The book diary game helps students get involved in a story and gain insight into a character. Assign the entire class one short story to read. Make sure that the students can complete the story in a few minutes. After completing the book, ask the students to imagine being one of the characters. Ask the students a variety of questions, such as where do you live, what makes you happy or sad, how old are you and who are your friends. Instruct the students to write the answers on a piece of paper. Ask the children to describe the significant event of the story from the point of view of their character and discuss with the class.
The act it out game helps students gain reading practice and feel comfortable while reading in front of others. During the reading circle, separate the children into three or four small groups, assigning each group a short story to read and a character in the story to play. Instruct the students to read the story, acting out his or her character along the way.
The paper and pencil game helps students practice grouping and using vocabulary words. On a piece of paper, draw a grid with five large boxes going across. Write a letter at the beginning of each column and list five categories, such as animals, colors, names, foods and states on the left side of the page. Separate the class into groups of two or three and give each group a paper with the grid. Instruct the students to take turns writing five-letter words that correspond with the column letter and one of the categories, such as “green” for the letter “g” and the category of colors.
The go-fish grammar game helps students learn parts of speech. Using card stock, cut out a set of 16 blank cards. Take eight of the cards and label with the parts of speech. Take the remaining cards and write an example for each of the parts of speech. To play, the students will turn over a card and find the example of the part of speech listed on the card, such as “beautiful” for the adjective card.