Successful readers know the Magic Words, and, by playing exciting games on the Magic Words Learning Boards along with the Magic Words Playing Cards, all children can accelerate their reading, increase their fluency and develop comprehension and writing skills.
Play Bingo - use coins, bottle tops, lego, carrot rings, biscuit or sticky notes as counters in the colour level your child is learning.
Call out the words from the Learning Boards (or use your Magic Words Playing Cards to show your child the word before saying it).
Bingo can be won by completing one full row or one full column or the full Learning Board.
Ask your child to look at the words on the back of the Learning Board and invite them to play the following games.
1. Read and say the words across, up, down, around and backwards as quickly as you can.
You may need a clock, mobile phone timer or watch that has a second hand for timing some of the games.
2. Start the stopwatch and time how long your child takes to say all the words. Do this several times recording their personal best. (This game is best limited to under 5 minutes, but should be practiced daily.)
3. Start the timer and see how many words your child can say in 20 seconds. (If all words have been read before the time limit has expired they can go back to the beginning and repeat the words until the time expires.)
In learning centres you can time each other and keep score to determine who is the fastest at saying the words.
Practice often so that you get faster and faster.
Learning to the say the words quickly is a very good way to get better at reading.
The faster you are at saying the words helps you to think about the story or information in the book rather than all the little words in between.
These games are based on a skill known as rapid automatic naming (RAN) which highly correlates with successful reading.
Assisting children to learn to say these high frequency words at a rate of about one word per second is an excellent strategy to enhance reading.
The Magic Words Learning Boards and the Magic Words Playing Cards have been specifically designed to assist children in learning these words and learning to recognise and say them quickly. All the RAN games can be played using the Magic Words Playing Cards.
Other Games
1. Tick the words on your Learning Board when you find them in books.
2. Say the words on your Learning Board every day.
3. Look at all the Learning Boards and find all the two/three/four letter words.
4. Underline all the little words you find within the words on your Learning Board. "when" - he, we, hen
5. Look at all the Learning Boards and circle all the doing words (verbs).
6. Circle the words that are repeated.
7. Circle the words that rhyme.
Use a water based marker on the back of the Magic Words Learning Board to practice writing the Magic Words in the level the child is learning. Use the dotted thirds and place the letters on the red line.
Wipe the Sheet clean and keep practicing.
Children can use the words at the bottom of the sheet to remind them how to spell the words.
Choose a word and write it as many times as you can in one minute.
Look Say-Cover-Write Check
Tracing
Use a water based marker on the front of the Magic Words Learning Board to practice writing the Magic Words in the level the child is learning.
Wipe the Sheet clean and keep practicing.
Use a white board marker on the back of the Magic Words Learning Board to practice spelling the Magic Words in the level the child is learning.
Wipe the Learning Board clean and keep practicing.
Children can use the words at the bottom of the sheet to remind them or cover the words as their skill improves.