How about a quick,
inexpensive, multi-functional game today?
WHAT? small photo album (available at Walmart
or a dollar store), construction
paper, markers
WHY? RAN – otherwise known as Rapid Automatic Naming - is the
ability
to look at a picture or
image and retrieve the name for it.
This is an important pre-reading skill, but it transfers over to
recognition of sight words, math facts, and many other academic tasks.
The advantage of this game
is that you can play it when you have two or three extra minutes before lunch,
after math, etc. Adapt the game
for very young children with pictures of animals, fruits and vegetables,
etc. For older children use shapes.
Letters, numerals, words, fluency phrases, math facts…there are endless
possibilities! Change the “joke”
card to relate to a holiday, season, or theme. For example, in November use turkey stickers and the
children can stand up and “gobble.”
When doing a dinosaur unit use pictures of dinosaurs with the word “ROAR!”
HOW? Cut paper the size of the photo album. Make dot patterns on the cards. Leave several blank. Insert in the album. When you flash through the children
quickly call out the amount. When
the blank/zero amount comes up they pretend to be Zero.
*You add the magic in any
game! Be dramatic, be silly, and
they’ll love you and the game!