Bird, Dog, Pig, Frog is a very simple word game. You mix up the letters that are used to spell the names of these four animals and your child has to re-arrange the letters into the right order for each one.
How Long Does It Take To Play? Each round can take between thirty seconds to three minutes depending on the age of the child and their spelling abilities, and, if you have the time, it is useful to play several rounds in a row in order to help set the spellings of the individual words in your child’s mind.
The starting point for playing Bird, Dog, Pig, Frog.
Ages: Four and older. Basically, this game can be played as soon as your child starts to develop an interest in reading, and has the ability to recognise individual letters. However, you should not try to play it until your child has reached this stage.
Core Life Skills It Will Help Develop: Academic Skill – Spelling, Word Recognition, Vocabulary; Critical Thinking Skills – Problem-solving, Observation; Physical Skills – Hand-eye coordination.
What Do You Need To Play It? All it requires is a set of letters. These can be magnetic letters, letters on cards or, and this is the way I like to play it, written on post-it notes with a marker pen. You will also need something to arrange the letters on. This can be the floor, a table, your kitchen fridge (if you are using magnetic letters) or any other suitable flat surface. When playing this in the car, I use a write-and-wipe board (see below) as this is one of my favourite tools for teaching kids core life skills while on the move. As always, a set of reward stickers (or something similar) is also useful to have to hard to reward your child for completing the game successfully.
To play Bird, Dog, Pig Frog, the child needs to first find the letters to make up the word Bird and re-arrange them in the correct order.
Preparation: The only preparation you need for this is to ensure that you have all the appropriate letters to hand before you start. Your child will quickly lose interest if they have to wait for you to write out all the letters on separate post-it notes, or hunt around for stray magnetic letters.
How Do You Play It? Take the letters of the four words and mix them up. Tell your child what the four words are, and then ask the child to re-arrange them back into the correct order. With younger children, you can start with the first word and guide them through which letters to pick by asking them to work out what letter will come next in the word and then selecting the correct letter (this can be done by sounding the word out, meaning this game can be integrated with a phonics approach to teaching a child to read, if you are using that approach – although it does not have to be if you are not). Once they have finished the first word, you can move onto the next. I always like to provide a reward of some kind for each word that is successfully complete (I use the old favourite of reward stickers that can be stuck to the write-and-wipe board I usually play it on). If your child struggles with a particular word, help them out and then move on, but remember to praise them for trying their best to work it out. Older children should be able to do it unassisted. If you wish to make it more interesting, you can challenge older children to do it against the clock and either set them a target time, or see if they can break their own record.
When And Where Can You Play It? You can play this game any time you have a few minutes to spare and anywhere there is a suitable flat surface. I like playing this game on a write-and-wipe board in the car using brightly coloured post-it notes with the letters written on them in the few minutes before dropping A off at nursery, but you could equally play it with magnetic letters on the fridge to keep your child occupied while you are preparing a meal.
The game is finished as soon as all the letters have been re-arranged into the correct order to spell out the four words in the name of the game.
Variations: This game can be played with any set of words, and indeed, using different sets of words is a great way to both expand your child’s spelling abilities, their vocabulary and to help develop their problem-solving skills. For children just learning to spell, you can use shorter words, and longer ones for more advanced spellers. However, when selecting a set of words, it is important that you make sure they go together in some sort of meaningful way. For example, you can do a superhero version with Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man, Hulk, or you can do a transport version with the words Car, Van, Bus, Train (this one I call How Do I Get To Work?) In fact, the variations are pretty much endless, but the key is to make sure that the words you choose, and the number of them are suitable for the age of the child and their stage in development, but remember you need to come up with fun names for each variant of the game! With older children you can also make it more challenging by not telling them what the individual words are, but instead, just provide them with the category (e.g. modes of transport). You can also play this with multiple children by asking one of them to mix up the letters and the other to re-arrange them, and then swapping roles. With older children, you can get one of them to select the words and the letters, and then challenge the other child to work out what the words are by offering a clue as to what characteristic they all have in common (e.g. farm animals or superheroes).
Links To Useful Products For This Game
Magnetic letters: Magnetic letters are great for playing this game on metal surfaces, such as the front of a fridge. You can find a selection of magnetic letters here. Letters printed on cards: Letters printed on cards are a great alternative to magnetic letters and can be used on any flat surface. You can buy a set of letters printed on cards here. Small sticky notes: Small sticky notes are my favourite option for playing Bird, Dog, Pig, Frog (or whatever variation you choose to play. Letters can be written on them in advance, and they can be stuck to any flat surface, such as a dry erase board (see below). The ones I like to use can be found here. Magnetic dry erase board: A magnetic dry erase board is one of my favourite tools for playing games with children to help them develop their core life skills. Of those available, the one found here is my preferred option as they come in a range of colours and are a great size. Reward stickers: Reward stickers are an essential part of any game playing with younger children for me, and they can be used to reward each successfully completed word, or for completing the whole game. If you are using a dry erase board, these can be stuck around the edge, or on the back. Alternatively, you can use a special notebook to hold all the reward stickers your child gets. You can find a range of potential reward stickers here. Digital timer with magnet: A digital timer is a great tool for working with older children, and can be used to time how long it takes them to complete a round of Bird, Dog, Pig, Frog, or whatever variation you choose to play. If you don’t have a suitable timer already, you can find a range of digital timers here.For Parents Based In The UK
Magnetic letters: Magnetic letters are great for playing this game on metal surfaces, such as the front of a fridge. You can find a selection of magnetic letters here. Letters printed on cards: Letters printed on cards are a great alternative to magnetic letters and can be used on any flat surface. You can purchase a set of letters printed on cards here. Small sticky notes: Small sticky notes are my favourite option for playing Bird, Dog, Pig, Frog (or whatever variation you choose to play. Letters can be written on them in advance, and they can be stuck to any flat surface, such as a dry erase board (see below). The ones I like to use can be found here. Magnetic dry erase board: A magnetic dry erase board is one of my favourite tools for playing games with children to help them develop their core life skills. Of those available, the one found here is my preferred option as they come in a range of colours and are a great size. Reward stickers: Reward stickers are an essential part of any game playing with younger children for me, and they can be used to reward each successfully completed word, or for completing the whole game. If you are using a dry erase board, these can be stuck around the edge, or on the back. Alternatively, you can use a special notebook to hold all the reward stickers your child gets. You can find a range of potential reward stickers here. Digital timer with magnet: A digital timer is a great tool for working with older children, and can be used to time how long it take them to complete a round of Bird, Dog, Pig, Frog, or whatever variation you choose to play. If you don’t have a suitable timer already, you can find a range of digital timers here.For Parents Based In The
USA
About The Author: This post was written by Colin Drysdale, the creator of How To Raise A Happy Genius. Bird, Dog, Pig, Frog is one of the games he invented to help make teaching kids how to spell fun.
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