Winter Fun Learning Games

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