Online Reading Games for Children

Free Online Reading Games, Episodes, Ebooks, Teaching Tips, and More from WordWorld

2011-04-14T11:11:00.000-06:00

I was inspired to share this fun site from WordWorld when I read a post from Literacy Toolbox this week.

Do you have WordWorld fans in your house? This show is great for 2 to 5 year olds. You will find it on PBS.

There are some fun episode-related activities you may want to try at home, do with a group of moms with kids of the same age, or share with your child's preschool teacher.

Explore this free site. Your kids will have fun and learn about words, reading, and much more! I hope you have fun with this site. You might like to check out Reading Starts at Home or Teach a Child to Read for information and resources I share about teaching reading.

Online Games for Children to Hear Individual Sounds in Words

2011-04-02T09:03:00.000-06:00

Hearing individual sounds in words is called phonemic awareness. A child with phonemic awareness has the first skill needed to learn to read. You can help develop phonemic awareness by playing games and separating sounds in words.

Here are some free online reading games for kids to develop phonemic awareness:
Sassy Seals
Fuzzy Lion Ears
Chicken Coop

I hope these games help your child start to hear individual sounds in words. Soon your child will be ready to read and sounding out words using phonics rules and letter to sound associations.

Songs for Letters of the Alphabet and Name That Picture Game from Letter TV

2011-03-24T06:23:00.000-06:00

Letter TV is a project that builds basic phonemic awareness skills for pre-literate children. Their site offers a free game and a collection of songs with words and music for each letter of the alphabet.

These links will get your child dancing, singing, and reading!

Letter TV Songs

Name That Picture (Brick Wall)

Aren't the Letter Songs fabulous? How did your child do with the Name That Picture game? Sign up with email if you love these games and want more. Share this post with your friends.

Sandcastle Quiz and Kangaroo Confusion

2011-03-18T22:05:00.000-06:00

Kids love time on the computer. Try out these two learning games.

Sandcastle Quiz - This game has children choose the right phonograms to spell words correctly and build a sandcastle.

Kangaroo Confusion - This game gives a child practice matching uppercase letters to lowercase letters.

Between the Lions Online Reading Games: Word Play and ABCD Watermelon

2011-03-10T22:18:00.006-07:00

PBS kids has a number of great games for kids online. The two games I'm featuring this week are Word Play and ABCD Watermelon.

Word Play is fun! Children click on a word and the word animates the meaning of itself. I even like to play this one!

ABCD Watermelon helps children practice identifying letter names.

This post is part of Surf's Up! Saturday.

Teach a Reader to Know Letter Combinations and The Sounds They Make

2010-05-19T17:24:00.000-06:00

A beginning reader will benefit from learning to look at letter combinations and knowing the sound to make when a combination is found. The activities that go with these ten poems will do just that!

Ten Poems with Activities

A parent or teacher can supplement this learning by helping a beginning reader find these combinations in books that are read together. Start slow. Work with one or two letter combination per week and search for these combinations together in books you read.

Online Games Matching Letters to Sounds

2010-03-14T10:01:00.000-06:00

Beginning readers need to be able to separate sounds in words and know which letter or letters make the separate sounds to decode words when reading. These games with help teach a beginning reader to separate sounds in words.

Sassy Seals - Listen for the beginning sound in a spoken word.
Fuzzy Lion Ears - Choose the correct beginning sound from three choices.
Pounce! - Match a spoken word to the correct spelling.
Pumpkin Patch - Choose the sounds that are left when a beginning sound of a word is taken away.
The Little Animals - Choose to match beginning, ending, or middle sounds of a spoken word to a written word.
Poem Pack - Interact with ten poems. Each has a different letter to sound focus.
Jim's Whirlyword Machine - Spin a wheel to make a CVC pattern word. Read the word and decide if it is a real word or not.

Online Sites to Learn Letters

2010-02-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

There are words and letters everywhere. Make looking for letters fun. "Do you see the S on that sign? S is the first letter in the word STORE. Say the word with me, STORE. S makes the "sssss" sound."

There are many free online letter learning websites I've found helpful.

My Favorite Websites

Starfall ABC

Kangaroo Confusion

A B C D Watermelon

January Websites for My Students

2010-01-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/blending.html
http://pbskids.org/lions/games/wordplay.html
http://pbskids.org/lions/games/blending.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/clusters/blender/gamefs.shtml
http://www.professorgarfield.com/phonics/mixmatch/mixmatch.html

My Favorite Online Reading Websites

2010-01-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

There are two categories: Sites for Beginning Readers and Sites for Developing Readers. Be careful not to close the window after viewing a game if you want to get back to the list; use the back arrow on your browser.

Sites for Beginning Readers

Listen to unique songs for each letter of the alphabet. http://lettertv.net/pages/songs.htm

Find songs, animation, and interactive learning when learner clicks on appropriate places on the screens. This site is packed with a lot of learning. http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/load.htm?f

Match baby (lowercase) kangaroos to mommy (uppercase) kangaroos. http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/games/pawpark/pawpark.html

Play a silly letter identification game with the traditional ABC song. http://pbskids.org/lions/games/abcd.html

Listen to and match beginning sounds in a game called Sassy Seals. http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/games/pawpark3/pawpark3.html

Watch an animation of words act out their meanings. http://pbskids.org/lions/games/wordplay.html

Listen to and choose correct beginning sounds of words. http://pbskids.org/lions/games/ears.html

Listen to a word and choose the correct spelling. http://pbskids.org/lions/games/pounce.html

Match words with sounds. There are three levels and you can choose ending sounds, beginning sounds, or rhyming words. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/words/dgi.shtml

Choose sounds and then watch and listen as the sounds are made closer and closer together until the sounds become a word. http://pbskids.org/lions/games/blending.html

Focus on the beginning sound and find the word that matches a picture. http://lettertv.net/pages/brickwall.htm

Find books, games, and videos to teach beginning reading skills in the Learn to Read section. http://www.starfall.com/

Take your pick of the many reading games offered or have a story read to you. http://www.professorgarfield.com/transport/transport.html

Choose the beginning and endings of words you hear. A cartoon blender will tell you if you’re right. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/clusters/blender/gamefs.shtml

Sites for Developing Readers

Find two synonyms for actions of an animated dog. http://pbskids.org/lions/games/synsam.html

Play a game against the computer or another player choosing antonyms, synonyms, and word meanings for words. http://www.fekids.com/kln/games/ballhogs/ballhogs.html

Match synonyms. http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/match/dragflip.asp?filename=kderittesynonyms2

Find some spelling and grammar explanations, games, and quizzes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/spelling_grammar/

Find writing explanations, games, and quizzes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/writing/

Choose correct titles, text, and pictures for three types of non-fiction writing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/reading/non_fiction/play.shtml

Answer questions about five different poetry verses to show an understanding of each. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/reading/poetry/play.shtml

Create and use new words with prefixes and suffixes. http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/book_buddy/arthur/skill.html

Interact with a tutorial using key words to find direct definition context clues in text. http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/samoset/ccdirect.htm

Play a game finding a similar meaning for a word in a sentence. http://www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=191

Read rhymes about twenty-two different jobs and guess which job the rhyme is about. http://www.angelfire.com/md/byme/guesswho/guesswho.html

Choose the correct meaning for a word with more than one meaning based on the context of a sentence. http://www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=191

Learn about long vowel spelling patterns with ten poems including animation, audio, and activities. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/longvow/poems/fpoem.shtml

Take a quiz to show knowledge of syllables in words or use as practice to teach about syllables in words. http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/quiz/mquiz.asp?filename=jwildesyllable1

Play with an onset and rime wheel to create words that match a clue. http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=ww2

Play a matching game with homophones. http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/spelling/recognising/homophones/game.shtml

Locate and choose correct vowel phonemes while reading ten interesting postcards. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/postcard/

Choose a vowel phoneme to make a word from a group of similar sounding phonemes and build a sandcastle with correct answers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/sandcastle/flash/game.shtml

Take a quiz choosing correct ending punctuation for ten sentences. http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/quiz/mquiz.asp?filename=msmith5punctuationquiz

Play a timed game and build a brick wall by dragging words into the correct order and adding punctuation to make sentences. http://fen.com/studentactivities/WallOfWords/wow19.html

Match first, second, third, fourth, fifth, then, and finally to written directions for building a snowman. http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/match/term/matchgeneric2.asp?filename=jwildedirections1

Choose the main idea for paragraphs about different topics. Correct anwers are rewarded with clues to solve a riddle. This game only has one riddle, so it's a good one time practice game for main idea. http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/trophies/rsr/big_idea.html

Choose three books that belong to the same category. There is a hint option if a player is unable to see how three of the five books go together. http://pbskids.org/lions/games/flood.html

Read three Garfield comic strip panels or have the panels read by clicking on read this panel, put the panels in order, and answer questions to win a pretend boxing round. There is a large number of different comic strips with three panels each and most are funny. http://professorgarfield.com/ReadingRing/Strips/strips.html