Charades of Letters

We are currently trying to teach our 5 year old daughter how to read. She is learning how to read in kindergarten and we are practicing at home so she doesn’t feel so nervous in class when they are in their reading groups. My wife is working on helping her read books and we have also downloaded some reading apps for us to use. My daughter likes the apps and has started to grasp how to read.

In search of making reading fun, we tried to play charades at night with letters. There are a stack of cards with letters on one side and a picture + a word on the other side. It’s more for flash cards and memory games, but it seemed boring to my daughter. She wanted to play charades with it, so I made up the rule where we have to say the letter and sound before acting out the picture/word on the other side. One person acts while the other guesses, but to make things a bit easier, making sounds during acting is allowed.

My daughter and I went back and forth and back and forth acting out the cards and she was laughing so hard at some of my acting. I also got to see her creativity with how she acted out the words. Who knew a moon laid on the ground? We even got to tough cards, like the letter Q. The word was quail on the back and I already acted out a bird before for the letter B. I used the same tactics and laid a small egg. To my surprise, she said quail and guessed it correctly! It’s probably because she has had quail eggs before and knew they were little!

I’ll probably play this game with her more often after she reads each day. It’s a fun way to be silly while reinforcing the sound of letters. It’s also very creative in my opinion and helps to get some practice with acting skills. My bird will continue to be more and more realistic. Just watch!