Letter-sound recognition, or phonics instruction, is a large focus of the kindergarten curriculum, as this is the basis of reading. Reinforce letter-sound recognition with a non-competitive game in which students identify sounds in a given word. Provide students with individual dry erase boards and state a word. Instruct students to write the letter that makes the sound at the beginning, middle or end of the word on their dry erase boards. To make the game more challenging, have students identify digraphs, vowel blends or word families in a given word.
During kindergarten, students gain an understanding of the value of numbers, the cornerstone for learning math skills and concepts. Foster a sense of greater and less than with the card game War. Write individual numbers on a set of index cards, shuffle them, and deal the cards to each player. Students place their cards face down in a pile. To play, they flip the top card from their piles over and the student with the higher card collects all cards that are flipped over. If the cards are of the same value, children continue to flip over cards until someone reveals a higher card and that person takes all turned over cards. The person with all of the cards wins the game. Play in the reverse order to reinforce the concept of less than, having students who reveal cards of a lesser value take the turned over cards.
Listening can sometimes be a difficult task for a kindergartner, but it is essential for success in all areas of life. Promote listening by engaging students in a non-competitive game in which they identify the sounds different objects make. While students have their eyes closed, make sounds with different objects and see if they can identify the source of the sound. Examples of sounds to make include a bell, crumpling paper, and jingling change.
The muscles in hands are referred to as fine motor muscles and are used in various daily activities, including writing, opening and closing things, and grasping small objects. Build your students' fine motor muscles with a game that requires them to transfer objects with clothespins. Fill bowls with small objects; beads, paper clips or pieces of yarn, for example. To play, children open and close a clothespin to pick up the items and move them to an empty bowl. The first child to transfer all of the items wins the game.