This is a great game for introducing story elements, including characters, plot, setting, beginning, middle and ending. Students are seated in a circle for this activity. The teacher begins by starting the story with a sentence; possibly a traditional beginning story sentence, such as "Once upon a time there was a dog named Fido." The student sitting to the teacher's left provides the next sentence. The story continues around the circle until all students have had a chance to add a sentence. The teacher should provide an ending if the students do not.
Teachers use this activity with any story or nursery rhyme. Read the story or rhyme to the students. The second time you read it, replace some important words with new words that do not fit the story. For example, "Mary had a little crab." The students try to catch the teacher's mistakes and fill in the word that is missing. Children love to correct their teacher's errors.
Guess-a-Word is a great game for building phonemic awareness skills. Choose characters or objects from a story you read at circle time. Break the names into sounds and let students try to guess the word before you get the sounds together. For example, if you are reading a story about a character named Tom, you say each sound "T -- O -- M." Students try to guess the character before you finish saying all the sounds. When your students are more familiar with letters, you may also write the letter for each sound on the board as you say it.
This game is a letter and word recognition game. Choose a letter from the book you read during story time. Write that letter on an index card and display it where the kids can see it. Give each child a pipe cleaner. Have each child make a loop on the end of his pipe cleaner and twist it so it looks like a magnifying glass. Tell the kids to play detective and search for the letter on the card. Tell the students the name of the letter and ask them to repeat it. Instruct the children to search all over the classroom for the letter when you say "Go." Have children raise their hands when they find the letter. Give them each a sticker for finding that letter in the room. Once the children are familiar with letters, have them search for small sight words instead.