Pass the Plate....

A fun, easy and cheap game.

This is a timed game where a group of children (or just you and your child) sit in a circle with a paper plate. Give them (or your child) an allotted time to write as many words as they can in a certain category as they pass the plate. Your child or the group of children can receive points for the amount of words they write. To make it fun, play a song and when it stops or when you pause it,  your child or the group will know they need to stop. I played this with my students and had them put their marker or pencil up in the air when the song stopped so I would know they weren't writing still. 

Ideas for categories: 

Word Families.....If you have a first or second grade child you know what they are. A word family is a group of words that all have something in common. An example of a word family is "ate" found in plate, skate, fate, slate, etc. All of these words have the ending "ate" thus making them a word family. If this is the family you're working on then write "ate" in the middle of the plate with large letters. To play the game your child will write one word that ends in "ate" somewhere on the plate, then he will pass it to you and it will be your turn. OR he will continue to write as many words as possible until you stop the music or say times up! Either way provides great vocabulary practice as well as spelling, reading and writing practice.

Grammar: Write the word "noun" in the middle of the plate and have your child write words that are nouns: person, place, thing or an animal around the word. Of course this can be done with adjective, verb, pronoun, adverb and so on. 

Math: Write "+2 for #'s 1-10" your child will then take all the numbers, 1 through 10, and add 2 to them. He will write his addition sentence like so: 1+2=3 another one would be 2+2=4 and 3+2=4...and so on. Of course you can do this with any math fact: -5 for #'s 10 through 20 OR X's 5 for # 1 through 5. Anything can work!

I'm sure as you think about this game more and more ideas will pop into your mind that can individually help YOUR child with skills she's working on in school at home.

Make it FUN. Give "skittle" points for correct answers or stickers to tell her she's done a great job. This will be a fun way to practice at home and make your child WANT TO LEARN. Just another trick to pull out of your bag! This handy game can be taken ANYWHERE, in the car, on vacation or to grandma's house. 

Have fun with it!