Pull It Out Of Your Brain Reading/Writing Game

Pull it out of your brain Reading/Writing Game

Photo by dierk schaefer

Learning goal – improve reading and writing.

What makes this game fun is that the player is pretending to pull stuff out of their brain. They must quickly read a sentence and using the words and letters in the sentence write a new sentence.

Materials:

• Large paper that can wrap around the top of your head
• Pen, marker and paper/pad
• Scissor
• Tape and/or stapler
• Timer

The theme of the game is pulling thoughts out of your brain, but they are really strips of paper with sentences that helps are used to create new sentences.

Make a list of what your child could do to help in creating the game. Help your child brainstorm more ideas and details to make the game even better. Remember, the more your child is invested in making the game, the more she/he will be motivated to play and learn.

Step 1 – Find a large paper or reuse a large paper bag. Cut and tape the paper so it will sit on your head like a headband.

Step 2 – Make sure the height of the paper band is high enough so you can put stuff and strips of curled paper in it, but isn’t the height of a chef’s hat. You want the player to be able to reach in the top and pull a strip of paper without too much trouble. Decorate the paper band to look like a brain.

Step 3 – Write five simple sentences on strips of paper 2”x6” and if you want you can curl them. Start with five sentences, you can add more sentences later to make it more challenging.

Step 4 – Write the rules down on a sheet of paper so everyone has a clear idea how to play the game. This will also teach your child the importance of following instructions since it’s the basis for mastery and learning. All games/toys are to be played with a parent and must be supervised.

Step 5 – To begin, put on the paper headband and drop in the sentences. Make sure the player have a pencil and pad ready to use. Set the timer for 15 minutes and go!

• The player will pull out a sentence strip, read it quickly and write a new sentence from the words and letters. If the player pulls out more than one strip of paper simply put one back.
• Keep going until all the sentence strips are gone.
• The player wins if he/she can correctly re-write all the sentence strips before time runs out.

Take it Further

Be creative! Make the paper headband look like a realistic brain, add little toys, rubbery stuff with the paper sentence strip to make it feel like you’re reaching into your brain.

For young children, they can read and re-write simple words. For elementary kids, take sentences from their reading books and give them three sentence strips instead of five.  For older students, it can be sentences related to grammar rules, or other written academic concepts and you may want to add more sentences.  

What do you think of this game? How would you change or improve on this? Any suggestions? Did it help you child? Do you have a homemade game or toy to share to help kids learn? Please join and share here in the comment box or http://facebook.com/learngamer

Kids Make it + Kids Play it + Kids Share it = Kids Learn it!

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John:)

Photo by dierk schaefer

January 12, 2011. Tags: Homemade reading and writing game, How to make educational games and toys, Improve academics and study skills, improve reading and writing skills, Pull it out of your brain reading and writing game, step-by-step how to make reading and writing game. Homemade Study Skills game, Homemade Writing game, How to make educational games and toys, Improve Academics and study skills, Uncategorized.