Crazy Eights: Word Families

Give your first grader's reading and writing skills a work out. Show her how to make and play this fun Hop on Pop-inspired Crazy Eights game that introduces her to some basic phonics. Brainstorm a group of words that will be challenging for her, and in just a few steps, translate this vocabulary into a fun family game that celebrates Dr. Seuss.

What You Need:

• Thick paper cut into playing card-sized rectangles
• 4 different colors of markers

What You Do:

1. Just like the card game Crazy Eights, you'll make a set of cards that can be divided into four different categories, rather than suits. Pick four word families that are challenging, but won't frustrate her. For example, -all (ball, mall, tall), -ee (bee, see, tree), -at (cat, bat, sat), and -ed (bed, fed, red).
2. Pick an equal number of words from each word family and write them out with one word per card. You'll mix up the colors within a word family because you don't want any one word family to be all the same color. Use four different colors to write out the cards.
3. Have her make a few “wild” cards, “skip your turn” cards, and “reverse” cards to add some challenging twists and turns to the game.
   
4. Now you'll deal out seven cards to each player. The rest of the cards should be stacked face-down in a neat stack in the center.
5. Flip one card over from the face-down stack in the center.
6. You'll play the game just like Crazy Eights, trying to match either the color or word family that appears on the face-up card in the middle. Therefore, if a red card bearing the word “cat” has been flipped, you'll either have to lay down a red card or a card that represents the “-at” word family. If you do not have a card to play, you must draw from the face-down stack until you find a card that can be played.
7. When any player gets down to just one card, they must say announce it to the other players by saying, "Hop!". If not, the other players may point out this failure to warn, and the said player will not be able to go out that round.
8. The winner of the game is the first player to run out of cards!

By Melissa Blough found here on education.com

This activity was inspired by the book "Hop on Pop" by Dr. Seuss. Random House, Inc. New York. 1963.