Looking through favorite games I've used in my guided reading groups, I found this free race car reading activity. I should totally add it to this list of games you can play in the classroom using race cars!
Normally I would use this nonsense words activity with my groups once they were able to blend cvc words pretty successfully on their own.
These free race car tracks with nonsense words printed on them gave my kinders more practice in a fun way. They worked on fluency and work towards improving their Dibels scores too.
Race car reading activity
- Go to download these race car tracks with nonsense words that I found online.
- Print 1-2 copies of each race track so you'll have enough for one for each student. (There are 4 different workmats in the free download)
- Laminate each workmat.
- *Alternative: slide each workmat into a plastic sleeve page protector.
- Cut workmats out of laminate.
- Add one toy car, truck or vehicle for each workmat.
I love how simple it was to print and put these to use right away!
I organized them in an expandable file or a ziploc bag to make them easy to grab and put away.
How to use
Your students will put their car at the "start" of the race track. They will blend each VC or CVC word along the race track in order. They don't move along the race car reading track until they've read the word aloud.
You definitely want to listen in as they read, checking in with each student.
Now, I'm not listening to hear that each word is read correctly when I have a whole group in front of me. I use the same style of teacher-listening-ear as I do when students are reading their leveled books in front of me.
It's as easy to use as that!
But, here are a few more options to spice things up.
Timed track
One fun way to give this activity a Dibles flair is to add a timer to the activity. Students essentially race against themselves.
They see how many points they can earn (1 point for each word read) in the time given. They try to beat their score on the next round with a different workmat (or even the same one if you want).
Partner race
You can add a die to make it feel like a game and have two players read from the same race track workmat. They race to the finish line.
Speed bump
Put 5-6 linking cubes on various words along the race car reading track, each covering up a word. Students have two choices as they "play."
- Skip the word and go over the speed bump.
- Read the word under the speed bump and get additional "points." They collect the speed bumps into towers to track their points.
There you go - an easy to implement activity from a fellow creative teacher. Score!
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Here's another fun way to use race cars for reading!
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