The Time Will Went John McEnroe on a Letter Game

Sarah is going to kindergarten in the fall.  Every time I think about it, my heart pinches and my breath catches, and I start thinking about how BIG school is and how small she is. 

But, I'm not going to second-guess or worry about how she'll fare next year because we've got work to do NOW.  At the top of the list: reading. 

Mike usually works on reading with Sarah because, as my daughter, it's like in her job description to sniff out what I desperately want her to do, and then not do it.  But, we need to get some sight words under our belts, and I had an activity in mind.  I pinned this a long time ago, but I can't find the pin now, so I'll give you a brief rundown.  This "game" lends itself to a lot of different skills as an alternative to the dreaded flash card. 

All you need is a piece of poster board (you can go as big as you want), markers, and cars.  I just eyeballed the width of the cars and drew spaces for them along the perimeter of the poster board.  Then, I picked some easy sight words from the pre-primer and kindergarten Dolch list and wrote one in each space.  Once my little race car driver was ready, I called out a word and she parked her car in the corresponding spot.  Or not.  We haven't done much with sight words, so this was a warm-up.  But, when she did get it right, you better believe I made a big deal about it.

This picture shows the color word game we also played, drawn right on the back of the first game.

Of course, we can't play with cars without getting Will involved, so I made a letter parking lot for him. 

The first round of play went swimmingly, with everybody giving cheers and high-fives.  I must have gotten tired or something on the second round, because I was accused of not cheering as much for Will as I did for Sarah.  The situation escalated, and soon cars were being thrown on the ground, my little McEnroe accusing this ref of cheating and stomping away.  Incidentally, this is how many a game of Candy Land has ended in our house as well.

Next time, I want to take this same concept and make it LIFE SIZED.  

Get ready, my little lab rats.