Kinder Games: Be the Word + Does my Letter Say?

I am so excited to be back sharing with PreK & K Sharing! If I haven't met you already, I am Faith from Kindergarten Faith.  I have been teaching for 10 years and have been in Kindergarten for the last 4.  It is definitely different then teaching 6th grade Reading and English, but I have never felt more at home.

Today I would like to share with you two fun and exciting games we play in my classroom.... 

Be the Word and Does My Letter Say.....?  

One of our other favorite games is Does My Letter Say....?  I secretly tape a letter to each child's back and give them a record sheet with all of the letters we have learned on it.  The goal of the game is to figure out what letter is on your back.  The students go around and ask each other the only question allowed, "Does My Letter Say....?"  They say one of the sounds that our new letters could make, and the other student can either say "Yes" or "No."

This requires some practice.  First practice the question.  They will want to ask, "Do I have a T?"....M, S etc.  We practice the question several times.  Next, practice the response.  The kids will get soooooo excited and want to automatically tell them what their letter is.   I make sure they understand that they can only say "Yes" or "No."  :)  

The record sheet is there to mark off the letters/sounds that get a "No" response.  When they figure out what their letter is, they come see me!!  I am the only person who can pull the letter off.  To get your letter off you must tell me the letter name and the sound it makes!  They love this game so much they decided we should play it every Friday.  (They picked Friday because they wanted to add it to our Fun Friday activities!  YEAH, I love Fridays too!)

Then oh so very soon, we are ready to start putting those letters together.  We play a lot of sound segmenting games.  We clap, stomp, and push our way through the sounds we hear.  (....and not each other!)  hehehehe  But what could be more fun then actually getting to Be the Word.  My students love being able to stand up and hold their letter or letters....when they work together to make one sound.

This is an excellent visual reinforcement for the kids.  They see 5 letters in porch but only hear 3 sounds (3 flashcards).  We like to call those letters that work together "Best-Friends."

I also use these flashcards when I introduce a new letter/sound.  I show the kids the big stack at the beginning of the year, and I tell them that they will learn all of these letters and sounds.  "Wow, really Mrs. Rucker???"  Yep!  They love it when the stack gets smaller and smaller and smaller because we are putting them in our "Yep, I Know That" pile!  :0)

We use these large letter/sound flashcards for many other activities in my classroom.  We  trace them for fine motor development, put them in alphabetical order and match upper and lowercase letters.  I am sure there are many other way that you can think of even now.

To find this great classroom resource click here.  Large Letter/Sound Flashcards.  I have them in two different version - with or without stars.  Coming soon.....Stick Kids. :o)

Thanks again for letting me share a little bit of my classroom fun with you.   You can find many more exciting ideas like these by visiting my blog, Kindergarten Faith,  or you can find me on Facebook and Pinterest.  Yeah!  I hope to talk to you again soon!

-- Kindergarten Faith http://kindergartenfaith.blogspot.com http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Faith-Rucker
http://www.facebook.com/KindergartenFaith