We often play mini games at the beginning, middle, and end of sessions. This helps students focus for longer when I am teaching as the game helps to settle them, and they don't see a game as hard work.Â
Adding a spinner creates a game, and this helps to encourage repetition.
We played this game as a warm-up. Students who struggle need lots of hand-holding and guided practice to help them see success is possible. The students who struggle often have engagement issues because it is just too hard. So we must help keep motivation high, and a playful practice can help.
We use our disCARD packs all the time as a motivational tool. Kids love the game, so an activity before and after we play helps students blend to read before playing, and this helps students feel successful in the game.Â
After playing, we used some of the cards for sentence instruction.
This is how we play.
Make a score sheet on a whiteboard or paper.
Take out all the special cards.
Shuffle the deck and decide who will go first.
Spin and read the number or direction.
Read the number and take that amount of cards to read. Encourage your student to read the words. Model how to blend to read if they struggle.
Spin and read again until a player has completed their number line or there are no cards left in the deck.
If a player spins the same number again, the player could have another go, write the words on a board, or use that turn to add a word or words to sentences. We discuss this point before we start the game. A quick chat helps students understand the rules of the game. We often play different games with the same resources — the same but different. This strategy is a win for repeated practice. Students have seen the resources before, so they know what to expect.
We could also add words to our whiteboards or oral sentences every turn. I adapt the games we play to fit the student or students I am working with.
After playing, we often create sentences using the words to work on sentence instruction.
This game could easily be adapted for groups and whole classes.
Students love to use a digital spinner on a whiteboard, and a pack of cards on each table works brilliantly as a quick five-minute rest from more demanding tasks.
We also play this game with sentence strips, too.
This is how we play.
Spin and read the number or direction.
Read the correct sentence and note down the number.
If you spin a number again, reread the sentence. We also play that if a person has to reread, they must add to the sentence.
Pam has six jam buns because she went to the bakery.
I bought ten big tins of beans from the grocery store.
I hunted high and low on the web for a free spinner and couldn't find one, so I made them to share.
For more playful sentence reading ideas, check out my blog post, 5 Ways with Decodable Sentences, here. Read about how we create engaging opportunities for repetition in the clinic and for home practice. These ideas also work brilliantly with books too.