Practical games for learning to read

[ClearlynotaMandy]

I need some inspiration for practical/ tactile reading games for a 6 year old please.
My son is struggling a bit with learning to read, he gets so stressed if I try and sit down and read a book with him that it's just not an enjoyable experience for either of us.
He has SEND sessions with the SENco at school, and she is absolutely brilliant and creative at thinking up games to get him reading, which he loves and is learning really well this way. The trouble is- I just don't have a creative brain to come up with different games.
She's given us a few to try over the holidays, such as tricky word treasure hunt around the room (basically you write the tricky words on the sides of a dice, stick cards with the tricky words around the room and whichever word it lands on when you roll, you have to find the matching card) but we are tiring of these now.
We've also tried a lot of the games on 5 minute mum, and online games, but we need fresh ideas please. Book recommendations would also be welcome. Thanks in advance!

We had the RWinc phonics cards and posted them into a home made letterbox when she got them right. She enjoyed the posting and the counting them afterwards. We only added them in a few at a time so she could always mainly do them.

We had words on cards to match to objects.

We also did treasure hunts to find words.

Lots of singing nursery rhymes etc helps with language. Might take the pressure off reading. I spy, gets him to think about initial sounds. Making up silly poems.

Try simple things like getting him to help write a shopping list, leave a simple note instructing him there is a treat somewhere he needs to find, draw some pictures/little comic strip so he can fill in the speech bubbles or he would even just add onomatopoeia to it.

I made this Pinterest board (have changed name on here for this!) when we were doing literacy stuff if it helps. Some of the games might be a bit young though and some a bit old, but there are things like sight word ball toss, sight word jump and grab...

www.pinterest.co.uk/hackneyhackette/literacy-and-numeracy/

We did treasure hunts, but the words were in the clues and led to treats (eventually). Also we did a game where you put scrabble letters into plastic eggs and they rearrange them to make the right word. And one where you write the words on "parking spaces" and park cars on them.

Oh, have remembered the favourite reading game we did - my son loved his train set and we set it up along the landing and used a battery powered train with carriages to send messages (and small items) to each other. He also liked climbing trees and we had a pulley system where we sent messages up and down.

These are brilliant, thanks so much everyone, really helpful!

Ive just had a look at your Pinterest board @ReindeerGames and its fantastic, thank you. Must have taken you ages!

This is an idea I got from another parent: Stick some cards (each with one word printed on it) on the wall. Give your son a fly swatter, call out the words. They hit the word you called out with the fly swatter.

I tried it with my daughter and she had a lot of fun.

Well, I started it when the oldest was about four and now he is 14!

Check out some of the ‘Orchard’ games. Not too pricey, they have ones based on literacy and reading.

www.orchardtoys.com/dept/language-literacy-games_d0121.htm

Thanks @BeanieTeen, I thought we had most of the Orchard toys but they have added a load more since I last checked!

Top Trumps

Find a pack on a subject that interests him. Minimal reading so minimal threat, but maximum motivation. Plus curiosity to find out more.

OP, he’s probably still a bit little (I think they start from reading age 6), but if your son continues to find reading challenging, worth looking at Barrington Stokes. They are a book publishers designed to support readers who find it difficult, including (but not exclusively) dyslexic children - lots of research into eg line spacing, font style/size, the colour of the page etc. You can download samples of the different books before you buy.

Lots of good recommendations here for games - I would add in water painting (paintbrush, cup of water, wall or floor outside) and as he reads the words on flash cards or similar, he can water paint them to write them. Lots of turn taking and let him teach you some of the words too. Definitely focus on words you know he can do to boost his confidence, and throw in just one or two new ones at a time.

We had a set of word magnets on the fridge. I just picked out some of the easier ones to start with and we would make up silly sentences.

Lots of story reading where you do the majority but point to a few easy words. The Apple Tree Farm books are brilliant for this, a bit of easy text for the child and some more for the adult on each page.

Practical stuff like shopping lists, to do lists, meal plan.

Get some leaflets of tourist attractions or events and look at those together.

Writing in/on unusual media is fun. Mine loved having a thin layer of cheap hand cream on the kitchen table and writing in that with a finger. You could write and your DC can read, them wipe it over.

Get a selection of different cuddly animals and match them up with labels, eg elephant for the elephant. Big teddy, small teddy.

Magnetic words on the fridge.
If you haven't got a blackboard.. get one.
I used to write messages to named child at night. They loved coming down in the morning to work out what it was. " Raisins and milk on table". "Please let dog out".

They also loved having a daily dinner menu written in coloured chalks on the blackboard, and it wasn't long before they wanted to write the menu themselves.

You and son can cut up magazine pictures of common foods enjoyed in your family diet (chips, lasagne, carrots, glass of milk) and stick them on cards, write the name of the food beneath. You're reinforcing whole-word recognition using a limited but very familiar vocabulary. Whole -word recognition builds reading confidence.

Then son can ask you for today's meal (or even better, choose what to eat ), find the right picture cards then copy the menu onto the blackboard.

Play lots of picture-card games like Snap, Happy Families etc; shape matching and recognition is the precursor to reading. Ditto dominoes, dice board games; snakes and ladders, are all about training visual recognition.

Play hangman. word game on paper.

Play noticing and recognising familiar signs , when you're out walking or in the car. Spot words like "TESCO", " Car Park" , PIZZA, the name of your town, STOP, teach him the common road sign symbols . ONE WAY.

Show subtitles when watching TV.

Really great ideas, thanks so much everyone. i'm going to try them all, will also help a lot with summer holiday boredom!
@QueenOfWeeds i'd never heard of Barrington Stokes but i've just had a look and whilst they are a little advanced for him now, I can see these being very useful further down the line.
Also never heard of Apple Tree Farm books @FourChimneys so i'm definitely going to look into these.
Thanks again.

I created a jar of words - some were the ‘proper’ words to be use as per the curriculum , some ‘rude’ words.

my DD was then allowed to create the longest and rudest sentences she could from the jar.

before too long things like “my daddy has smelly feet and my big brother is a poo” were easily created.

she had great fun!

Teaching children 5 tricky words in sentences really helped them. Twenty sentences that made sense (mostly) was so much easier than learning 100 random high frequency words. Led to the amagama app being created.

Have a look on Phonics Play for online games. Some stuff is free, some you have to subscribe.
We used it as a school and the kids loved the games.

Have you seen the books by five minute mum. They have lots of good ideas in them to help.