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We're going on a road trip! Yes, it's that time of the year when many of us will be taking family vacations that involve lengthy car rides. It can be a great opportunity to build reading and writing skills. So, let's take a look at some literacy activities that your youngsters can do while traveling to your destination.

Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Sing Songs
Singing nursery rhymes and childhood favorites helps to develop fluency. Wee little ones love to hear our voice and we are planting early literacy seeds. Can't remember all the words to " On Top of Spaghetti"? Head over to Bus Songs which has a comprehensive listing of song lyrics and listening samples.

For older children, print out the lyrics and create a song book using a three-prong folder as the cover. As you are traveling, the kids can illustrate each page in their song book while reading/singing.
Rest Stop Literacy
Stopping at an interstate rest stop is not only a place to stretch your legs, but also a place to build up those reading skills. Many of the rest stops are also welcome centers full of free tourist literature. Allow your child to select some brochures to read once they get back into the car. For children who are still learning to read, have them go on letter hunts or sight word hunts. They can circle all the letters or words that they know in the brochures.

To burn off a little energy, use a rest stop scavenger to do list. Prepare your list before the trip so it is ready to go at your first rest stop. To do items could include:

1. Hop to the nearest trash can.

2. Run to a lightpost.

3. Hug a tree.

4. Walk to the water fountain and take a sip.

5. Sit on a bench and stretch your legs.

6. Skip to the car.

The child reads the list and completes each task. Pre-readers could have picture clues added to their list. If you are traveling with multiple children, they can race to see who can accomplish the to do list first.
Suitcase of Books
Before venturing off on your trip, pack a small suitcase of books. Visit your local library for some new titles to keep things interesting and fresh. Here are a few suggested titles that deal with traveling and vacationing.

And, if you are traveling home for the holidays, we have some book suggestions too.
Post Cards
When you stop to fuel up, allow your child to select a few postcards from the gas station. They can write to family, friends and even themselves so that they have a piece of mail waiting for them when they get back home. It's a good idea to purchase postage before you leave on your trip so that the cards can be mailed right away.

I love games that involve everyone in the car and require no supplies! If your child is learning their ABCs, they can visually hunt for each letter of the alphabet on license plates, road signs and billboards as you travel down the highway. For the first round have the child identify lowercase letters and then complete a round of finding uppercase letters. This game can be adapted for all age levels. Kids can locate words they know for each letter of the alphabet. They can also be told a word and then they have to spell the word by finding the letters along the way.

Travel journals are a great way to capture trip memories and build writing skills. You can purchase one that can be filled in like the one pictured below or you can create your own using a composition notebook. Either way, kids will enjoy documenting their adventures.

Now that we talked about things the little ones can do in the car, where are we headed? Check out these a destinations that make great vacation visits and promote literacy at the same time.
RELATED POSTS 12 Kids' Songs to Build Literacy Skills in the Car 10 Ways to Teach Kids to Read in the Car Are We There Yet Maps? P.S. Follow Growing Book by Book on Facebook where we have daily conversations about books and literacy.

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We're going on a road trip! Yes, it's that time of the year when many of us will be taking family vacations that involve lengthy car rides. It can be a great opportunity to build reading and writing skills. So, let's take a look at some literacy activities that your youngsters can do while traveling to your destination.

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Instead of giving children screen time to keep them occupied in transit or on-the-go, try a Pit Stop Scavenger Hunt activity where it makes transitions on-the-go engaging, exciting and fun. From simple pictures to a word or a sentence, this activity can be tweaked to suit children of different reading readiness which closely links to the reading and viewing element in the literacy continuum process model. While children take away valuable lessons and life skills during the concept of play, they are provided with a platform for development of phonological awareness and phonics knowledge (Paris, 2005).

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Contributed by The Family Dinner Project Team

Try Not to Laugh challenges are an old idea that's made a big comeback recently. Of course, the genius of trying not to laugh is that the harder you try, the more likely you are to laugh despite your best intentions - which makes this a great activity for family dinners! On especially busy or stressful nights, a try not to laugh challenge is a quick and easy way to break any tension.

There are a few different ways you could play:

1. Classic Try Not to Laugh
In this version of the game, two people face off against each other. One of them is the "jester" and has to try to make the other person laugh with silly faces, noises and gestures. The "straight man" is the person who has to try not to smile or laugh, no matter what the "jester" does.

2. Group Variation
You could play the Classic game, but allow the whole group to try to make one person laugh!

3. Jokes Only Version
In the jokes only version, family members take turns telling jokes or reading from a joke book, and either one person or the whole family has to keep from laughing or smiling.

4. Tech at the Table Version
If you're up to it, you could allow the use of devices at the table to show funny videos and memes for your challenge. There are even "Try Not to Laugh" compilations online - just make sure to search for "clean" or "kid-friendly" compilations and preview them if you're concerned about content.

We recommend having a time limit for your challenges. If you can't get another person to laugh in 1-2 minutes, the challenge is over and it's time for someone else to give it a try!

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Try Not to Laugh Challenge -- The Family Dinner Project

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Contributed by The Family Dinner Project Team Try Not to Laugh challenges are an old idea that's made a big comeback recently. Of course, the genius of trying not to laugh is that the harder you try, the more likely you are to laugh despite your best intentions - which makes this a great activity for family dinners!

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What better way to end off a stressful day with a good laugh with the family at the dinner table! Suitable for ages 4 and above, ‘Try Not to Laugh’ challenge offers an opportunity to make another person laugh any way possible with the use of jokes, silly faces, and gestures. This activity supports the speaking and listening element in the literacy continuum process model where both the messenger and receiver are tasked to listen and speak when they are playing the role of a ‘jester’ in the challenge. Fellowes and Oakley (2014) describe how language development is first fostered through home experiences and interactions within the family.

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Koh Kai Ting | Speech Therapist | Singapore

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Kai Ting is a speech therapist who graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Master of Science (Speech & Language Pathology

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While families and Early Childhood Educators may not be adequately equipped to diagnose or support a child’s development in communication skills, speech and language therapists can help to provide professional advice, resources and treatment pertaining to language and communication. These strategies highlighted closely relate to the speaking and listening element in the literacy continuum process model, whereby language itself has been said to be the core of communication between people (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014).

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This resource offers a variety of literacy group activities for children ages 4 to 6, accompanied with instruction guides and downloadable content readily available in the links provided. In particular, the ‘Ice Cream Alphabet Match’ activity focuses on the reading and viewing aspect in the literacy continuum process model where the child can use visual cues to assist them in decoding words. Piasta and Wagner (2010) described how children’s prior knowledge and foundational understanding of visuals and prints go on to show success in their reading skills in years to come.

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Resource #2 is my favourite resource of all!

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Sight Words Bingo is our most popular sight words game. It takes the traditional Bingo game and replaces the numbers with words, motivating the child to read the sight words so they can play (and win!) the game. Children love playing Sight Words Bingo, and it is a great way to provide repetition opportunities in a large group setting.

Each child gets his or her own Bingo Card with a set of words printed on a grid on the face of the card. The adult calls out words one at a time, and each time the child hears a word that is on their card, they cover the word with a marker. When the markers line up to make a complete row (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal), the child yells "Bingo!" and they are declared the winner of that round.
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To play Sight Words Bingo, you just need Bingo cards and some markers:

Bingo Cards Generator

Printer paper or cardstock (approximately 110 lb / 200 gsm)

Printer

Bingo markers or counters (approximately 20 per player)

Use our Bingo Card Generator to produce one Bingo Card for each child, and print them out (preferably on a heavy-duty cardstock paper). You want to use a mix of newer words that you are currently working on, as well as some words you need to review. The Bingo Card Generator will also create a word list that you can use to help you run the game.

Video: Making Sight Words Bingo Cards

If you will be creating multiple sets of Bingo cards, it is useful to label each set on the back so that you can easily sort out the sets if they get jumbled together. (We learned this the hard way!)

You need some Bingo counters to mark each of the squares as the child plays the game. The counters pictured were purchased, but you can also use pennies, bread bag tags, pebbles, or anything else you have handy. If purchasing plastic markers, we prefer the markers that are plain and single-colored; multiple colors often prove too much of a distraction.

Some people use a Bingo Marker that the child uses to color the square instead of a counter. This gives the children a bit of practice gripping the pens, but it also requires you to hand out fresh Bingo cards for each round.
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Each child is given a Bingo Card and a handful of markers (approximately 20 per child). The children are given 90 seconds to read all the words on their card. If there are any weak readers in the class, the adult should take this time to work with those children to help them read all the words on their card; otherwise they are going to be lost for the rest of the game.

Video: Playing Sight Words Bingo

The adult takes the word list and picks a word at random from the list. The adult reads out the word, uses it in a sentence, then reads out the word again. For example, if the word was plate, the adult could call out:

Adult: Plate. I ate dinner on a round plate. Plate.

The adult then marks off the word from the list to help them remember which words have been called already. The adult takes a long pause between each word to give the children time to play the game.

When the children hear a word called out, they are supposed to look at their Bingo card and see if they can find the word on the card (not every word is on every card). If they find the word, they place a counter on that square.

To win, a child has makes an entire line (five vertical, horizontal, or diagonal squares). For the purposes of making a line, the center space (free space) is considered to be automatically filled. When a child has a line, they yell out "BINGO!"

When a child claims to be the winner, ask her to read out her four or five words that made a line (more reading practice), and check these words on her card and on your word list to make sure she actually heard and marked the words correctly. If she played correctly, that child is declared the winner, and we move on to playing the next round.

We start a new round by having each child pass their card to their left, so that each child has a new card and is given the opportunity to read new words.
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You can make the game easier by reducing the number of squares from the standard 5-by-5 to 4-by-4 or even 3-by-3, and by using a majority of older, more familiar words. You can also allow each child to retain their card for a few rounds so they become more familiar with their cards. As we mentioned, you can help a weak reader at the start of the game by having them read the words to you, correcting any mistakes they have made.
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You can make the game harder by using a majority of newer and less familiar words. You can also add some time pressure and increase the pace at which you read out new words, so that the children have to read the words more quickly. Speeding up the pace of the game helps children master the words, as they are forced to truly read by sight and cannot rely on crutches such as sounding out the initial letters.

Alternately, you can make the game last longer by not declaring a winner until a child covers all the squares on their Bingo card.
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Bingo is not the best game for doing an assessment of individual children. But by observing the whole classroom, you can get a sense for which words are flummoxing the children and need more work, and the words that are becoming too easy and should be removed from rotation because the children have already mastered them.
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Remember that if you are playing with multiple children, each child needs their own card that is different from everyone else's. Otherwise, everyone will get BINGO at the same time! The pre-made templates below include 30 different Bingo cards made from the same word list, so you can use them for a whole classroom of kids or just one child playing multiple games.

7.1 Custom Sight Words Bingo Cards

Use the Sight Words Bingo Card Creator to create your own custom set of Bingo cards. This generator lets you select from both existing sight words lists (e.g., Dolch and Fry) as well as allowing you to add custom words (e.g., allowing you to add students' names or words relevant to a unit you are currently doing). The creator will also create a teacher's word list to help you run the game.

7.2 Blank Bingo Card Templates

7.3 Dolch Sight Words Bingo Cards

7.3.a Dolch Sight Words 5×5 Bingo Cards

7.3.b Dolch Sight Words 4×4 Bingo Cards

7.3.c Dolch Sight Words 3×3 Bingo Cards

7.4 Fry Sight Words Bingo Cards

7.4.a Fry Sight Words 5×5 Bingo Cards

7.4.b Fry Sight Words 4×4 Bingo Cards

7.4.c Fry Sight Words 3×3 Bingo Cards

7.5 Top 150 Written Words Bingo Cards

7.5.a Top 150 Written Words 5×5 Bingo Cards

7.5.b Top 150 Written Words 4×4 Bingo Cards

7.5.a Top 150 Written Words 3×3 Bingo Cards

To download a template, right-click and select Save As.

These materials are provided under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Essentially, this means you can do whatever you want with the resources, provided you leave the attribution hallmark on the resources. You may use these materials in the classroom, at home, as part of a for-profit tutoring business, to wrap fish, or for any other purpose your heart desires. You do not need to contact us for permission to use the materials. We want you to use them!
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Sight Words Bingo is our most popular sight words game. It takes the traditional Bingo game and replaces the numbers with words, motivating the child to read the sight words so they can play (and win!) the game. Children love playing Sight Words Bingo, and it is a great way to provide repetition opportunities in a large group setting.

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Embedding sight words learnt in school into the popular game of Bingo, this game can be enjoyed in the comforts of their own home. This resource provides an editable template where parents can re-create and at the same time input sight words or high frequency words their children are familiar with. ‘Sight Words Bingo’ encompasses both speaking and listening as well as the reading element in the literacy continuum process as this activity requires them to listen to the word before being able to identify the word on the game board. While play promotes a healthy and holistic development in a child, it also reinforces the concept of phonological awareness and a child’s prior knowledge of language in terms of text and prints (Stuart, 2005).