Both kids and adults enjoy games. Using games in the classroom and at home help to improve language and learning development, and it is a fun and interactive way to reach kids of all ages and abilities. Here are a few tips on how you can incorporate games into your children’s learning plan.

Explain the Rules

With whatever game you choose to use, be sure to explain the rules. You want to prepare children as much as possible before the game begins, so don’t assume everyone already knows how to play. Even if you have played the game before with these same children, take a couple of minutes to remind them of the rules and the expected behaviors. Allow children to ask questions. This will reduce anxiety and help them mentally prepare for what will happen during the game.

Keep it Simple

It’s easy to have fun playing almost any game as long as it’s not too complex. If you have to spend too much time explaining the rules and how to play, then you may confuse your audience. Your listeners will soon tune-out because of the many directions and rules.  Yet, you don’t want the game to be too simplistic. Most children enjoy some type of challenge, so when the winner is chosen, the reward feels that much better.

Simon Says

This classic game requires listening and comprehension skills. Since many children with ASD thrive on predictability, this game can be stressful unless you add some adjustments. Since the child who is designated as Simon is the only person who knows what will happen next, you will want to limit the possibilities Simon can choose as commands. You can also give a list of the possible activities to the children with ASD, so they have a better idea of what will be asked. If children still exhibit anxiety over the fear of being called “out,” you can remove the rule of “Simon says.” When Simon calls out a command, you can have children focus on the activity. If Simon says, “sit,” then children should follow along. You can create a list for Simon to use that focuses on the skills you want children to learn.

Rhymes

The repetitive nature of rhymes and chants help to build language and listening skills as well as memory. You can make rhymes out of your normal routine at home. For example, “First, I’m going to feed the cat, and then I’m going to wear my hat.” The rhymes should be silly and fun, which will encourage your child to create her own. You can also include rhymes with each daily activity your child performs, such as brushing her teeth, or making her bed.

Songs

Children love music, so make singing a part of their play. The lyrics of songs are rhythmic and easy for children to remember. Create new songs while making the bed or taking a bath. Songs help children learn new words while harnessing their natural musical talents.

Storytelling

Reading to children always promotes language and listening skills, yet you can add to storytime by creating a little fun. You can begin by regularly reading the same story to children. As they become more familiar with the story, you can add props and sounds. For example, every time the main character’s name is mentioned, children can clap their hands twice. When the conflict is solved, children can rattle their pom-poms. If making sounds disrupts the class and causes stress for students, you can have them hold up signs or raise their hands during certain parts of the story. Helping children participate with the story will encourage listening skills and comprehension.

For a change to the story time routine, you can create your own story. Create silly names and extraordinary places. You can add different voices to your characters and include your child in the story. Your child can help you with what happens next by giving them choices such as, “Will Johnny choose the apple or the banana?” Or, “Will Johnny choose to run away, or will he ask his friend Sarah for help?” You can also ask your child how it would feel to be the main character. These types of questions not only improve language and comprehension but also help to teach empathy. Involving your child with the events of the story will help him with comprehension and overall learning.

Go Fish

This card game requires children to understand the concept of fishing as well as language skills and memory. Children need to ask for specific cards to make matches, and they must remember who might have the cards they need. Before playing the game, you will need to explain the concept of fishing and then explain the rules of the game. Some adaptations for this game could be to allow children to actually see the cards and reduce the number of cards used. If you prefer to keep the cards hidden, children can be given paper and pencil to jot down what they need to remember.

If Things Don’t Go Well the First Time, Don’t Give Up

Some games will work better with some children on particular days. Moods and anxiety levels can change daily, so if you try to play a new game and find resistance, don’t push it or dismiss the game forever. You can wait a few more days and try again. Eventually, the game will most likely be successful because children begin to understand the expectations of the game.

Interactive games are a great way to introduce new words and increase learning. Teaching communication skills and learning strategies through the use of interactive games will help them reach their full learning potential as they grow. Games can offer so much more than entertainment or distraction from traditional learning; they offer lifelong learning skills.

Create a Cozy Corner in your classroom to help students reign-in their emotions and learn the steps for how to calm down. All classrooms should have a safe place for students and since every child experience moments in class when emotions can feel overwhelming, they need a place to calm down and get away from the activity and excitement of the classroom.

Students do not intentionally misbehave. They only lack the skills needed to process strong emotions such as anger, sadness, anxiety, and stress. Creating a Cozy Corner, a safe space, in the classroom filled with strategies children can use to help them calm down is a necessary tool for all classrooms and households.

Teachers must first introduce children to what a Cozy Corner is and why students may want to use it. This explanation can take many forms; however, students will most likely need to review what it means to be upset. You can share with students some of the emotions associated with becoming upset. They have all experienced strong emotions, so you should be able to share times when students might feel angry, sad, anxious, or overwhelmed.

To create a Cozy Corner, you will need some tools that help students calm themselves and make the space inviting.

You can find free resources online as well as tools that have a minimal cost. You can decorate your Cozy Corner with posters that help remind students how to calm down. For example, you can download this  free poster to help remind students to take deep breaths. When you show students the different tools in your Cozy Corner, you can practice the deep breaths’ strategy with them, so they know that this strategy will help them with reducing stress, anxiety, and anger.

To begin adding to your Cozy Corner, take a look at this kit filled with books, posters, and supports. For only $4.00, you will receive 50 pages of PDFs that explain calming techniques for children.

To add some color to your Cozy Corner, you can hang  this mountain tapestry for only $16.00. This tapestry will help set a natural scene within a classroom. It will also help to designate the area, so children understand where to relax in the mountains and under the trees.

You can also create a comfortable flooring for students to relax on when they need to settle down. This circular rug is the perfect size for your classroom and will add color and softness to the area.

Add a few glitter bottles to your Cozy Corner. When students are upset, they can go to the area, grab a bottle and then shake it. As they watch the swirling water and glitter move, it will calm them down. The best part about glitter bottles is that you can make them yourselves and kids love to watch the colorful glitter swirl and fall to the bottom of the bottle.

Pinwheels are another great tool to include in your Cozy Corner. As children blow on the pinwheel and watch the circular motion and shiny wheel, it will help to calm emotions.

Another easy way to add some comfort to your corner is to include some furry friends. Children love stuffed animals and will share their emotions by talking to or hugging a teddy bear, puppy dog, or cuddly cat. Really, any furry friend will help children settle.

For More Resources

Why Every Home Needs a Calm-Down

How to Create the Perfect Calm-Down Corner at Home

21 Ways to Create the Perfect Safe Place for Crying Preschoolers

Cozy Area

How to Create a Cozy Corner for Preschoolers

References

“Calm Down Techniques – Books, Posters, and Supports.” Teachers Pay Teachers, http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Calm-Down-Techniques-Books-Posters-and-Supports-2734315.

“Cozy Corner Strategies Worksheets & Teaching Resources: TpT.” Teachers Pay Teachers, http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Browse/Search:cozy corner strategies.

Levin, Vanessa. “Glitter Sensory Bottles for Preschool – Pre-K Pages.” Pre, 28 June 2019, http://www.pre-kpages.com/glitter-sensory-bottle/.

Levin, Vanessa. “How to Set Up a Cozy Corner in Preschool – Pre-K Pages.” Pre, 27 Sept. 2020, http://www.pre-kpages.com/safe-space-cozy-corner-preschool/.

Piatt, Emily. “How to Create a Calm Down Corner in 5 Easy Steps.” Creatively Teaching First, Creatively Teaching First, 11 Dec. 2019, http://www.creativelyteachingfirst.com/blog/calm-down-corner-in-classroom.

“Safe Place or Cozy Corner for Little Learners.” Pocket of Preschool, 24 Sept. 2019, pocketofpreschool.com/safe-place-or-cozy-corner-for-little-learners/.

“Take Deep Breaths – Calming Strategy.” Teachers Pay Teachers, http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Take-Deep-Breaths-calming-strategy-4222298?st=645ffb3c37e3fa69bdddc38f17f32077.

Reading provides benefits throughout life. It improves vocabulary, cognitive skills, critical thinking, memory, confidence, concentration, writing skills, analysis skills, and the list goes on. Look up the importance of reading and you will find exhaustive lists supporting the benefits of reading and its role in academic success. Yet, millions of students do not have reading proficiency at the end of third grade. We need our children reading at a proficient level and with fluency to ensure their success in school and life.

Those who love to read understand the pleasures and the benefits of reading; it is never a chore or arduous task. Reading transports us to different worlds and allows us to experience different perspectives. We become immersed in fictional characters’ lives, and we acquire skills and new knowledge. When we find a good book, we want to share it with others because we want them to experience the same joy and satisfaction we felt while reading it. However, students who do not experience reading as pleasurable, and cannot read proficiently, their success in academia looks tenuous. Since reading is so important to academic achievement, we must create an environment where children have every opportunity to experience the joy and benefits of reading.  

The Importance of Reading

Reading will help improve vocabulary, grammar, and writing skills. When children encounter a new word they do not know, they will ask or try to decode it through context clues. Grammar improves since students see how the author constructs sentences, and they learn how to follow punctuation. Improved vocabulary and grammar naturally improves writing skills. They begin to understand how to create paragraphs and communicate ideas.

In addition to improving lifelong academic skills, reading proficiently will also help children develop cognitively. Cognitive development involves how we see and perceive the world around us. When we read to children, it helps them imagine the world around them. They develop background knowledge, which helps them make sense of what they experience each day.

When children read on their own, their ability only deepens, and they begin to make connections about what they read to what they hear and see. They also begin understanding more about places that they’ve never visited. Reading takes children to cities and countries they’ve never been. They meet people who face challenges they’ve never experienced, so reading helps to create a deeper understanding of humanity. It helps children understand the world beyond their own bubble.

Reading also helps develop empathy and build relationships. When students read stories, they put themselves in the characters’ situations. They learn more about emotions and how to respond to the world around them. When a child experiences a regular routine of reading with a parent, their relationship deepens. They share ideas about the stories they read, and the decisions characters make. The attention is comforting and supports the child’s overall wellbeing. And, when children are able to read to the parent and no longer rely on being read to, they develop a sense of independence. This independence also helps with their self-confidence. They begin to see the world through their own perspective.

Yet, these benefits from reading can only be achieved if the child is able to comprehend what she reads.

The Importance of Fluency

Fluency goes beyond decoding words. It requires students to comprehend the text on a deeper level. When children are fluent readers, they read with expression. They correctly decode punctuation and understand the tone of a passage. As they read out loud, their voice and flow coincides with what they are reading, so if a passage reflects a solemn tone, they read with an expression that matches that tone.

As children grow, assignments and textbooks after third grade begin to change and become more complex. Students are required to read more nonfiction and must go beyond word recognition. The reading in 4th grade requires students to draw conclusions, evaluate, and think critically. If they are only reading at a basic level and not interpreting the text, they will soon find themselves struggling to keep up, which will eventually lead them to fall behind.

In Creating Fluent Readers by Timothy Rasinski, improving fluency requires both listening and practicing. Reading to students as they follow along will let them hear what fluent reading sounds like. Pairing weaker readers with more fluent ones is another strategy that will help students hear fluency. However, listening helps but more must be done to create a fluent reader.

To help with fluency, encourage children to read the same passage out loud at least three times. According to the National Reading Panel, “…repeated readings lead not only to improvement in reading the passage but also to improvement in decoding, reading rate, and comprehension of passages.” Another strategy to help with fluency is to allow children to silently follow along as an adult or fluent reader reads aloud. This practice can be done with poetry, riddles, speeches, and jokes along with stories. A variety of texts helps develop reading fluency. 

Yes, reading is important, and it is difficult to even imagine a world where you are unable to read. From reading recipes to books, the ability to read enhances life experiences. And, reading fluency is an important factor in reading success. If we are truly committed to helping children succeed in school and life, then schools, teachers, parents, and communities need to create a reading environment where children witness and participate in reading activities. Fluency needs to be a part of this commitment to our children, so they can truly experience the joy of reading and reap the lifelong benefits.