Early Literacy Game: Syllable Counting Treasure Chest

This week we have another exciting educational early literacy game for you and your family to try out. First, to prepare the game, find a box that’ll serve as the treasure chest. A shoebox, a slightly larger box, or even a laundry hamper will work just fine.

Like all of the games we highlight here, you can adapt this one to your child’s ability level as they progress.

Syllable Counting Treasure Chest

Ability level: pre-reader

Directions: Get this game started by filling the treasure chest (a box or something like it, such as a laundry hamper) with all sorts of household items or toys. Instruct your child to grab a piece of treasure and say the word. As they’re saying it, instruct them to clap once at each syllable.

For example, if your child grabs a dinosaur, they’re going to clap during: di- (clap) no- (clap) saur- (clap). Other great items for this game are calculators, pencils, erasers, napkins, frisbees, etc.

Benefits: This one is fun because of how creative you and your child can get with filling up the treasure chest, and it helps your kiddo separate syllables in words, which is an important pre-reading skill.

This game comes from the book Speech To Print.

Be sure to follow along to catch the next game. In the meantime, have fun! If you would like more information about other fun early literacy games, check out sightwords.com.