Spelling and vocabulary games for kids

Ask them to write down their interpretation of the word's meaning. Go Fish remains a popular card game played by generations. But there's a way to turn this game into one that challenges kids with new words. Write five to 15 words that your child is not familiar with. Give each member of your family an even number of cards.

As each person draws a card, one player asks a question such as "do you have a word that means "happy"? If not, they're told, "Go Fish". Picabulary offers an effective way to build vocabulary. Invite your kids and their friends to join the fun. Divide your group into 2 or 3 small teams.

Choose one person in each team to make drawings on a tablet, whiteboard, or a large piece of paper. Start the game with one word. The artist attempts to draw the word without using letters or numbers. The first team to shout the correct word wins the game. Everyone loves playing checkers! Incorporating vocabulary adds a creative spin to this classic game. Print a checkerboard and use playing pieces such as coins, bingo tokens or small toy statues. Each person should fill out a vocabulary word on their checkerboards.

If a member of your family doesn't use the word correctly in a sentence, they cannot make their move. Here's a rewarding game that connects meaning between words and pictures. Your kids can draw visual representations of a few new words using paper and colored pencils. When two or more kids partner together, they attempt to define those words and use them in a sentence. Make family game night more exciting when you try a variety of educational board games. Your kids will be too busy having fun to notice they're getting a valuable vocabulary lesson.

Scrabble works best when you have two to four players. The game requires the use of letter tiles and a grid board comprising 15x15 squares. Each player uses tiles to create words. To win the game, someone must have all of their tiles on the board.

Boggle has 16 lettered dice that you shake and allow to settle into each compartment. Using a three-minute timer, each player records the number of words they find on paper. The catch is they can't use the same cube twice. Hasbro makes another version of this game for preschoolers called Boggle Junior.

Kids develop spelling, sorting, and concentration skills. You don't need artistic abilities to enjoy this hilarious game. Select one person to make a drawing and everyone else has to figure out if the drawing is a person or a curious object. Players must think fast as they work against a sand timer. Each person writes answers from various categories that begin with a specific letter determined by rolling the dice. Kids are great at coming up with hilarious answers.

The more answers each player has, the more points they receive. This sweet little game comes with a banana-shaped pouch with letter tiles. Players work quickly to form many words to build a word grid. The first person who uses all of their tiles achieves "Top Banana" status. You can find these board games at big box stores or smaller retailers that cater to children's books and toys.

Kids love playing fun games. When you devote time to game-based learning or play-based learning , your child benefits from achieving critical thinking skills, motivation, and to reach for higher goals. You'll notice their confidence increases as they gain a handle on vocabulary and literacy.

Want more ways to encourage your child to love learning? Prodigy English , the brand-new language and reading adventure from Prodigy Education, opens for early access in January ! Kids can explore an open world as they create items, earn coins and meet new characters. Written by Melanie Arden Parents!

Category Prodigy English Parent Resources. Contents Key benefits of word games for kids Online word games Traditional word games Vocabulary games Family word board games. You'll be impressed by the number of new words they learn Throughout this post, we'll cover how word games help your kids, offer several games to choose from, and outline how Prodigy supports your child with game-based learning.

Ready to get started? Below, we've outlined how word games offer great value to kids. Let's explore how word games benefit your kids: Boosts kids' ability to concentrate and focus on learning. Cultivates problem-solving skills. Kids learn to approach problems logically and come up with solutions to help them win the game. Increases vocabulary and memory. An improved memory enables kids to recall vocabulary and build upon what they've learned.

Improves spelling and reading skills. They can practice spelling and advance their reading comprehension through daily game-playing. Playing games makes kids happy. It's the perfect time for them to socialize, especially if they're enjoying educational games with siblings or friends.

Word games can offer categories to expand vocabulary. Examples of categories include colors, shapes, sounds, drawings, animals, family, and friends. Word games provide a great way for families to bond while relishing games that promote literacy. Start using these games at an earlier age to: Build reading skills. Word games can help lay the foundation to grow their comprehension skills further. Help your child's developing brain process information faster.

Games challenge your child to keep up with fast-paced apps. Teach your child how to strategize and adapt to changes with complex games. These are transferable skills for problem-solving and future career opportunities. Develop confidence and promote teamwork. Learn compassion, empathy, and kindness. Well-being apps provide the perfect framework to enhance their emotional development. Prodigy English Best for: Grades 1 to 5 Prodigy Education's newest adventure invites children to build reading and writing skills in a fun, adaptive environment.

Spectacular Spelling Play Best for: Ages 3 to 6 An adorable cartoon character, Princess Presto, demonstrates how to pronounce letters such as "z" and "oo" to spell the word "zoo". Turtle Diary's spelling games for kids come with a host of awesome benefits for children, parents, and teachers alike. It is no secret that a gamified approach to spelling can have an enormous impact on the learning process and through online spelling practice children will gain from the repetition and the excitement that comes with playing games.

Parents and teachers also gain valuable insight into the strengths of the children playing, as well as areas that may require further development. Whether you are looking for options to practice early literacy with sight words , critical thinking skills with crosswords, spelling conventions, or anything in between, you can always find the best activity for your needs. There are spelling games for grade 1 students that focus on site words and phonics , while older children can play games that are a bit more advanced.

Playing games that are suited to the level of the child helps develop essential skills for academic readiness. Load up some of our popular spelling activities for grade 3 students, for example, and you will see the benefits from the additional practice surprisingly quickly. The benefits also lead to a greater propensity to enjoy spelling activities in a wide range of contexts, both in an online environment as well as offline.

A Variety of Fun Spelling Games. This is why our free spelling games include word searches for various age groups, word scrambles , and interactive spelling games for the younger kids. These games allow them to quiz their new spelling skills without feeling overwhelmed. You can start children as young as five years old on our spelling games online to help them improve their spelling skills, and learn to love spelling words the right way.

All the spelling quiz games we offer enable you to tailor the level to your child's learning ability. This is important in any game or worksheet your child uses, to eliminate the risk of getting overwhelmed or frustrated. When children feel frustrated, they can easily give up on this lifelong need. What games help with Spelling? Though there are many word lists and word games on the internet, the ones that help the most with spelling are those that have either missing letters you need to fill in or ones where you must unscramble the words.

This is a problem in itself, because kids should obviously be spending at least 30 minutes of independent reading time each day which will increase their exposure to new words and improve their vocabulary and spelling skills.

Spelling games , however, can help to reinforce these concepts and aid their brain in unscrambling the letters to know which naturally fall in line with others. How do you practice Spelling words? After every word you find, you will hear it pronounced.

The puzzles are dynamically created, and can sometimes be challenging even for kids in 5th grade and 6th grade. The lists are arranged in stages that coordinate to the children's development through spelling patterns, also called features. The beginning lists for first graders allow the kids to approach the words one sound at a time i. Moving on from there, learners in second grade are able to chunk parts of words and process them more fluently when they read i. Third graders continue the fluency of reading while they explore the meanings of words i.

Of course, a student may overlap in stages, for instance, a second grader may still need some work on a few "first grade" features, or may dabble in some third grade features. They are merely an average "snapshot" for students in elementary school.

In addition to the lists for each grade level, there are many "themed" lists for students of all ages to enjoy themes such as September, Halloween, Winter, Earth Day, Science Day etc.

Spelling and studying words ultimately promotes a greater interest in reading and writing. When a child has word understanding and vocabulary knowledge, all aspects of Language Arts are enhanced. Which English words would you like to study? Type them into the empty spaces above.

You can also choose from the word lists we've prepared already in the drop-down menu. When you have finished adding words, choose an activity from one of the green buttons. The spelling list will appear for the students. They should read it carefully and, when ready, start the activity.

When finished, the students will have the option to restart the activity or to exit to the main menu. In most cases, they will also get the option to repeat the activity with only the words they had trouble with. Do you have a word you would like to add to those already recorded?

Leave a comment below and we'll be happy to work on it! We'd also love to hear any other comments you have.