When my daughter started preschool, it came with the option to also subscribe to the Scholastic book club. For her first order, one of the books she got was called “Gravity” by Jason Chin. The first time we were reading it, Zia wanted to read each letter in every word. I could see the appeal, the book is beautiful, with big text beautifully contrasted against each image. I realized then that she was recognizing each letter and it’s friends were making words, so a few weeks later, when it was time for bed, I started having her tell me the sounds of each letter instead of the letters, and to my surprise she was able to make it through the whole book learning sounds and figuring out words from the sounds. It was loads of fun!
The following day I set out to find her a fun way to learn her sight words, and what better way than a game? I stumbled onto Zingo at the local Barnes and Noble for $19.95. It says it is made for kids Pre-K to Grade 1. It has varying levels of difficulty with red (hard) cards and green (easy) cards to play. It comes with 72 chips that are dispensed two at a time when the player or an elected dealer slides it forward. Players sound out the words on the chips then match them to the words on their cards. For older kids, they should be reading the words. With Zia we sound out the words and learn what the handy pictures on each word mean.
A lot of thought went into the design and implementation of this game, and it seems to really work. Zingo was made by Thinkfun and clearly these guys did their research. My daughter has a blast and is doing well with the game. We’ve played three or four times together, and she’s even given the dog and her stuffed animals their own cards and played them. The game has a simplistic approach that doesn’t make the player feel like they are doing work, but more like they are just playing a fun game. I like that it has a variety of options for me to play one on one with my daughter and teach her ways to remember the words, and it gives her the freedom to play by herself (with her red panda as the second player). Zingo uses Dolch sight words, so it sticks with great common practices of early literacy teachers.
I discovered that Thinkfun has a few other “learn to read” games like this and I may start checking them out soon. With the Christmas Holiday right around the corner, this is a great gift idea for that early reader in your family!