Especially at the beginning of kindergarten, it is so important for learning to feel like playing to little learners. This is why math and literacy games have always had such a big role in my kindergarten classrooms! When learning with math and literacy games in kindergarten, students get to practice key math and literacy skills. They also stay engaged because it feels like a fun game, and therefore, it is more interesting to them.
Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing math and literacy games for your classroom:
Make Sure They Feel Like Games
This may seem obvious, but when you present games to students, you want to make sure they actually feel like games and are exciting for the students. Nothing is worse than trying to pump students up for a center or partner game, and then finding out they think it is boring.
One great way to keep games interesting is by including themes. At the beginning of the year, students love games with themes like back to school and apples. You can also cater themes to holidays like Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day. Choosing games with themes that are interesting and timely to young students helps them feel more like games and less like work.
Another fun way to make sure math center games actually feel like play to students is by including manipulatives and making them as hands on as possible. For example, I might give students a “Roll and Cover” center game with a pumpkin theme in the fall. Not only do they get to use dice, but they also get to use small erasers, snap cubes, or another manipulative to cover the target number, letter, or word as they roll. By choosing games that actually feel like games, young children are more engaged and less likely to see the activity as work.
Include Game-Like Manipulatives
As mentioned before, it is a good idea to choose kindergarten math games that include tools that students already associate with games, such as dice. There are other ways to include game-like manipulatives, too! Even better, it is likely that you already have some of them in your classroom!
In math games, students can use numbered playing cards to play games like “Count and Compose.” First, students choose a card from the deck and lay it on the “Count and Compose” mat. Then, they roll the dice, add the numbers together, and make their own representation of the new number. This helps them with simple addition in their early years and also with number recognition. It is always a good idea to find games that include manipulatives you already have and that are already associated with games that are familiar to students. Math activities such as these will help solidify early math skills. As a kindergarten teacher, helping shape foundational math skills sets them up for success when moving onto the next grade.
Choose Math and Literacy Games Based on Skills
Another thing to keep in mind when learning with math and literacy games in kindergarten, is the skills that you need the games to address. After all, we know that games in the classroom aren’t just about having fun–they are about learning!
When focusing on specific sight words in your instruction, it is great to include games that include those words as well. Editable games, like my “Roll and Cover” game that I mentioned earlier, are especially applicable because you can tailor them to the skills you know that you want your students to practice. This could look like letter sounds and associate them with the different shapes of letters.
In math, if you know you are going to spend some time teaching the concept of more or less in the winter, you can use a hot cocoa-themed game to help students focus on that skill. If you are feeling brave, you can even bring in real marshmallows for students to count and compare. While we do want our students to have fun when learning with math and literacy games, we know that isn’t the most important thing for them to gain from it. That makes it important for us to keep skills in mind as well when we are choosing centers.
Conclusion
When choosing educational games, it is important to keep in mind the different skills you want to address, the fun manipulatives you have on hand, and the types of activities that feel like games to your students. That way, you will be able to engage your students in effective learning games throughout the year. Better yet, students won’t even feel like they are learning because they will enjoy the learning games that you provide! You can have a great time with one simple, fun activity while also sharpening those cognitive skills easily. This provides a strong foundation in a variety of ways and helps set up your students for success.
There are so many different ways to help students’ skill levels, and creating a fun learning experience is always effective. Are there specific games, perhaps an easy math activity or literacy activities, you swear by? Have you tried center activities before? If you’ve found an easy way to teach these foundational skills to younger children, I’d love to hear all about it! Let me know in the comments below!
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