Reading Games for Kids: Great Games that Practice Reading

What Reading Skills Will My Child Develop?

Kids typically start kindergarten with the ability to identify some letters and basic letter sounds. As you continue reading to your child, he or she will learn more vocabulary, which can increase reading proficiency. By third grade, students read independently, in addition to explaining details and elements of the text. These skills continue to expand as your child progresses through school. To help your child develop these skills, play the following games.

What Reading Games Can We Play?

Scene Matching

Make a matching or memory game. Gather pictures of several action scenes and paste them onto note cards. Write brief descriptions of the scenes on different note cards. Shuffle the cards and challenge your child to match the descriptions with the pictures.

Random and Silly Stories

Write several beginnings, middles and endings of stories and divide them into three separate bags. They can be wacky ideas that will make your child laugh. Ask her to pick one from each bag and write a story with them. She can read her wacky story when she's finished. For an extra activity, she can rewrite the story so it makes sense.

Dolch Words Fishing

Search online for a Dolch (sight) words list that is appropriate for your child's grade and reading level. Cut index cards into fish shapes and ask him to write the Dolch words individually on each one. Attach paper clips to each fish and make a fishing pole out of a stick, string and magnet. Randomly arrange the fish on the floor and challenge him to 'hook' the correct word as you read them off the list. For additional practice, he can use the word in a sentence.

Spinner Book Report

You can play this game every time your child reads a new book. Write a different story element on each section of a spinner, such as characters, setting and plot. After your child finishes a book, have her spin the spinner and she'll answer a question for the section that the arrow landed on. For example, if the arrow landed on plot, she'll summarize what happened in the story.

Headline and Article Matching

Cut 5-7 articles out of newspapers and separate the headlines. Pin the headlines to a bulletin board or tape them to a dry erase board. Set a timer for 15 minutes and challenge your child to match up all the articles with the headlines before the timer goes off.