5 fun word games

Using a new word in a sentence is a great way to help your child remember what it means and how it’s spelled. To play this game, write down a series of compound sentences using words from your child’s vocabulary list. Then, do the following:

• Ask your child to read each sentence aloud
• Choose a word and hide it with your finger or a small object
• Ask your child to spell it from memory
• Uncover the word so they can see whether they got it right
• Celebrate their efforts, even if they got it wrong

As your child improves, you can come up with complex sentences with two or more hidden vocabulary words.

Helping your child enrich their vocabulary can be easy! For instance, you can ask them to come up with tongue twisters where each word begins with the same letter. This activity is a great way to introduce new words into your child’s vocabulary. Plus, your silly creations are sure to elicit lots of laughter! Need examples to get you started? Here are a few examples of French tongue twisters your child might enjoy:

• Papa patate part pour Paris.
• Le lapin livre la laine lilas.
• Mitaine, mon mouton, mange mon manteau.
• Etc.

An alphabet book illustrates the letters of the alphabet, with one or several words per letter. Depending on your child’s age and interests, making an alphabet book can be lots of fun. To help them get started, ask them to follow these guidelines:

• Place the letters in alphabetical order
• Choose one or several words for each letter
• Draw a picture or symbol for each word
• Etc.

To make this activity even more fun for your little one, encourage them to pick a theme for their alphabet book:

• Animals
• Winter
• Music
• Nature
• Weather
• Etc.

The French language is made up of more than 30,000 words, and many of them have opposites, also known as antonyms. For example, “petit” is an antonym for “grand.” Finding antonyms is a great way to pass the time. For instance, you can easily play this game on long car rides or during bath time. The goal is to answer as quickly as possible! Here’s how to play:

• The first player says a word.
• The second player replies with an antonym. They take turns until no more antonyms can be found.
• Whoever found the last antonym gets to pick a new word.

Students are required to study vocabulary lists throughout elementary school. There are many traditional strategies you can adopt to help your child memorize new words (e.g., oral and written repetition), as well as more creative methods (e.g., spelling words while walking around the table, making up songs to remember letter order). If your child is learning French vocabulary, you can also encourage them to play Magimot! Created by Alloprof, this online game allows students to enter their own vocabulary lists by grade. It’s a wonderful way for them to improve their spelling while having fun!