Family Game Night: Build a Letter

Today  I have a super fun indoor literacy activity that would be perfect for a Family Game Night!  It’s an active game for the hands and mind.

This is game is perfect because it works for a variety of ages, uses materials you already have on hand and promotes family literacy.  Win, win, win!

Build a Letter Game

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Game Set-Up

Materials needed: odds and ends from your junk drawer or art supply stash,  a tray to hold your supplies, playdough, alphabet letter cards (we made ours with envelopes and a marker),  9 colored paper fish or other shape, timer (optional)

1.  Collect a variety of objects from around the house and place them in a large tray.  We used pipe cleaners, buttons, pom pom balls, caps from yogurt pouches, craft sticks and wikki stix.  This will be a community tray that everyone playing will use to build.

2.  Each player will also need a tennis ball size amount of playdough.  We like to make our playdough, but you could also buy it.

3.  You will need a set of alphabet cards.  You could use a set of flashcards that you have on hand.  We recycled a set we had made for our Polar Bear Paw Walk.    You can use uppercase letters, lowercase letters or both for this game.

4.  You will also need 9 colored paper shapes.  Again, we reused fish we had made for our Polar Bear Paw Walk.  You could use 9 of any object.

5.  This game works best if you play at a table.  Set your tray of parts in the middle of the table.  Alphabet cards  are placed faced down. Colored shapes also get placed near the middle of the table.  Each player gets a ball of playdough.

Game Play

The oldest player goes first.  He or she is the judge for the round and turns over the first letter card and names the letter.

The other players quickly build the most creative version of the letter that they can using their playdough and parts. For added fun, you could time each round.

When time is up, the judge chooses the letter creation that they think is most creative and awards the winner of the round with a colored shape.

Play continues clockwise until a player has earned three colored shapes.

Enjoy your Family Game Night!

For more fun active indoor games check out these ideas from great bloggers participating in today’s blog hop of indoor games.

Active indoor game: land, sea and air  from What Do We Do All Day?

LEGO rockets math activity from Creekside Learning

Reading Readiness Games from Sight and Sound Reading

Mini Trampoline & Jumping Activities from Bare Feet on the Dashboard

Bean Bag Toss from The Gingerbread House

Igloo Building from Study at Home Mama

Run & Find Syllables Game from This Reading Mama

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