Word families computer games

We all know that students are more engaged when playing games. The CVC Word Family Digital Spinner Games and accompanying activities are a fun and interactive way for students to practice identifying and reading CVC word families. The digital nature of the CVC word family spinners provides a new and innovative way for students to work with the content. This will excite and motivate them as they complete the games and activities. Best of all, there is no need to print spinners and provide paper clips and pencils or plastic spinners. The digital spinners can be used on interactive whiteboards, computers, and tablets such as an iPad. This means that the activities can be used in the classroom or for distance learning.

Segmenting and blending CVC words is one of the most important steps in helping a child to become a fluent reader. Word families are patterns (chunks) found in words that can make learning to read easier. With repetition and exposure to these patterns, students will learn to recognize the patterns by sight and sound. This will lead to children reading more fluently and help with the recognition of spelling patterns and, in turn, the acquisition of spelling skills.

The CVC Word Family Digital Spinner Games make practicing to read CVC words a fun game that students will love to play.

What’s Included in the CVC Word Family Digital Spinner Games?

Included in the CVC Word Family Digital Spinner Games are:

• 20 CVC Word Family Digital Spinners (Color Background)
• 20 CVC Word Family Digital Spinners (White Background)
• 11 Mixed CVC Word Family Digital Spinners (Color Background)
• 11 Mixed CVC Word Family Digital Spinners (White Background)
• CVC Word Building Mat
• Spin and Spell Worksheets that can be used for accountability.
• Spin, Read and Cover Mats (Color)
• Spin, Read and Cover (Worksheets)
• Race to the Top Mats (Color)
• Race to the Top (Worksheets)

The following CVC Word Families are covered by the digital spinners and activities:

To play the games, all you need to do is open the selected CVC Word Family Spinner using PowerPoint and provide the selected game mat or worksheet. There is no need to print spinners and provide paper clips and pencils or plastic spinners! 

The accompanying activities come in color and worksheet versions. The color version can be printed and laminated for use in classroom literacy centers and the worksheets can be used for recording student work. The worksheets also make it easy to use these activities for distance learning as accountability pages.

Let’s take a closer look at the activities included in the CVC Word Family Digital Spinner Games and Activities bundle.

CVC Word Family Building Mat and

Spin and Spell Worksheets

The word building mat can be used with magnetic letters or dry-erase markers for students to spell the CVC words. Students spin a picture on the CVC word family digital spinner and build the matching word.

Spin and Spell worksheets are also included for each CVC Word Family Digital Spinner. Students can build the CVC words with magnetic letters directly on the worksheet or write the words.

These worksheets are great for use alongside the CVC Word building mats or as accountability worksheets for students to record their work.

Race to the Top Game and Worksheets

In Race to the Top, using the digital spinner, students spin a picture, read the CVC word, and place a counter in the matching column. The game ends when one of the CVC words gets to the top.

The Race to the Top mats can be laminated and students can write the CVC word using a dry-erase marker. With this approach, not only are your students reading CVC words, but they are also practicing spelling the CVC words.

A worksheet version of the Race to the Top game is also included. These can be used in the classroom in place of the color Race to the Top mats or used by students at home. Students can color the squares or write the CVC word.

Spin, Read and Cover Game

The Spin, Read and Cover game encourages students to read CVC words by finding and matching them to the CVC picture spun on the digital spinner.

Each of the Spin, Read and Cover mats has a cute design to make the activity fun and novel each time a student plays the game.

A worksheet version is also included. Students can spin, read and color the matching CVC word.

Students will love practicing to read and spell CVC words with the digital interactive spinners. No need to print spinners and provide pencils and paper clips! Students can even complete the activities at home by using a computer or tablet and the worksheets are a great way to keep them accountable.

If you like the CVC Word Family Digital Spinners and Activities you might also be interested in the Numbers 1-10 Digital Spinner Games.

Reading isn’t the only way you can work on reading skills (although please do read as much and as often as you can!) you can also play games to build skills and confidence. This word family game is designed to work on word family knowledge.

Word families are groups of words that share a common combination of letters and similar sound.  When new readers play with word families they become more confident as they see the common ending and can quickly read the new word. This game was great as my son read words without surrounding context successfully because of the other words in the family acting as a scaffold.

Playing the Word Family Game

1. Gather your materials. You will need some magazines or family photos you can cut up, construction paper, double stick tape, painter’s tape, scissors and a marker. 
2. Start by making your frames. Simply fold the construction paper in half and cut the middle out.
3. Next cut moms, dads, babies and kids out.  Tape them to construction paper making sure you leave room at the bottom to write the words under the people.
4. Cut out and write the words. The best list of word families I have ever found was here.  I tried to do some words I knew he’d find “easy” and others that would be more of a challenge, his reading ability is changing so quickly I was honestly unsure of exactly what would be the sweet spot for his learning. Do not be afraid to try something, you can change it as you go if need be.
5. I taped the frames to the table using painter’s tape. Then I wrote out the family name but when we do this again I will be leaving these off and instead placing one word/family member in the frame to start. These titles really confused my son. After he matched up to a person in the family he was golden. I’d suggest skipping the names and just taping the frames.
6. Play.
7. He was unsure at first.
8. But he did it! The confidence grew quickly.
9. Soon he was being his old goofy self, saying “Here is your Mama baby!”
10. The ail family was the tricky one for him and when he completed the family he exclaimed “I did it!” which is music to any parent or teacher’s ears.

To make this simpler try having 2-3 family members already in the frames and only fill in the blank with a missing family member instead of having to create the whole family.

To make it more challenging provide the frames and family members with no family names ( an, ack, ail…) at the start. Let your child sort and group with no starting point.

 Books About Families

Sometimes It’s Grandmas and Grandpas: Not Mommies and Daddies by Gayle Byrne is a wonderful book about grandparents who are raising their granddaughter.  There is no long drawn out explanation about where her parents are. Or what led to her grandparents having custody and I don’t think there needs to be. They are her parents, love her, snuggle her, read with her and love her just like any parents.  She does wonder about her parents and shows signs of feeling different. But the security and love her grandparents provide overcome those insecurities. The author’s note at the back of the book explains that she herself is raising her grandchild and offers more resources for grandparents who are primary caregivers as well.

Daddy and I… by Eloise Greenfield is a great little board book about the everyday things that a toddler son may help his dad with.  From painting to shopping to stopping for some hugs. This book is great for toddlers to see all the things that make up being a dad and caring for your family. It also has a great lesson about children pitching in to help keep a family going too.

Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers and Marla Frazee. The concept is simple but the results are wonderful. The book celebrates all sorts of babies and all the every day things babies do.  My daughter (who is 14 months) points out all the babies on each page as I read the rhyming text. So maybe you are thinking “What’s so great about babies and text that rhymes”? Nothing, that isn’t what makes this book so awesome. I love this book because of its diversity, inclusion, and acceptance of all babies and families.  The illustrations are full of depictions of all sorts of families showering their smallest most precious member with love.

What I adore about the diversity of the illustrations is that readers are left to put whatever assumption we wish on the families in the book. What I assumed were two mommies my husband thought was a husband and wife. I thought a lady was a grandma and my son said it was just an older mom. This is why I love this book. My 14-month-old doesn’t see why this message is outstanding. What she does see is all sorts of happy babies in all sorts of families being the norm and this is the world we want her to know.

For more quick tips on helping your child learn to read check out my book; Raising A Rock-Star Reader. It is packed with fun ideas for families, book lists, and advice for parents. You can also follow me on Facebook for other word games to play with your pre-schooler.