Top 16 Traditional Games for Introducing Writing to Preschoolers

Purpose: Children recognize sounds and find corresponding letters.

Preparation: Flags with letters that children know, flag holders.

Procedure: The teacher divides the children into two equal groups and asks them to count their sequential numbers, remembering their order. The teacher calls the children by number, for example: 'Those with numbers 1, 3, 5, get the letter a for me,' 'Those with numbers 2, 4, 6, get the letter ă for me.' The children with those sequential numbers will quickly grab the flag with the letter the teacher pronounced. The child who is quick and grabs the correct flags the most will be rewarded.

Purpose: Children identify words containing the learned letters.

Preparation: A game board made from a large sheet of sturdy paper designed as shown below:

• Dice with letters on each face.
• Picture cards depicting various animals.

Procedure: 4 children play the game. Each child chooses an animal and plays a game of Seeds Sowing. The child winning the game of Seeds Sowing goes first. The winning child rolls the dice. The revealed letter corresponds to the picture card with the name of the animal containing that letter. The child places the picture card in the empty space next to the letter. If the child cannot find the matching picture card, they lose their turn. The first child to reach the finish line wins.

Purpose: Children recognize the face and pronounce the letters correctly.

Preparation: Rope with attached letter cards in the middle.

Procedure: The teacher divides the children into two teams for a tug-of-war to retrieve letter cards hanging on a string. While pulling, the teams read aloud the letters on the cards they obtain. The team that retrieves more letters wins.

Purpose: Children learn to listen for corresponding letters.

Preparation: Chopsticks with attached letters, a soft ball.

Procedure: The teacher spreads the chopsticks and throws the ball up. Children are instructed to pick up the chopstick with the announced letter, simultaneously catching the ball to prevent it from falling. If a child picks up the wrong chopstick or the ball falls while holding the correct one, they lose their turn.

Purpose: Children recognize letters and find words containing specific letters.

Preparation: A crossword puzzle with letters arranged so that children can find words horizontally and vertically. Next to the crossword are drawings of corresponding words: Clam, Star, Squirrel, Number.

Procedure: The teacher instructs children to mark the crossword horizontally and vertically to find words corresponding to the drawings next to it, containing the letter 'S': Clam, Star, Squirrel, Number.

Purpose: Children recognize and pronounce letters correctly.

Preparation: Use an object as a marker for placement. Draw 7 square boxes, each side about 50cm long. Chalk.

Procedure: Let the children play outdoors. In each round, the teacher changes the letters on the boxes. When it's a child's turn, they must jump into the boxes in order, without touching the lines and without putting their foot on the ground. The child must read aloud the letter in the box they jump into.

Example: The child places the marker in box 1 (letter 'a'), lifts one foot, then jumps on stilts to boxes 2 (letter 'ă')-3 (letter 'â'). Arriving at boxes 4-5 (letters 'b' and 'd'), they spread both feet across these boxes, continue stilt jumping to box 6 (letter 'đ')-7 (letter 'e'). Then, turn around and stilt jump to box 6 (letter 'đ'), arriving at boxes 4-5 (letters 'b' and 'd'), they spread both feet across these boxes, stilt jump to box 3 ('â')-2 ('ă'), and bend down to pick up their marker from box 1 ('a') before jumping out.

Note: The box marked as the marker should not be jumped into; instead, jump into the next box.

Purpose: Children listen to the sound to find the corresponding letters.

Preparation: Each child has a bingo board with letters, colored plastic chips.

How to play: The teacher pronounces a letter, and the child places a colored plastic chip on the square with the corresponding letter, continuing until the child covers all the letter squares.

Purpose: Children recognize sounds in words, listen to the sound to find the corresponding letters.

Preparation: The teacher writes letters on the ground and prepares funny sentences with repeated sounds for two teams.

How to play: The teacher whispers two funny sentences with repeated sounds to the first two members of each team: “Rolling in the basket, a basket of fish”, “Swinging with the baby elephant”. The first two members of each team will pass the message to the next ones. The last member of each team will jump to the letter square with the repeated sound and loudly read out the sentence.

Preparation: Dong dao song “The crab with two pincers,” images of animals, and cards with the names below the pictures: elephant, turtle, bird, fish.

The crab with two pincers

No head, ears horizontally for life

The fish with a tail

Two fins, scales, it swims skillfully

The turtle with a shell

The neck shrinks short, shrinks long in and out

The elephant with two tusks

Its trunk sweeps and knocks down houses, trees

The bird with wings to fly

Flies to the north, south, east, west showing its skill.

Procedure:

The teacher sticks pictures with the names of the animals on the board for children to observe and read to remember the names of the animals.

The teacher has children read the nursery rhyme along with her.

The teacher has children find and underline the names of the animals in the nursery rhyme (elephant, turtle, fish, bird).

Purpose: Children recognize the letters in the word cards.

Preparation: Picture cards with corresponding letter cards attached, large letter cards, music.

Procedure: The teacher lets children freely choose a picture card with the corresponding letter card, then the teacher plays music for children to sing and move. When the music stops, children run to the correct letter that matches their word card.

Note: In the past, teachers often had children play this game by having them hold letter cards and run to the matching letter. However, this is not suitable nowadays because teachers do not allow children to recognize letters in meaningful words for them.

Purpose: Children recognize and find letters in different words.

Preparation: Picture cards and corresponding letter cards, letter cards.

Procedure: The teacher asks children about the pictures she has prepared. Then, the teacher reads the words corresponding to the pictures, and children repeat. The teacher instructs children to find and connect the letters in the letter cards below the pictures to the corresponding uppercase and bold letters.

Note: We can turn this into a group game or individual exercise during study time or playtime.

Purpose: Children recognize and find words corresponding to pictures, and read through illustrated images.

Preparation: A poem with words replaced by corresponding images, word cards corresponding to the images in the poem.

Procedure: The teacher has children read the poem and the word cards she prepared. The teacher instructs children to find words corresponding to the pictures in the poem and attach them appropriately.

Note: This can be played by children in groups or individually during playtime or afternoon activities.

Purpose: Children read and find words that are the same.

Preparation: Images with words attached below, cards with matching and different words from the ones below the images, markers, and a cloth.

Procedure: The teacher has children observe the images with corresponding words below, then she has children read those words. The teacher instructs children to find and connect similar words.

Note: This can be turned into a group game or an individual exercise during class or playtime.

Game Rules: Children must arrange the jumbled letters correctly according to the model the teacher hangs above and pronounce the letters correctly that we have learned.

How to Play: The teacher hangs circular boards

• The teacher has children read the names of the words she hangs on the circular board. Then, she instructs children to read the names of the words on the detached letter cards. To read them correctly, children must rearrange the letters to match the model on the circular board.
• The teacher instructs children to find the letters they have learned in the words and pronounce those letters.

Purpose: Children recognize letters in familiar words.

Preparation: 1 dictionary with attached pictures and corresponding words arranged according to the Vietnamese alphabet, letter dice with letters on each face.

Procedure: The teacher has children observe the dictionary, then they roll the dice and find the dictionary page corresponding to the letter on the die. Children read the word below the corresponding picture.

Note: This activity can be done individually or in groups during corner playtime or afternoon activities.

Preparation: A board with letters, markers, alphabet cards with the names of various animals.

Game Rules: Children must find animals following a straight line without skipping any letters.

• Children can search from top to bottom, bottom to top, right to left, or left to right.
• Connected letters must be adjacent without gaps.

How to Play: The teacher has a board with alphabet letters associated with the names of different animals such as: Sparrow, Frog, Mouse, Beetle. Children use markers to connect the letters and form the animal.