Here is a simple, elegant, wonderful game that’s great for: • Story-building • Fostering imagination • Putting events in sequence • Inspiration for writing a story • Staving off boredom while you’re waiting at a restaurant • General all-round silliness. There are nine dice. Each one has six simple pictures. For instance, a happy […]
Tag: five-minute ideas
DrawaStickman.com
Your kid will love this. You draw a stick figure, and the website brings it to life. There is a literacy component, because the site takes the stickman through a plotline. You’re given instructions like, “draw a key in my hand” before he can open a locked box. Kids have […]
Fun online Hallowe’en “differences” game
Terrific Hallowe’en is an easy, fun and speedy online game. The goal is to find the differences between the two, similar-looking pictures. You click on each thing that’s different. It might be a missing leaf on a tree, a missing house in the background, or a different-coloured tie. When you spot the five […]
Silent E
Here is a great video that teaches what Silent E does. (Spoiler alert: For one thing, it makes a hug huge!) Thanks to thekidshouldseethis.com, who brought this to my attention via a tweet. Their website is fantastic – it’s a collection of videos that kids just gotta see. And if you’re in […]
Fun online spelling bee
This one’s for kids who are already good spellers and who think spelling is fun. (To me it’s a no-brainer, but I have to remember that not everyone reads the dictionary for fun.) Anyway, that kid will appreciate this great online spelling bee from Oxford. It’s fast and it’s fun […]
Literacy opportunities are everywhere
You don’t always need books to help your kid read better.
Test your Potter fan with these clues
We’ve all been missing Harry and the Gang, of course, which is why we were so excited to see the new website, Pottermore. Getting Kids Reading has qualified to be an early, beta-tester of the new Harry Potter site. That means we’ll be able to bring you an insider’s view […]
QR codes – reading fun for the whole (nerdy) family
OK, this is a great tip but it might be a bit… er… nerdy. But then, so am I. And so is my kid, who wears it like a badge of honour. You’ve seen these QR codes, right? They’re on ads, posters, marketing material. Maybe you never knew what they […]
The news, in kid-friendly language
Kids love reading about what’s happening in their world. But so often, the newspaper is full of inappropriate and difficult articles. Teaching Kids News (TKN) is a sister website to Getting Kids Reading. We offer kid-friendly news articles, taken from the headlines of real newspapers. One of the great things […]
Five minutes to bridge the racial achievement gap
I’ve been reading this book – Choke. (Because I tend to choke at tennis, that’s why.) But it’s got some really interesting things to say that will help your kid with test anxiety. Researchers were studying what happens to African-Americans, for instance, who experience racism throughout their life. These students can have something […]