Friday, June 26, 2009  Let the Games Begin!  Board games are a
great way to explore and reinforce reading skills. And while
Scrabble and Boggle are fantastic, beloved word games for ages 8
and up, Scrabble Junior and Boggle Junior are less than stellar.
Here’s a mini-round up of some lesser-known board games that
bring out the wordplay for beginning and early readers:  What’s
Gnu? is a game where players flip up letter tiles and race to
create 3-letter words. This is great for kids that are just
gaining confidence at reading.  Toot and Otto is another
interesting beginner game. It’s a four-in-a-row game where one
kid tries to spell TOOT while the other tries to make the same
letters spell OTTO. It’s more of a strategy game than a word
game, but still good for getting kids to think about letters and
how they can be arranged to form words.  Cariboo is a game that
includes matching up letters and sounds. Note that it is one of
those rare games for really young kids (age 3 and up) that
doesn’t just involve movin