Letter Running Game for Preschool Reading Readiness

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Did you know, according to Harvard, exercise lights the brain on fire and sets your brain up for learning retention? That’s what makes active movement games and recess so essential for students. Exercise increases brainpower! Review the letters your student has learned and start introducing the concept of words with the letter running game and prime their brains for academic success.

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Reading readiness is big buzzword in education that basically means getting your child ready to read by introducing basic skills. These skills include left-to-right tracking, letter recognition, letter sound awareness, and vocabulary skills.

As you play this game, you are introducing the idea that letters are used to form words, and reinforcing left-to-right tracking, letter recognition, and sound awareness. You are working on reading readiness! If your student is already reading at a basic level, the letter running game is great practice for sight words and sounding out words.

If you need more letter recognition practice before you play this game, try Learning the Alphabet with LEGO bricks.

To play the letter running game, you are going to need letter manipulatives. A manipulative is anything your student can hold in his or her hand. Manipulatives can be used for almost any subject to create a hands-on learning experience. Letter magnets, counting bears, LEGO® bricks, and flashcards are all examples of manipulatives.

You can either buy or make letter manipulatives to use for this game. To make letters, use white printer paper, cut into squares, and write each letter with a bold marker. Make them more sturdy by mounting them on cardstock and/or laminating.

Note: If you have children under three, please be extra careful with manipulatives as most are a choking hazard for small children.

Here’s a list of My Favorite Letter Manipulatives

Jumbo Letter Magnets from Learning Resources. These huge uppercase letters are perfect for finger tracing the letter and practicing the correct order for letter formation. They also work perfectly for the letter running game.

Melissa and Doug Wooden Alphabet Magnets. I love the quality of Melissa and Doug toys! These will be beautiful on your fridge and encourage learning at the same time.

Foam Letter Magnets. If you want a lot of magnets, this is the set to get. 192 letters and numbers. You’ll have enough for any game or activity you want to play together. Even if a few get lost.

Tactile Letter Kit from Ideal Learning. These alphabet manipulatives allow your child to feel the shape of the letter.

Textured Letter Flashcards from Carson Dellosa help your student learn correct letter formation through touch.

Any letter manipulative will work to play our game. If you have older kids, they could even make letter cards for you. Don’t let what you don’t have stop you from doing great activities with your kids. You can come up with something with supplies in your home to use for this game. You could even use old mail!

Materials for the Letter Running Game

• letter manipulatives
• items around the house

Instructions for the Letter Running Game

1. Spread out a range of letters on the floor.  For younger learners, you can use the letters in their name, for older learners you can use the letters from a sight word.
2. Ask your learner to identify the first letter and its sound.
3. Once your learner has found the letter sound, see if they can think of some things that start with the letter they identified.
4. Then ask your learner to find an item around the house (or in their room) that begins with the sound and place it next to the letter.  Pro tip: For competitive children, you can challenge them to see how quickly they can find an item and return it to you.  For children who need to burn off some energy, you can place the letters far away from where they are finding items. E.g. Place the letters in the kitchen so they need to run to their bedroom and back for each letter.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 with the remaining letters.
6. Once items have been found for all the letters, ask your learner to sound out and identify the word they made.
7. Repeat with as many words as your child has the attention span for.