Great Center Game(s)

Here is another BOLO (Be On the Look Out for) you.
Sometimes at yard sales or at a sale/clearance table at a big bookstore like Barnes and Nobles, you can find one of these "game books". These are big cardboard books with pages of games. They are usually simple board games that students spin a spinner and move along until someone reaches the end of the board and wins. The attraction of these books is that they usually have a noisy spinner or move selection button. If the sound is dying, the batteries are easily replaced if you remove the battery cover.
Here are two that I came across, one at a yard sale, and one at a bookstore.

In order to make these useful for my kiddos. I "redo" the games inside. By that I mean that by using stickers or printing on label paper I can cover the existing game and add whatever it is that I would like my kids to practice.
Sight words is a big one. You can never have enough ways to have them practice their sight words (IMHO). Here is one of the Winny the Pooh pages that I converted to simple sight words. This one I use when I am doing kinder, or the beginning of first grade. This is also a great game to play with class buddies if you have students from a higher level classroom that come in to help out.

I have used these for sight words, sentence reading practice, math facts, etc.. Basically anything that can be put in board game form.
After putting the stickers on, I cover the whole surface of the page(s) with clear packing tape. I helps keep the board book clean and the words or labels that I have added do not come off.
Here is a page from the race car book:

I usually remove whatever pieces that come with the game for the kids to use as individual markers or movers and add my own.
I have a really cool way of making personalized game pieces that I will share in an upcoming blog.
In the meantime, "BOLO" for these in your summer travels.

Chery