Phonics Boggle! It's Game Time Baby!

Been a little slack this first week of summer!  Page is kickin' it at the beach for the month!  One of us has to do some kind of work, right?  So---while the hubs is mowing grass I am sneaking in here to write a post before I forget how to do it! ;)  Summer---it'll do it to ya!

Here is a game we play with our kiddos!  They like it!  No---they LOVE it!  As in, begging us to play it...all..the...time!  We play this on Thursdays as part of our phonics time for Daily 5!  Trust me, the littles learn their days of the week quick like so they will know EXACTLY when we should be officially playing!  And---they---do---not---like---it---one---bit---if---we---try---to---skip---it!  It's not that we WANT to skip it, it's just that it takes about 12-15 minutes total to play the game, get scores, and crown the champions!  PEOPLE...this is SERIOUS game time!  BUT...there are just some days that we maybe get a teensy weensy bit behind and we try to skip this to get back on track!  Trust me---DO NOT SKIP THIS---if you ever start it.  Nobody wants an angry mob of 5 year olds coming at them all crazy eyed!!!

So...hopefully we have you interested!  What is this amazing game, you ask (you are asking, right?  If not, just pretend and come along for the ride!)?

It's really a very simple game to play, but they think it's the BOMB DIGGITY!  Shhh!  We are NOT gonna let them know that we totally made this up!  They think we are PROFESSIONALS!

Here's how you play!

First you need to gather up some chart paper or other large writing paper...big enough that a group of 4 or 5 kiddos can gather around it and all still see!

Then we divide the smalls into groups.  We try to divide them evenly depending on phonics prowess! ;)

We pick a team captain for each group.  Again, we make sure that all of the team captains are around the same skill level to make it fair!  No one wants to get stomped!  Team captains change EVERY time we play the game.

Then we spread the groups out all over the room.  We set our timer (We have an AWESOME timer that we show on the Activboard so they can see their time counting down.  Not to mention that it has a VERY LOUD timer that goes off and cracks them up because I still jump---every---single---time!) and off we go!  

Teams work to think of words that work on whatever phonics skill we are focusing on that particular week.  Early in the year it's a single letter.  Later it may be a digraph or two.  These pictures are from late in the year and we were working on blends with l.  They are masters of the game now and can handle it!  

The room is SO STINKIN' quiet while they play!  QUIET!  I mean like pin drop quiet!  I know, I know, you probably don't believe me!  But you see, as the kids are calling out words to their team captain, they must WHISPER or risk another team stealing (BOO! HISS!) their word!  SCORE one for the teacher!

(Remind me again why I ever want to SKIP this game???)

After the time runs out (We vary the time between 6-10 minutes depending on their skill level and which skill we are working on that week.) all the groups come back together and we score the teams.

One captain comes up and we call out their list of words.  If ANY other team has the same word, then we ALL cross it off of the lists.  NO points are earned for these words!  If NO OTHER team has the word, then we circle that word and that team earns one point.  We continue to score each team in this way!

Then we list all of the team scores, write greater/less than sentences on the board, and determine our winner!  The winning team picks out of the treasure box (goodies that cost me pennies but they think are as good as GOLD...candy, stickers, necklaces, plastic bugs...)  All the other kiddos get a "consolation prize"!  Mostly because  the consolation prize is CANDY and I LOVE CANDY!  Usually a couple of M&M's or Skittles or something! 

In the beginning of the year, some of their 'words' look crazy...all phonetically spelled.  But we don't really care because we are focusing on hearing the sounds in words, not spelling.  As the year goes on though, the writing gets much more conventional!  That's nice to see too!

And there you have it...PHONICS BOGGLE! Fun, right!

What kind of fun games do you play with your kiddos?  Either link your blog post about one of them below, or give us a little description in your comments!  We'll all be armed with some NEW games to head back to school!