Free Sight Word Sequence Game

My 6-year-old son's kindergarten teacher has challenged kids to pass seven lists of sight words this year. While some have already passed all the lists, my son is at the halfway point.

While we are using flash cards each evening, I continue to search for fun ways to engage him in learning through play. Our sight word SEQUENCE game did just that.

Prep
Got a child in mind that needs a little sight word review? Download the game I made for free from Google Drive here. Print the game board and cards on heavy weight card stock. Trim the white edges from the game board pages, align, and tape together. 

Cut the cards apart and shuffle well. If your paper is too thin and is a little too see-through, hit the back of the card pages with spray glue, lay a piece of scrapbooking paper over top, and then cut apart.

Gather several like game pieces for each player; we use red, white, and blue poker chips.

The Objective

The first player to get four of their own game pieces on the game board in a row (horizontally or vertically) wins.

How to Play

Each player is dealt three cards and looks at their hand. The remaining card deck is the draw pile.

Players can place a game piece on any sight word they have a card for in their hand. One game piece is placed on the board per turn. 

The card played is placed in a discard pile and the player draws a new card. Players should always have three cards in their hand.

Special Cards There are two kinds of special cards in the deck: one where the player can place a game piece on ANY open space and another where the player can remove an opponent's game piece from anywhere.

The player discards the special card, and in the case of the "remove another player's game piece," they cannot place their own game piece in its place until their next turn.

Smiley Spaces The four corners of the game board are free spaces. A player can use one of these spaces as one of their four-in-a-row. These are the only four spaces on the board that more than one player can place a game piece on.

Bs and Ds on Bumblebees (free printable worksheets)

Those darn lowercase Bs and Ds are SO tricky for kinders, my youngest included. This, of course, isn't a new problem. Our oldest boy mixed them up too when he was younger. 

It might be time to break out our B, D, P, and Q spinner again (check that out here).

To get some more practice in, I created some fun worksheets to be used in a variety of ways. We used the first of the four yesterday. 

We started with the Bs and Ds on Bumblebees activity sheet. I handed my 6-year-old son the paper and two strips of yellow dot stickers; onto half of which I'd written upper case Bs and the other half had upper case Ds. 

It was my son's job to look at the lowercase letters on the bumblebees and cover each with its uppercase counterpart. 

This required a lot of thought and concentration, but my son did great! When he stumbled, I used the "bat before the ball" and "doorknob before the door" tricks to remind him.

Download the four worksheets I made for free from Google Drive here.

Aside from matching up dot stickers, kids can color all the Bs one color and the Ds another, or trace only the Bs or Ds, cover the Bs with flattened glass baubles, etc. These can be used in so many different ways. You can even laminate or insert them in plastic sheet protectors and use with dry-erase markers over and over.

Enjoy!

Word Family Board Game (free printable -at, -ug, -op, & -ail practice)

Our kindergartner is starting to read. It's incredibly exciting. I cannot tell who's more proud: him or me. To introduce him to word families, I made a fun little board game.

Download your copy for free from Google Drive here. Print on heavyweight cardstock. Double the weight of the arrow spinner by folding the paper over and gluing two plies before cutting it out. Punch a hole with a nonconventional hole punch and attach the spinner with a brad. Find different game pieces for each player.

Playing is easy. The youngest player starts. They flick the spinner and land on a letter. They'll move their game piece from the START words to the first real word that can be made with the letter they spun and the word ending (e.g. if they spin t, they'll move to -op since that makes the word top). 

Kids will love trying out the combinations of letters and word endings and giggle at the nonsensical words they make in the process. 

Play alternates between opponents. If a player lands on the SPIN AGAIN, they'll do just that and spin again to get a letter. They'll then move their piece twice to form the first two words that can be formed with the letter spun and the word endings on the board.

The first player to reach the final square on the board is declared the winner. When we played, that was my 6 year old! 

Want a great book to pair with this game? We've been reading these flip-a-word books. They're great for beginning readers and a perfect introduction to word families!

Sight Word 5-in-a-Row {free printable}

Sight word BINGO. Hm. You're probably thinking haven't she already shared this activity? 

Well, yes, I have. (See here.)

But since (I'd like to think) my design skills have improved and boy No. 2 has different sight words to practice, I've recreated new cards.

Download five playing cards and the call cards free from Google Drive here. There's also a blank card for you to add your own sight or vocabulary words!

This was a much easier way than flash cards to get our 6-year-old to practice his sight words. 

Fall Leaves Matching/Memory {free printable}

We had some fierce winds lately, followed by two days of rain, and I've been looking out the windows rather bleakly at our now-naked trees. 

To keep the spirit of fall alive a wee bit longer, I made a great game to play with the boys: Fall Leaves Memory!

Make your own game!

Download my 1-page PDF of several leaf types for free from Google Drive here.

Print on heavyweight cardstock (so they're not see-through). Laminate for added durability (optional).

Cut out and get ready to play; mix the cards up and place them face down on the table in rows.

Play

Players will take turns turning over two cards at a time to try and find a matching pair. When you make a match, go again. If you don't make a match, its the next players turn.

The player with the most matches when all the cards have been removed from the playing area is declared the winner!

Variation

For younger children, have them work on looking through the cards to find two matches for each type of leaf.

NOTE: There are 9 unique leaf types so if you play memory, remove one set for an even number of cards.

Double Digit Dice Roll

Sometimes double digit numbers are tricky for kids - especially the teens. This little game works on the following skills:

• counting 1-6
• place value tens and ones
• double-digit number vocabulary

My six-year-old son had loads of fun with this (and so did his 10-year-old brother). This bingo-like game is all about luck and chance; no strategy required.

What You Need

A PDF of the game cards (available for free download from Google Drive here)

Paper and printer to print the cards

Game pieces (we used those flattened glass marbles)

Two traditional dice (preferably different in appearance)

Prep

Print the cards and cut them apart. 

Each player picks a game card and grabs a small pile of game pieces to set in front of them. The first piece is placed on the FREE space. 

Decide which die is the tens place and which die is the ones place (Our cube tissue box die was the tens because it was bigger and the smaller blue foam die was the ones.)

Play

Each player will take turns rolling the two die. The numbers are the die are not added together, but rather represent a two digit number.

The player must count the dots on the die, decide what the number is (e.g. 3 in tens place, 6 in ones), and say out loud the double digit number (e.g. thirty-six).

Now all players must scour their game card to see if the number is present on their card. If so, it's covered with a game piece.

The first player to get five in a row (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal) wins.

Free Printable Line Geometry Board Game

My 10-year-old son is a good at math. Probably better than his mom is. Geometry, however, has proven to be the one type of math that can give him a bit of a challenge.

I worked up a fun game to work on line geometry. It's similar to Candyland or Chutes & Ladders, but with a twist.

Assembly
Download a free 9-page PDF from Google Drive here. Print on heavyweight cardstock. Assemble the game board, trimming off any white excess on the paper's edge so it lines up properly. Trim the excess from the bottom of the game board as well.

Fold the pages with the arrow cards, open and add glue with a glue stick, press together and cut out. These cards will now be front-and-back. 

Cut out the spinner. Double over the paper so there are two plies of cardstock glued together and cut out the spinner's arrow. Use a tiny hole punch or craft knife to carefully cut holes in the spinner and arrow. Assemble with a brad.

Play
Grab small items to use as game pieces, one for each player. Place game pieces on the start. 

Place the arrow cards on the game board. The top of each card is either marked TOP, or is the darkest part of the ombre coloring.

Player 1 flicks the spinner and moves to the first occurrence of the line segment that the arrow is pointing to. 

If the back end of an arrow is at this space, the player may move their game piece to wherever the arrow is pointing. After this, their turn is over.

Player 2 takes a turn, and flicks the spinner. If the spinner lands on "TURN OVER ALL ARROW CARDS," then the arrow cards are flipped over horizontally (to keep the top of the cards at the top of each box). Player 2's turn is over.

Play continues in this way until a player spins the final type of line on the board first to win.

Flipping the arrow cards makes the game very spontaneous and can move players from the end of the board way back, almost to the beginning.

This game was loads of fun for my son and I and a great way to reinforce his line geometry vocabulary. Enjoy!

Earth's Layers & Atmosphere Card Game {free printable}

Since my son learned the earth's layers (check out our 3-D diagram), I thought it might also be fun to find a way to teach him the atmospheric layers. A rousing game of cards seemed like the perfect way to learn.

I designed a set of 1-10 playing cards plus wild cards, for us to play like Skip-Bo Junior.

DIY the Game!

Download a free 11-page PDF of the playing cards from Google Drive here. If you have trouble accessing the file, you can request permission within Google Drive or email me. Teachers: Use a personal email address when requesting access to my files. Most schools block emails from outside their domain, prohibiting me from granting you access.

Print on heavyweight cardstock and cut out. Print two copies of the WILD cards (on page 5). NOTE: This is a pretty ink-heavy printable; I recommend taking the PDF to a copy shop so as not to use up all your home printer's ink.

How to Win

The first player to play all of the cards from their stockpile is the winner.

How to Play

This is a two-person game. The dealer deals 10 cards facedown to each player; this is their stockpile. The top card is turned over (i.e. face-up) and placed on top of the rest of the cards. Next, the dealer deals three cards in three separate piles to each player face up next to the stockpile. The dealer does this with each turn. 

In the playing area between both players, four piles can be started. These four piles are played on by both players and must begin with a No. 1 card (the inner core) or a Wild card, played face up.

The youngest player looks at the three cards in their "hand" (those dealt face-up by the dealer on the table) as well as the one card on top of their stockpile to see if they can begin a new pile or add to an existing one. The player plays all the cards that they can, even those that may be revealed from under another card that was just played. For example, if there is a No. 2 (outer core) card face-up on one pile, a player can place the No. 3 (mantle) or Wild card on top of it from their hand, as well as any other cards they may have to play. 

If the card from the stockpile is played, the card underneath is turned over. It's the next player's turn when a player can no longer play any cards from their stockpile or hand. NOTE: The card on top of the stockpile may not be moved to the player's hand, even if all the cards in one pile of their hand have been played.

Each time it is a player's turn, three new cards are dealt on top of the existing hand from the last round of play. Once the new cards have been dealt, the player can take their turn.

When a pile has either been completed with the number cards 1-10 and/or a mix of wild cards, the pile is turned over and removed from the playing area, so a new pile can be formed in its place.

If the dealer runs out of cards and neither player has played all the cards from their stockpile, the completed piles can be reshuffled to continue play.

Like this game? Play our Medieval Kingdom version!

Sticky Ball Sight Word Target Toss

Each week of kindergarten, my son's class is working on two new sight words. I'm not wild about flash cards so I wanted to drum up another way for him to practice at home - something that would get my active boy up and moving, something that would be F-U-N.

This little game met all the criteria.

Supplies
Suction-cup balls from the party supply store
Target (download the one I made for free here)
Paper
Lamination (optional)
Markers (if laminated, use dry-erase)
Tape

Prep
Print and cut out as targets, one for every word you want to practice. If you'd like to reuse them (like I do), laminate each. With a marker (dry-erase on the laminated targets), write the sight word in the middle of your bulls eye target. Tape them to the sliding glass door so that each target is visible on the other side of the door. Your child will be reading the target through the glass.

Variation: Don't have a deck/porch with a sliding glass door, tape them to an interior wall and have your child use them as NERF gun sight word practice!

Play
Hand your child the suction-cup balls and call out the words on the targets. It's up to him/her to read the targets, take aim, and toss the ball. If he/she misses the whole target, they must try again and again until it is hit. 

Keep going until all the words have been called out! 

This is great way to make those sight words really stick in kids' brains!

Plate Tectonics on the Move {printable board game}

My fifth grade son is learning about the ice age this year in school. My goal is to always to piggy-back on what he's learning in school with some fun after school activities.

Since you can't learn about continental drift without a foundation of knowledge about plate tectonics, I thought a fun game on the topic of moving plates and the resulting land forms would be neat.

Prep
Download the three-page PDF of the game board and die free from Google Drive here. Print the PDF onto cardstock.

Since home printers won't print full-bleed (i.e. all the way to the edge of the paper), trim the white border from the two pages of the game board where they'll join. Tape in place.

Cut the die out. Score the lines for smooth folds with the back end of a butter knife. Fold and use a low-temp glue gun to assemble.

Grab two (or more depending on the number of players) different items to use as game pieces (e.g. buttons, coins, poker chips, LEGO minifigures, etc.). We used some full-body photos of ourselves that were laminated and put in large binder clips.

Play
Put the game pieces on the START. The youngest player rolls the die first. The player must determine what plate tectonic movement creates the land form or event that was rolled on the die. The game piece is moved to the first occurrence of that particular movement (convergent, divergent, or lateral). 

If the player rolls, "LOSE A TURN," the game piece remains where it is and the next player rolls. If the player rolls "ROLL & MOVE 2," they will move twice, to the next two movement types resulting from the land form rolled.

The player must roll the land form/event that puts them at the final square to win. The first player to arrive at the finish is declared the winner.

Read

Before my son played the game I made, he read a book that helped to explain concepts like oceanic and continental crust, the Earth's layers, and what happens when plate tectonics move. The comic book style of this book kept my son engaged from cover to cover!

 

Soccer Sight Words (free printable game)

To give my kindergartner a little sight word practice, I created a BINGO-like game for us to play. He's more than a little obsessed with soccer lately (apparently it's the game of choice for kinder boys at recess), so I thought I'd capitalize on this new interest.

Soccer Sight Words is a simple game. Not practicing sight words right now? No problem, the PDF I made includes some blank cards for you to customize.

Prep
Download the game free from Google Drive here.
Print on heavyweight cardstock.

If you plan to play the game again and again, laminate the playing cards.
Cut apart the sight words and scramble them in a bowl.

Grab something to write with, small buttons, or if you've laminated, fine-tip dry erase markers.

Play
Players pick their own game card. One by one, a sight word is pulled from the bowl. If players have this word on one of the three soccer balls on their card, they note that by placing a small game piece like a button over it or by crossing through it with a pen/marker.

The first player to have all the words covered on one of their game card's soccer balls is the winner!

Earth's Layers: DIY 3-D Diagram

It's hard to imagine what's deep down inside our planet, but to help my 5th grade son remember, he made a diagram.

Despite his hatred of cutting and art, he really enjoyed seeing how his diagram came together. And now he can refer to it any time to see just what exactly is deep, deep underneath our feet!

Supplies

Large earth to cut out (download my free PDF from Google Drive if you need one)

Colored paper in brown, yellow, orange, and black

Circular objects in various sizes to trace

Scissors

Pencil

Glue

Chalk (optional)

How to Make It

Step 1: Lay your earth picture over top of the brown paper and cut out the earth. You'll be cutting a brown circle the exact same size as your earth. This is the earth's crust. Set your earth aside until step 6.

Step 2: Find a circular object slightly smaller than your earth. Trace it onto the yellow paper and cut it out. This is the earth's mantle. Center it inside the brown circle and glue it in place.

Step 3: Find another circular object that is smaller than the yellow mantle layer you just made. Trace it on orange paper and cut it out. Center it inside the yellow circle and glue it in place. This is the outer core.

Step 4: Find a small round object and trace it on black paper. Cut it out, center it in the middle of the orange circle and glue it in place. This is the inner core.

Step 5: Add labels to each of your layers.

Step 6: Orient your earth correctly and fold the left side over the right so you have a vertical crease in the middle. When "closed" you won't be able to see the earth's continents.

Step 7: Do the same to the earth's core, folding it in on itself in half vertically.

Step 8: Glue the back of the earth's right side to the back of the core's left side. When laid flat, your earth will cover the folded core you made.

Step 9: Glue to a piece of black or dark blue construction paper to simulate space. Add stars with white chalk (optional).

Read

Before we embarked on this project we read Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth, which helped us visualize a trip through all of the earth's layers. It also contains a handy illustration to refer to when you're making your 3-D diagram!

Phonics to the Finish Free Printable Game (A, I, P, S, & T sounds)

The schools here use the Jolly Phonics program to teach kids letter sounds. I'm sure there are loads of alternatives, but I'm a fan of how the program combines a catchy tune, memorable song lyrics, representative object, and hand actions to make phonics really stick in kids' heads.

Our youngest son had his first introduction to the Jolly Phonics program in his alternative kindergarten class (aka Pre-K) last year. This year in kindergarten, he's getting it again. With the first few weeks of class underway, I wanted to test his knowledge of the first five sounds his kindergarten teacher had explored. 

Out of that curiosity, this game was born. Download a PDF of six game boards and playing cards free on Google Drive here.

All you'll need is the printed game boards, 3-4 pages of the cards printed and cut apart, and about seven game pieces per player.

The objects I used on these cards correspond with the Jolly Phonics program for the letters A, I, P, S, and T.

How to Play

Shuffle the playing cards well and put them either in a pile between the players or in a stack face down. 

The first player draws a card and reads the letter on the card. They look at their game card. If the first object on their card starts with that letter, they can cover the picture with a game piece. If they don't have an object that starts with that letter, they discard the card and play continues with the next player drawing. 

Players can only place game pieces on objects in order. Once the card is filled and the final object (inside the star) is covered, the player has won the game.

Beware! There are lose a turn cards. There are also "You Choose" cards that are like WILD cards, and allow a player to place a game piece on the next object on their game card.

NOTE: You may need to remind your child when reading the letter on their playing card, that the red line on the card should be on the bottom. This will help your child correctly orient the card so as not to confuse the "p" with a "d."

Not familiar with Jolly Phonics? Query YouTube to view videos of the songs!

Adding Fractions Tic-Tac-Toe {free printable}

Tic-tac-toe is a favorite of my oldest son's. We have passed many minutes playing the age-old game on children's menus at restaurants while we waited for our food.

To add a little math practice in, I made four tic-tac-toe game boards with fraction addition problems. To start, these boards only have problems with like denominators that only add up to 1 or less.

Download the boards I made for free from Google Drive here. There's a blank page of boards too so you can write in your own problems!

Prep

I printed the boards on cardstock and then slipped them (front and back) inside a plastic sheet protector. I trimmed it down and grabbed two different colors of dry-erase markers. 

No sheet protectors? No problem. You can also laminate the cards or place a clear plastic report cover over the pages so the dry-erase marker wipes clean and you can reuse them again and again.

Play

This game of tic-tac-toe has no Xs or Os. Instead players select their space on the board, solve the fraction addition problem and mark the spot with the answer in their colored dry-erase ink.

Play alternates between players until either the board is filled or one player gets three problems completed in a row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally).

Multiplying Domino Fractions

Fractions can be challenging for kids. I thought I'd see how my 10-year old son would do multiplying fractions.

I made some fun game cards, which I laminated, and got out our set of dominoes and two dry-erase markers. I put the doubles aside (i.e. six six, four four, etc.) and turned the rest of the dominoes upside down on the table.

Download a free one-page PDF with two game cards from Google Drive here.

He drew two dominoes from the pile and placed them on the game card. 

Then he multiplied the numerators and the denominators, writing the numbers on the card with a dry-erase marker. Stumped? Watch this great video from Khan Academy.

Lastly, my son reduced the fraction to its lowest terms, if he could.

Now it was my turn. I did the same thing with my game card. Lastly, I asked him to compare our final answers. Whose fraction was bigger?

If it's not readily apparent, we looked for a common denominator. Confused? Watch another Khan Academy instructional video; this one is great!

The player with the largest fraction takes the four dominoes. With a limited set of double six dominoes, we were able to play three rounds.

With the cards laminated, the dry-erase numbers you add can be wiped clean with a paper towel.

The player with the most dominoes in the end wins. My son really enjoyed this and asked to play it again; it's fun skills practice!