots of exposure to those high frequency words takes place! EDITABLE Mats, cards and Spinners are included. Storage labels are used to organize each of the games with their “parts”. READY, SET, SNOW BUMPER

Game 5 – Roll and Cover

This is an easy prep game. 6 words are printed on both colored or Black & white mats. Dice are shown above each column. A die is rolled and players move their cubes or other “cover-ups” up to the top of the column of the number rolled and read the word. Keep going until a player reaches the top of a column. Clear the board and play again or switch to another of the 6 mats with 6 new words! EDITABLE mats are provided. WINTER ROLL & COVER

Game 6 – CVC Roll & Read

Build some CVC words and determine if they made a REAL or not! Players roll a die 3 times recording a consonant from the first, then a vowel from the second, and finally the last consonant from the third column. They use the recording sheet and then read the word. Now it’s time to determine if it formed a real word! Circle YES or NO. This is fun because our littles don’t always know what words are real! This game fits perfectly with the Science of reading CVC words. There are NO EDITABLE mats with this as we strategically placed all the consonants and vowels on the cards so that no “naughty” words would ever be formed! There are 4 different mats with each game and we have this format in LOTS and LOTS of different themes! SNOWBALLS ROLL & READ

Need a FREE game to get you started?

Just like the game above here is a free one to get you started! SNOWBALL FUN FREEBIE

Hope you are enjoying a white winter wonderland or a warm weather winter depending on your location! Happy January!

The post Winter Fun Learning Games appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

Leprechaun Learning games can be so helpful in practicing skills over and over! Your students won’t even realize they are learning oodles of words while just having fun! We LOVE playing learning games and have them for every holiday, season, and theme we use throughout the year. March has St. Patrick’s Day so we have created these Leprechaun learning games shown here as well as many others!

Lucky Bugs SWIPE High Frequency Word Game

Students LOVE playing this fast-paced easy to learn game. They take turns flipping over, reading aloud, and collecting word cards. Once a “SWIPE a card” is turned over that player get to SWIPE a word card from another player! When a player turns over a ”POT OF GOLD” the Game ends. Everyone counts his or her cards. The person with the most cards is the winner! Reshuffle the cards and play again as time allows! Of course EDITABLE cards are included so ANY words can be added. Click LUCKY BIG SWIPE to find this one at our TPT store.

Gold SWIPE

Here’s another version of the same game but with different clipart AND different words. These cards have both Short Vowel CVC words and LONG VOWEL Silent E word families (Ex. ake, ate, ice, ike, one, ose, use, ute etc.) EDITABLE cards are included so any words can be added to this game too! GOLD SWIPE will be a great addition to your classroom.

Leprechaun TicTacToe

This is a great way to play TicTacToe while practicing High Frequency words! Players take turns flipping over a word card, reading the word, and placing their colored “chip”or cube on the matching word on the TicTacToe board. Place 3 of your color in a row and you win! Shuffle the cards and play again! There are charts showing all the ways to make 3 in a row and a Tally sheet for keeping track of games won per player. EDITABLE cards and mats are included! Click Leprechaun TicTacToe to find this fun game!

High Frequency Words Roll and Cover

Easy to prep and easy to play, this game has 6 High Frequency words on each of 6 differently colored game mats. Two players each have a few colored coverups and a die. The first player rolls the die and reads the word at the bottom of the column that matches the number they rolled. After reading that word, they put their colored cover-up on that space. Play goes back and forth with players placing their colored cubed moving up the columns. Keep playing until a player reaches the top of a word column. Click Leprechaun Roll & Cover to find this one at our TPT store. Of course there are EDITABLE mats for this game also!

How about a Free Learning Game?

If you want to try out the game shown above, download this FREEBIE game mat. It’s a 7th game mat played the same way. Both color and black & white versions are included. Click Leprechaun Roll and Cover FREEBIE to get this one at our TPT store.

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The 2024 Summer Olympics have begun with great fanfare! The Opening Ceremonies were watched by millions around the world. The usual competitions will take place in swimming, diving, gymnastics, and basketball. But did you know there are several NEW sports that have been added to the Olympics? They include kayaking, skateboarding (second year for this one), sport climbing and…..wait for it….breakdancing, officially known as breaking! Who knew that this craze of the 80s would become an Olympic sport? After a lengthy discussion, Kylene and I decided not to enter!! We thought it best to leave it to the younger generation! (Just kidding of course!)

Sports as a Classroom Theme

Many students are involved in sports in elementary school. Little League, soccer, PeeWee football, karate, basketball, swimming and others are all options for young students. Depending on the climate, some students even participate in downhill skiing, ice hockey, and ice skating! Sports is a fun theme that both girls and boys can relate to. We have created several Learning Games using Sports as the theme.

Using the popular game formats that our students love, we have created these games using Sports-themed clipart! So cute and engaging! Tricky Soccer is one of our most popular games. Click HERE to view a short video showing how to play it. Sports Kids BUMPER is another game our students LOVE to play! They take great delight in “bumping” other players off their words….all in good fun, of course! Need to practice building and reading some C-V-C words then our Baseball Kids CVC Word Building Game is just what your students need! The first 2 formats are EDITABLE so any high frequency words can be added to match those words your students are learning throughout the school year.

Grab a FREEBIE and give it a try!

One of our newer game formats is Tic-Tac-Toe but with a twist! Students turn over a card and that determines where one places his marker on the Tic-Tac-Toe Board. A detailed chart (see below) shows all the ways to win the game.

This FREEBIE, Football Kids Tic-tac-Toe, is a way to download and use with your students. The game has Short Vowel words but also has a Black and white version and EDITABLE card and game board so ANY words can be added.

Another full set of 5 game boards uses 45 different words. Check out this Sports Themed Tic-Tac-Toe Games at out TPT store. It also has B/W versions and is fully EDITABLE! Want to see ALL of our Sports Themed products? Click HERE.

We hope the United States teams win a LOT of Gold ribbons during these Summer Olympics and we hope your students are winners with their learning this coming school year!

The post Sports – A Great Classroom Theme for Learning Games appeared first on JK Curriculum Connection.

Learning games are often the key to engaging students in learning. These games can be path games or card games specifically designed for students to practice skills taught in class. What is more fun? Practicing High Frequency words with flashcards OR turning over those same word on cards while moving along a path after a roll of a die? Students LOVE to play games so why not incorporate that desire with a fun card game where a little friendly competition is thrown in?

Use Different Formats for Games to Practice Skills

We have always used a LOT of games in our classrooms with great success. Different game formats keeps the learning unique and fun! Our most favorite game formats are: Path Games, Tricky Cards, Bumper Cards, Swipe, Roll and Read, and Roll and Cover. These games practice High Frequency Words over and over again BUT because the format of the game changes, the students think they are playing completely different games! Roll and Read is a Phonics game format that has students building C-V-C words and then reading them. All our games (except Roll & Read) come with EDITABLE cards so ANY words (or even Math facts) can be added to the cards to match the words your students need throughout the school year.

Our MOST Popular Game Format is soooo Tricky!

Tricky Pirates (or Tricky Fish, Tricky Dinosaurs, Tricky Shamrocks, Tricky Ghosts…you get the idea!) is such a fun format. You know if you change to clipart used to create the game, it’s a WHOLE NEW GAME…to the students of course!

The object of the game is to acquire the most Word cards. Game play goes like this: The first player turns over the top card & reads the word, shows it to the group, & places it face up next to the DRAW PILE in the “IN PLAY” space. The player must decide whether to draw another card or Stop. If he chooses to draw again & gets another WORD card, he places it on top of his previously read card on the “IN PLAY” space. The player “reads” the new card to the group. Again a decision must be made: to continue to draw another card, risking all the “IN PLAY” cards or STOP.  If he chooses to continue & draws a Oh, no! card, he loses ALL the cards that were drawn on THAT TURN ONLY. These “lost” cards are put on the bottom of the deck to be shuffled and played again as the game progresses. The game ends when time runs out OR the stack of cards is depleted.

There is sooooo much anticipation as to whether or not a player should continue to draw cards and risk losing OR stop after just a few word cards. You can gain a lot of insight as to who the risk takers are in your classroom and who choose to “play it safe”!

Imporant Idea to Remember!

Because these are Learning Games where the goal is for students to learn, there is an important piece of advice we have always followed. If a child is unable to read a word when they turn over a card, an adult helper either provides support by stretching out the word or simply telling them the word. The student repeats the word and continues to play with no penalty for not knowing the answer. We want our students to want to play the game and get the repeated practice in a successful experience. Why would one want to play a game if they had no hope of winning over a far more capable student? Only the roll of the dice or the lucky turn of a card is what determines how the game progresses and who eventually wins! So in the end, every learner wins by gaining a bit more skill in reading High Frequency words!

FREE Tricky Robots Game and Video Explanation

We have a complete FREE Tricky Robots Game (as seen above) available at our TPT store. Click HERE to download it. There is also a FREE Video that explains in a bit more detail how to play this fun game. Click HERE to access the VIDEO.

Our Other Game Formats

Our other game formats are seen here. They are Path Games, Bumper Games, Swipe, Roll & Read and Roll and Cover! They come in MANY different THEMES so they can be added to Learning Centers throughout the year.

Want to try out all these game formats AND save money?? Check out this BUNDLE of Robot Games! Check out ALL our learning games by stopping by our TeachersPayTeachers Store! Add some new learning games to your classroom and watch the fun begin!

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