At my daughter’s kindergarten orientation, she received index sized cards that contained:
- Upper- and lowercase letters,
- Word to emphasis the letter’s basic phonic sound, and
- Picture of the word.
Click here to access a PDF file of both the letters and words. A fun activity to do with your child is to either draw pictures or look through magazines or newspapers for pictures to glue on the cards. As you perform this task make sure to say the letters as well as their basic phonic sounds. Please note the basic phonic sound for x is /ks/ as in fox (not /x/ as in x-ray).
Wise Kindergartener Game
This game is commonly referred to as old maid. Print two copies of the letters and words PDF file on thick or colored paper and cut into 52 individual cards. Have your child write their name on one card. Shuffle the cards. Deal out all the cards. Players look at their cards and remove any pairs. The dealer goes first by offering his cards to the player to her left. The player to the left selects one card; if the new card makes a pair set it aside. Play continues clockwise. If you are out of cards you are out of the game. The person left with the name of the wise kindergartener wins. You could also remove a card. We lost the H card so we play wise hat. My family loves playing wise kindergartener or hat. We have a blast watching each other try to hide the card as well as find it! This is definitely a family favorite.
Go Fish Game
Print two copies of the letters and words PDF file on thick or colored paper and cut into 52 individual cards. Give each player five cards. If you are playing with only two people, deal out seven cards. The remaining cards are placed face down. The youngest player goes first. Player A starts by asking for a card. For example, player A may ask player B for a card with the letter B or the card with the picture of the bat. If player B has the card he gives it to player A and player A gets another turn to ask for a card. If player B did not have the card, he would say, “go fish!” Player A would select a card from the pile. If she obtains the card she asked for she goes again. Play continues until one player has no cards in his hand or the pile is gone. The player with the most pairs is the winner.
Memory Game
Print two copies of the letters and words PDF file on thick or colored paper and cut into 52 individual cards. Turn cards face down and arrange them in rows. The youngest player goes first. Each player turns over two cards. If they match, keep the pair. If they do not match, turn them back over and it is the next player’s turn. The player with the most pairs wins the game. For younger players you may want to limit the number of cards to 8 or 10.