How to Teach Reading with Hands On Activities

If you are stuck wondering how to teach reading while engaging your students, here is an epic list of hands on activities you can use to help your struggling readers. Find out what I put in my reading intervention toolkit and learn how you can use these hands on reading activities in your classroom too.

 

 

Engaging Reading Activities

To answer the question “how to reach reading the most effective way,” the answer is to get students INVOLVED, INVESTED, and ENGAGED. When students are active and motivated learners, they decide for themselves to learn. It works soooo much better than them just being told.

The most engaging reading activities:

• Stimulate students’ minds
• Make connections with their schema
• Incorporate multiple different learning styles

Check out this epic Ultimate List of Reading Intervention Activities for some super engaging (and effective!) activities that appeal to all kinds of different learning styles!

 

Effective Reading Activities

However, it is not enough just to give them fun, engaging reading activities. They need to be EFFECTIVE reading activities too (see these 6 tips for making your interventions more effective).

Effective reading activities:

• Have a clear purpose, and both teacher and student know that purpose
• Are targeted and focused on the skill you are trying to teach
• Have a lot of engagement, but DO NOT have a lot of “fluff” or wasted time
• Are at the perfect level for students to complete on their own with a little scaffolded help (to stretch them)

Here are 11 Effective Reading Intervention Strategies to give you some ideas!

 

Practical Ideas for How to Teach Reading

Now that you know some best practices for how to teach reading, here are some practical ideas you can put into action now. Practice is sometimes more important than theory! So, how do we make this all work, without getting stressed out?!

First off, read about the Key to Stress-Free Reading Intervention here. Then, follow these ideas!

These ideas work great with small groups (guided reading) or teaching reading one-on-one (intervention).

 

1. Make a reading toolkit to fill with fun reading activity props.
2. Keep the toolkit at your guided reading table, or where you pull students back for reading intervention.
3. Have easy and engaging reading activities ready and on hand for whenever you are teaching reading.

 

How to Teach Reading with an Activity Toolkit

Here are some ideas, with affiliate links, that you can fill your reading toolkit with. You will LOVE having so many engaging hands on activities ready to go to help you know how to teach reading!

Hand on Activity #1: Tote and Containers:

It’s important to have something to store and organize all of your reading tools in. I like using this crafter’s tote because of all the pockets. For little props or things that have a lot of pieces, I picked up some small containers from the dollar store. Doesn’t everything just feel good when it’s organized into little containers?? Thank you Marie Kondo!

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Hand on Activity #2: Magnetic Letters (and Cookie Sheet)

Use letter tiles to make and spell words. Buy magnetic letters that you can use with mini-cookie sheets for added engagement, and letter containment!

 

Hand on Activity #3: Sticky Notes

Sticky notes are the “windex” of reading intervention tools (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, anyone??). They are engaging, visual, tactile, cheap, and you can use them for ANYTHING! Write letters or sight words on them, make words and change out different letters with the sticky notes, have students take notes on the sticky notes while they read and stick them in the book, the possibilities are endless!

 

Hand on Activity #4: Index Cards

Like sticky notes, index cards are so versatile. I use them all the time for quick flashcards, writing parts of words and switching out different beginning/middle/ending sounds, or games where they draw cards.

Hand on Activity #5: Slinkies and rubber bands

These stretchy tools make great hands on reading activities for learning how to segment, blend, and sound words out. When you are using slinkies for phonemic awareness, students can pull the tool out for each sound, then bring it back together to say the whole word.

Hand on Activity #6: Play-Dough

I have an entire post about ways to use Play-dough to teach phonics, but you can also use it for phonemic awareness. Roll 3 balls of play-dough, then have them smush each ball as they say sounds in a word.

Hand on Activity #7: Markers/highlighters

I am HUGE on color-coding with highlighters. Using different colors to break up and highlight words (like described in this blog post) adds a great visual to reading and tends to stick with students better than just seeing the word written plainly. Markers are also great for highlighting and marking up texts for comprehension. And… they’re just plain fun to use. 🙂

Hand on Activity #8: White boards and dry erase markers

Again with the “just plain fun to use!” You can do the same activity with paper and pencil, but if you do it on whiteboards with dry erase markers, it amps up the engagement 100%. You can do so much on whiteboards from spelling words, to color-coding, to writing answers to questions.

*Pro tip: just use kleenex tissues or a square of toilet paper for erasers!

   

Hand on Activity #9: Magnifying glass

Magnifying glasses are great for searches. Say a letter, sight word, or phonics pattern and have students search a text to find it. Have them put their magnifying glass over it when they find it. You can also use it for comprehension and text evidence. Ask a question, and have students place the magnifying glass over where they found the answer.

Hand on Activity #10: Pointers

Pointers are great to have on hand for fluency practice. They keep students’ eyes on the page and focused on the word they are reading. Sometimes students get overwhelmed with all of the text on the page, and pointers help them just take it one word at a time. These fun star wands make great pointers too, especially for finding and highlighting sight words or letters.

      

Hand on Activity #11: Reading Trackers

Another fluency tip for students who get overwhelmed by text on a page is to use reading trackers. These things are GREAT to help students only focus on a little at a time. They also promote smooth reading by getting students to read a whole line or paragraph at a time, instead of one word at a time. The ones with the colors are particularly good for fluency, as color can help students read better (see the tip about it in this blog post).

Hand on Activity #12: Whisper phones

Oh man, these things are freaking awesome!! Students hold these whisper phones up to their ear, and “whisper-read” their books. The whisper-reading helps keep the noise down, but the phones help them hear themselves as they read. The sound actually travels really well through them! And students loooove using them. They are super great for practicing fluency while they read.

 

Hand on Activity #13: Finger gadgets

These literally make great hands on activities for your struggling readers! The kiddos are so excited to put these little finger gadgets on. They put them on their pointer finger, and then point to the words as they read. The googly eyes are great because they remind students to look at the words. Little gadgets with cars can help remind students to read smoothly and fluently.

  

 

Hand on Activity #14: Timers

Timers are also great for fluency practice. They can give the little push students need to increase their rate. You can pick up little sand timers each student can have, and they try to finish a paragraph or passage before the sound runs out. Or, you can use little digital timers for students to start and time how long it takes them to read something. Then they can try to beat their time!

 

Hand on Activity #15: Tap lights

Tap lights are great to use for phonemic awareness and learning beginning/middle/ending sounds! Set out 3 next to each other. Say a cvc word, then say one of the sounds in the word. Have students tap the light where the sound falls. Use them for fluency reads. Students read a text as fluently as they can, then tap the light when they’re done. Or, you can use them for comprehension questions. Ask a question, and students tap the light when they know the answer.

Hand on Activity #16: Stickers

I am a fan of sticker charts and rewards. When a student (or group of students) accomplish something, they can earn a sticker. A certain number of stickers = reward! You can also use stickers as counters (read the story out loud 3 times, put a sticker on it after each time) or tactile aids (put a sticker under each letter of a word, touch the sticker as you say the sounds of each word). Here’s a good multi pack of little stickers.

Hand on Activity #17: Mini erasers

I know I don’t need to preach about mini-erasers! They are little engagement gems, and come in all sorts of fun designs for different seasons. They work great as bingo chips, counters for checking off lists (like the stickers mentioned above), or for little manipulatives for identifying beginning, middle, and ending sounds.

Hand on Activity #18: Dice

Dice are great to have on hand for impromptu reading games. You can give one die to each student, and then assign different tasks to different numbers they roll. You can also draw a quick game board on a piece of paper, and have students roll dice and answer questions to progress on the game board. There are so many fun reading games you can play with dice! Different colored dice are extra fun and you can color code activities.

 

I hope this has given you an idea for how to teach reading with hands on activities that are engaging AND effective. Having a toolbox ready to go with all these materials will make teaching reading with these reading activities so much easier!