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Gamify Your Classroom: Increase Student Engagement
I’m excited to share TONS of ideas you can implement into your classroom STARTING TOMORROW.
Each of these games can be used at the word, phrase or sentence level. They can be used with cards and materials from any CORE READING PROGRAM.
“If you call it a game, it’s a game.”
The best piece of advice is IF YOU simply CALL SOMETHING A GAME IT”S A GAME and you will immediately have more focus, participation and on task reading. However, I have LOTS of ways you can turn even the simplest task into a game!
The Reading Words Portion of a Science of Reading Lesson
These games are perfect for warming up an intervention lesson with review words, or great to use at the end of the lesson to practice fluency.
The STICKER GAME is where this all began. I was using a program that used cards as a spiral review in each lesson. Flashing the cards was getting boring so one day I added stickers to some of the cards, and instead of saying read the words, I said we are going to play a game.
The student with the most sticker cards at the end gets a sticker. Sometimes we have a BONUS sticker day where every word they read with a sticker earns a sticker.
There were some problems at first as to what to do with the stickers. To keep them from putting them in inappropriate places, I made sticker books.
I put this cover on a few wax paper pages and the problem was solved.
AND STUDENTS LOVED IT!
But with all things it got old.
So, I came up with the pancake flipper game. Use a pancake flipper to flip and read the words.
Students can share a pancake flipper or each have their own.
Could be combined with the sticker game if you really want to get crazy.
That evolved into the fly swatter game. Students swat and read the words. With any of these games’ students could write the words on a white board after they read them for more practice.
Then one day this thing was annoying me at home. I was tired of finding it stuck everywhere and no one was using it anymore. so I brought it to school for the splat game.
If you have kids of your own go through their room, I guarantee there is a game idea in there.
These frogs were a gum ball machine find from my kids. Just hop the frog and whatever word it lands on, is the word the student reads.
This is ALWAYS a favorite every year. I pull it out on a dreary rainy day. Hang words around the room, give each student a flashlight and they go around reading the words.
Have them carry a whiteboard with them and write the words after they read them.
Use two sets of the same word cards and play a memory game.
Or put numbers on the cards to play WAR. You could also write words on a deck of cards for the WAR game.
Add a pack of cards to any game. Students have to read the card before they take their turn.
My students LOVED Yeti in my Spaghetti this year.
BUT THE WINNER IS
Gooey Louie. You pick a gooey booger out of his nose, and if you pick the right one his brain pops out. SUPER GROSS.
REMEBER WE ARE LOOKING FOR WAYS TO MOTIVATE STUDENTS AND UNFORTUNATLEY WE ARE NOW COMPETING WITH TECHNOLOGY. Boogers always win.
If you have an especially wiggly group one day. Get them up and moving. Throw the cards on the floor and have them HOP and read the word.
You could make a hopscotch board on the floor to make it even more FUN!
Rock Paper Scissors is a great partner game. Play the game Decide if the winner or loser is going to do the task of either reading a word list, a word, a sentence or a phrase. Then repeat.
The basketball game is ALWAYS a favorite. I use this basketball hoop from my kids. The students read the card then get to shoot a basket.
You could just use a bucket or garbage can if you don’t have a hoop.
This game could be combined with writing have the student write the word first then crumple the paper up and shoot a basket!
So is this fishing game. Put paper clips on the cards. Use a stick with a magnet to fish for the words.
You can get magnetic fishing poles readymade pretty cheap on amazon. This is a great center activity.
A good lesson has encoding and decoding as part of a lesson. I have found that now a days students really do not like writing. It really helps to make a game out of it! Starting with segmenting words. These are great ways to practice stretching out sounds. Then have them write the word.
POP ITS are my favorite for segmenting words. Students pop one popper for each sound in the word before they write the word.
Remember the game Mother May I? This is also great segmenting game. Students line up in a line. Give the first student a word. They take one step forward for each sound of the word. The first student to reach the finish line is the winner. They could carry a whiteboard and write the word as they go.
TIC TAC TOE is another writing game.
You can add dice to anything and make it a game. This simple recording sheet can be found free in my store. Lay a card on each spot of the game board, roll a die and read the word in that spot. Refill with another card after the word is read.
You can add dice to anything and make it a game. This simple recording sheet can be found free in my store. Lay a card on each spot of the game board, roll a die and read the word in that spot. Refill with another card after the word is read.
When all else fail pull out some smelly markers or water colors!!!
Write the word in white crayon Paint over in watercolor
Use Mr. Sketch Markers.
Painting words with watercolors is always a hit too. If you don’t have a class set of watercolors I highly recommend. Great for illustrating stories too.
Make sure you are ending your lesson with some fluency practice. I recommend connecting to a book, a passage, but at the very least get them reading sentences or phrases.
I found that struggling students can be intimidated by a book. Sentence games eliviate that, by breaking it into small parts. They READ SO MUCH more in these games. I often use these games as an incentive if they finish the rest of the lesson. So basically, their reward for reading… is MORE reading
All of the games that I shared with you could be turned into a sentence game just add sentences cut up from a passage or your CORE READING PROGRAM.
Click here to see THE SENTENCE GAMES
Click here to see SENTENCE FLUENCY TEXT
If you are looking for more games to add to your classroom, I made this bundle with you in mind! There are games and printables for every phonics skill!
I hope you found something in this post that you can take back to your classroom and use. Like the games that I shared? Join my email list and get more!
CLICK HERE TO GET FREE GAMES AND ACTIVITIES
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