Kinesthetic Activities for Teaching Reading (2024)

I am excited to be a part of iHomeschool Network’s Summer Hopscotch! To see a list of all the amazing bloggers, please click here. This week, my topic is Multi-Sensory Activities for Teaching Reading. If you’d like to read more about multi-sensory teaching, please read my post from yesterday!

Today, I want to focus on kinesthetic activities that you can do with your child. Kinesthetic {also known as tactile} is a way to get your child moving and doing; using his body in some form or fashion as he learns to read. The ideas I will share cover all kinds of areas of reading, from learning letters and their sounds to comprehension. Enjoy!

30+ Kinsethetic Activities for Teaching Reading

1. Sidewalk Chalk and Sight Words {learn letters or add a hopscotch game like Mom to Post Lil Divas}

2. ABC Puzzle Racing

3. Spelling with LEGO Letters

4. Sensory Play/Bins- hide objects that start with the same letter, magnetic letters, sight words, or phonics patterns in there {1+1+1=1}

5. Counting syllables or phonemes with objects {snap together Unifix cubes, links, or LEGOS for each one you hear}; Elkonin boxes or Learning Resources Sound Boxes are great, too! You can even clap, stomp, race, or integrate toys into phonemic awareness. {I Can Teach My Child}

6. Sight Word Twister {Mom 2 Post Lil Divas}

7. Write letters and words in shaving cream, oatmeal, or cornmeal or look at this great list of 9 multi-sensory ideas for teaching sight words {Make, Take & Teach}

8. Sandpaper letters {Living Montessori Now}

9. Manipulating Words with magnetic letters, bottle caps, letter tiles, stamps, or puffy paint {123 Homeschool 4 Me}

10. Glue a Bumpy Alphabet {Education.com}

11. Roll It with Education Cubes-We use ours A LOT. This is a purchase I would highly recommend! They work not only for literacy, but for other content areas as well. {I also have a FREE 68-page “Roll-A” activity pack for all Facebook likers!}

12. Scavenger Hunts to spell words or find letters

13. Physically matching or sorting words / pictures on a pocket chart or work surface of some kind

14. Stack the Blocks- for each rhyming word your child can say {or words with a particular phonics pattern, such as long a}, stack the tower one block higher. How high can the tower be built? {from Phonics Instructional Activities pg. 66, The Struggling Reader}

15. Magnetic Letter Builders {Confessions of a Homeschooler}

16. Integrate the Nerf gun {shoot letters or words on a dry erase board}

17. Integrate water {Hands on as We Grow}, get in the TUB {Bath Activities for Kids}, or wash those letters! {Little Bins for Little Hands}

18. Alphabet Bowling {Toddler Approved}

19. Create motions to go with the letter sounds or phonics sounds {such as pinching or gently slapping your hand for the “ow/ou” sound}

20. Learn the letters in sign language and sign the letters in words

21. Race to spell words {Playdough to Plato}

22. Promote Early Literacy with ACTION– there are a TON of ideas here that can totally be adapted for other literacy skills {Playdough to Plato}

23. Act out the story after listening to it

24. Facial Expression- re-read passages, select a few sentences to ask the read to re-read, using various facial expressions as they do {Fluency Instructional Activities pg. 63, The Struggling Reader}

25. Use puppets to re-enact the story or a scene. This can also be a GREAT way to build fluency, especially if the child needs to practice his lines for it to be performed for others. {Comprehension Instructional Activities pg. 15, The Struggling Reader}

26. Create a comprehension ball with a beach ball {super easy AND cheap}. Throw it to your child and have your child answer the questions one at a time on the ball.9

27. Rainy day? Use your stairs to move it and learn, too! Letters can be replaced with various phonograms {such as ai or ea}, sight words, or comprehension questions.

28. Clipping rhyming words, syllables, phonics sounds, or sight words with clothespins {great for fine motor as well}

29. Write- When kids write {especially when they are allowed to invent their spellings}, they can “feel” the letters in their mouths, helping to stretch their phonemic awareness

30. Swat the Word {or sound, letter, etc.} Write words or letters on a piece of chart paper or dry erase board. Give your child a {clean} fly swattter. Say the sound/word and have them swat the word.

31. Spell words out of playdough; stamp words {with cookie cutters} in playdough

What other kinesthetic activities have you used to teach your child to read? I’d love to hear them!

Enjoy!

~Becky