7 Early Literacy Games You Can Play Anywhere

My kids love games! A lot of times when we are out and about or even at home, I make up games to sneak in some extra time to work on early literacy skills. Early literacy skills refers to what children know about reading and writing before they learn to read or write. Today I’m sharing 7 games we play that promote early literacy skills. The games I’m sharing here focus on letter knowledge and phonological awareness.

Rhyme Machine

Since rhyming is such an important skill to master for reading, I love playing Rhyme Machine with my boys. There’s no actual machine in this game, but we pretend to put a word into the ‘machine’ and then we try to think of as many words that rhyme with that word. Some are gibberish words, but that’s okay! It’s still rhyming and listening to the sounds in a word. Here’s an example how how the game is played.

Me: “Ok, what word do you want to put in the rhyme machine today?”

Boys: “Let’s put in ‘kite’!”

Me: “Okay, let’s see…kite rhymes with might! Your turn!”

Boys: “Sight. Right. Tight.”

And we keep doing this until we can’t think of any more words. It’s such a simple game, but my boys love it!

Syllable Count

Another reading skill that’s important for kids to know is counting syllables, or the parts of a word. This game is similar to the Rhyme Machine. We just shout out a word and then clap and count the syllables. We look around the room and find objects and find the syllables. Here’s an example:

Me: “Troy, find something in the room to count syllables.”

Troy: “Okay, how about couch! (he claps while he says the word) 1! Couch has 1 syllable.”

Me: “Awesome! Now can you find something in the room that has 2 syllables?”

Troy: “How about ‘lamp’? (claps out lamp) Nope. That’s just 1. Let me try ‘table’. (claps out table) Yes! Table has 2 syllables!”

I Spy

Hearing the beginning sounds of words is another important literacy skill. One way we practice this is with an I Spy game. To play this, I find something in the room and tell them the beginning sound. Here is an example:

Me: “I spy with my little eye something that has a beginning sound of /l/.”

Students: “A lamp?”

Me: “Yes! Lamp starts with an /l/ sound!

Ssss Ssss Snake

Alliteration is a big fancy words, but it simply means the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. For this game, you can practice with words beginning with the following sounds: /f/, /h/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /s/, /v/, /z/.

Come up with simple phrases where the words all begin with the same sound. Say the phrase
and have your child repeat it back, drawing out the beginning sound.
Here are some examples:

“Sssneaky sssnakes ssslide and ssslither.”

“Lllllousy lllllion llllloves lllllemons.”

“Hhhhhairy hhhhhipppo hhhhhhops on a hhhhhat.”

“Fffffroggy ffffflips on a ffffluffy ffffoot.

What Comes After…

For this game, say a letter of the alphabet and ask your students what letter comes next. It’s such a simple game, but it really helps with knowing the order of the alphabet.

Alphabet Search

A lot of times while we are driving, we play this alphabet search game. I will ask the kids to search for a letter of the alphabet. Whoever finds the letter gets to choose the next letter to find.

Rhyming Sentence

Another way to practice rhyming is with rhyming sentences. I start the sentence and have my students fill in the blank. Here’s an example:

Me: “Can you fill in the blank? The cat went ____.”

Boys: “Splat!”

Me: “The frog had a _____.”

Boys: “Dog!”

Me: “A shoe is _____.”

Boys: “Blue!”

As you can see, these games are quite simple. Practicing early literacy skills through these games will help your child as they begin to learn how to read!

If you’d like a printable version of the games, just click on the button below!

Have fun with these Early Literacy Games! Happy learning!

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