8 Kindergarten Reading Games to Get your Kids Excited About Reading

When your kindergartener thinks about fun, he probably thinks about hanging from the monkey bars or going down the slide. On a rainy day, he may get crazy and want to color the white walls of your house with his new box of all 64 crayon colors… including the glittery ones.

Whatever his idea of fun is, my guess is reading is just as exciting as bedtime and teeth brushing. Your job as a parent is to make reading as fun to them as drinking your favorite glass of wine (okay, maybe two glasses) and binge watching your favorite TV show is for you 🙂

Here are eight games to help get your kids excited to read.

1. Rhyme Time

Kids seem to love rhymes and they love to play games. The next time you’re reading a book, take a word and start rhyming with your child.
You can also ask your child to find something in the room that rhymes with the word you chose. The idea is to keep them engaged and ready to win at Scrabble one day, of course.
Just beware of words like “duck”. Rhyming could get ugly!

2. Read and Jump

Who said you have to sit still to read? For this kindergarten reading game, start by creating a sentence.

One word at a time, write each word on a piece of construction paper. Then arrange the words on the floor.

Have your child sound out and try to read each word as he hops from one word to the next. This will not only help him learn to read, but will also tire him out.

You’re welcome moms and dads!

3. Treasure Hunt

It’s time to channel your inner pirate and play treasure hunt. Start by hiding objects around the house.

Next, write letters that correspond to the first letter of each object and put them in a hat. Have your child pick a letter.

Now, let the hunt begin! She has to go around the house and find the object that begins with the letter she chose.

Yes, your house may get a little upside down, but isn’t it already? Anyway, it’s all in the name of learning.

4. A-Z Word Game

Get 26 small bathroom cups (preferably ones without a design). Label each one with one letter of the alphabet A-Z.

Now comes the fun part.

Move the cups around to make different words.

For each one that’s created and read correctly, give your child a point. Continue until their attention span starts shorting out (hopefully you can get at least 10-15 minutes out of this activity).

Keep score and try to beat the previous number each time as their vocabulary grow.

5. Sight Word Matching Game

Building off of those popular character matching games, the same can be done with sight words… but you’re the game creator.

Use whole index cards or cut them in half to get more bang for your buck. Write down sight words in pairs.

Turn the cards over face down and let the matching games begin! This will help kids with letter recognition and word repetition.

6. Reading Cups Game

This is a fresh spin on the old shell game. Take three plastic cups and write three sight words on them.

Hide a small cracker or treat under one of the cups. Have your child pick a cup and read the word on it.

If she’s right, lift up the cup and see if the treat is there. If it’s there, great! If not place it under another cup and play another game.

Seeing that you don’t know which way this is going to play out, be sure to have plenty of cups with different words on them as well as plenty of snacks.

7. Sight Word Hopscotch

This is a seasonal game, depending on where you live. Of course if you’re somewhere that doesn’t experience all four seasons, then you’re in luck. Instead of making a hopscotch board with numbers, make one with sight words.

As your child jumps into each square, he has to read the word to advance. This is a great mental and physical game.

8. Make Sentences with Toys

You provide some basic sight word flashcards (the, a, at, etc.) and he provides his favorite toy. Use the toy as a word and makes sentences using the flashcards.

You may need to add some simple adjectives on some cards too, like big, pretty, etc. So, it would go like this “The (flashcard), doll (the actual doll), is (flashcard), big (flashcard).” By bringing in actual items, your child can see how words function in sentences.

Give these games for reading a go with your kindergartener and let us know how your kiddo enjoys them!