Fun activities for a reluctant reader grade 2ish

[BellinghamCrunchie]

I'm running out of ideas.

Anyone know of some specific, active, fun reading activities we could do over the next few days? DD doesn't like reading much.

To give you an idea of a reading activity she likes, she really likes activities that involve running around like a maniac and getting all excited, like when I set up a series of notes ("look in the bathtub" where she will find a note that says "look in the oven" and so on until she finds the final treasure).

If anyone has some bouncy active reading activities off the top of their heads I'd be really grateful.

[SweetSilver]

We made origami fortune tellers.  That was a lot of fun because I used to make those when I was a kid.  My girls have been following me around, having me ask a question and they find the answer for me.

[BellinghamCrunchie]

Oh is that the thing where you fold a paper into a shape that has four quarters, kind of, and then you ask a question and randomly open one of the quarters? I remember doing something like that when I was young. That sounds like something she'd love to do.

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by BellinghamCrunchie 

Oh is that the thing where you fold a paper into a shape that has four quarters, kind of, and then you ask a question and randomly open one of the quarters? I remember doing something like that when I was young. That sounds like something she'd love to do.

The very same.

Oooooh.... this might be beyond her level but fun..... how about a fortune cookie for every one after dinner?  Or make the cookies and write the fortunes yourself.

I must say that my "2nd grader" still loves reading Garfield and sounding out the "AIEEEEARGGGHHHHHHH!"  There was a while that my two girls were doing short-attention-span-theater" acting out their favorite Garfield strips.  Hilarious.  Especially when dh wasn't around and they could do it at the top of their lungs!

[SuperMama]

Yeah, my second grader DS doesn't like to be made to read, but will happily read Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes cartoon books and the like because he thinks they are funny and he wants to know what the words say.  

He also enjoys a treasure hunt with clues, but that invariably takes way less time to complete than it takes to make and hide the clues.  

I would like to hear more ideas, too.   

[BellinghamCrunchie]

We have both Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield already, strategically placed everywhere. So far, not much interest.

The fortune cookie idea is interesting... I should learn to make my own.

[AAK]

We've done a series of activities using the plastic eggs from Easter.  I put words in the eggs, hide them and dd does an egg hunt.  Once she collects them all, she does one of the following:

1.  reads them out loud

2.  sorts by how a particular letter sounds in the word (like if you were sorting "y" sounds, you have the expected sound like in yellow, but then if y is used at the end of a word, it might sound like a long i or a long e.  Example: shy, funny--in this hunt I would include several words with each sound)  this works really well with the vowel team ea (and more) too.

3.  Sort by how many syllables.

4.  Make sentences out of the words.

5.  find the nonsense words (vs real words)

She really likes these games.  When my youngest was younger, she would find letters in her egg and then put them in order.  Or she would find some pictures and then some letters and she would match beginning sounds.  

The possibilities are endless and you can target weak areas.  

Another idea is this:  http://melissaculver.blogspot.com/2010/02/turning-ordinary-into-extraordinary.html

I haven't tried it myself, but I think it would be a fun way to do new words, etc.

Amy

[BellinghamCrunchie]

That's a great idea with the Easter eggs, AAK. I think she would really love that. I could also have them form a sentence, and once she found all the words she could try to put the sentence together. That would be fun. Thanks for the idea!

[BellinghamCrunchie]

oh gosh the ping pong ball idea is perfect. We'd have a blast with that one. I gotta go get some ping pong balls right NOW. Plus the cat would love it :)