Pumpkin Beginning Reader Mats for Building Words

Reading practice with pumpkins is always better. These pumpkin word builder mats are great for the beginning reader to practice short words!I love sneaking in extra reading practice with a bit of a fun game. These pumpkin mats turned into a game and made reading so much more fun.

 

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How to Set Up the Pumpkin Word Building Mats

This set should be printed out on cardstock and also laminated. With a hands on set like this, it’s important to protect the pieces as much as possible.

I recommend having a  least one set of the seed letters. There are extra letters at the end so that one sest should be sufficient but it wouldn’t hurt to have a second set printed as well.

 

How to Use the Pumpin Beginner Reading Sets

There are multiple ways to use the beginner reader mats. The most straightforward activity is to just add letters to the mat and read the word.

A general rule could be that the middle letter must be orange. It will be to prevent words like tkl being set up.

There are also plenty of other games that are quite effective.  First, read the word and match the photos.

Set up a word with 3 posible answers. Have them read the word and determine which photo matches the word.

Beginning, Middle or End.

Another game is to choose the photo, add 1-2 correct letters, and have them fill in the last letter. This game works with beginning letter sounds, middle sounds, and ending sounds!

This game is great for kids who aren’t quite ready to spell an entire word by themselves. Plus it helps them  to focus on just one part of the word at a time.

Download the Pumpkin Word Building Mats Here