3 Reading and Language Games for Kindergarten Students

Have a kindergarten student who needs more practice with reading and language? Try these fun sight and speaking games to get them prepped for school over the summer.

If you have a child entering preschool or kindergarten this fall, or graduating from junior to senior kindergarten, you may be wondering how you can help foster reading and language skills to give them a great head start. Here are three fun games to get your child reading and communicating!

Tell me a story

A handful of cue cards is all you need to play this game, and they’re easy to make yourself on scraps of paper. Write down words simple words like “cat” and “ball” and “apple” on bits of paper.  If your child is struggling with reading, you can add drawn visuals to help make the word association easy. Then it’s story time!

Have your child choose a cue card, and then have them make up a “story” about it. (It’s OK if their story is only a sentence long while they get the hang of the game!) Let them make it as silly as they want to, because they’ll keep playing if they’re having fun! And this is great for their imagination.

As your child gets better at “telling stories” you can have them choose more than one card, and then have them include every cue card they want to draw.

Treasure Hunt

This game is basically hide and go seek, but without another child to find. Pick a toy or a treat as the “treasure” and then hide it somewhere around the house! Then give your child written “clues” where they might find it. Depending on the reading level of your child, this can be as simple as the word “bed” or as complicated as a gentle riddle like “where you wash your feet.”

Have your child read all the clues aloud, and sound out words they’re unfamiliar with!

Hopscotch Boggle

This one’s a great activity to play with a stretch of pavement and some chalk on a nice day! Make a grid of squares and fill with a selection of vowels and consonants. This can be as small as four squares, or as large as you want! Then have your child spell simple words by “hopping” on the right letters.

For novice readers, you can use fewer boxes and suggest the words to spell (eg. “I see the word ‘dog’ in those letters. Can you spell ‘dog’ with those letters?”). For more advanced readers, you can use bigger words and slightly larger grids. Make the game extra fun by having them yell out the letter as they jump on it! And don’t worry about traditional Boggle rules like the letters being linked together

Even older kids can get involved with their younger siblings by using bigger grids. Have them see what words they can spell with the letters available.

We hope everyone has fun with these games!