Reading Games For Elementary Kids

Reading is a crucial skill to learn in elementary school. Some kids seem to pick up reading naturally; others struggle. If your child needs extra reading practice, try making reading into game. Often, simply changing reading from an academic skill that takes a lot of work into a fun, challenging game is enough to help a struggling reader become more confident in his skills.

Board Games

Family game night can be a great time to encourage reading. Games like Trivial Pursuit rely heavily on reading, and Scrabble requires spelling and dictionary skills. If your child is not a strong speller yet, Scrabble Junior is a good option.

Literary Scavenger Hunt

If your child is struggling with her required reading for school, make it more interesting by creating a literary scavenger hunt. Read the book yourself, and pick out an important detail in each chapter. Use those details as items on the scavenger hunt. For example, in "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, you might send her on a hunt for carolers, a ghost in chains, and a goose. When she finds each item and finishes the book, celebrate by playing a board game or going out for ice cream.

Educational fiction series, such as "Magic Tree House" by Mary Pope Osborne, often have accompanying websites with games that encourage kids to read the entire series. The Magic Tree House website, for example, lets kids print a passport. They get a stamp for their passport each time they read a book in the series or complete a related educational activity.

Active Games

Some kids just need to move, and sitting quietly with a book isn't their idea of fun. Make reading more appealing to them by incorporating it into some of their favorite active games. Modify hopscotch by writing letters in the squares instead of numbers. Challenge your child to create a word by hopping only in squares with letters that make up that word. For example, for the word "skip," your child would hop only in squares containing the letters "s," "k," "i," and "p." For a greater challenge, ask him to hop in the letter squares in order.

Twister can be modified in the same way. Simply tape letters to the colored circles on the game board and call out a three- or four-letter word. Your child has to put a hand or foot on each letter in that word.

Online Games

There is wealth of free online reading games. For pre-readers and beginning readers, the Starfall website is a great way to practice phonics skills. For more advanced readers, Reading Planet offers more challenging games that reinforce key literacy skills. PBS Kids is a classic educational website that offers games that tie into popular PBS kids programs such as "Between The Lions" and "Arthur."