For years we’ve been a huge fan of the game Zingo-o made by ThinkFun.  It’s easy to play, makes a great first game for children, and adults don’t mind playing the game over and over.

 If you’ve never had the pleasure of playing with this game, here’s a quick tutorial … Every player selects a bingo-like card.  Cards are two-sided with the green side being a bit less competitive than the red side, as pictures are duplicated less times between the cards.  All players must play on the same color side.  A player or an adult moderator pushes the tile-gizmo forward, which drops down 2 word/picture tiles.  If you see one of those words/pictures on your card, you may call it out and claim that tile for your card.  Three covered spaces in a row, wins the game.  *The hardest part of this game is for kids to remember to LOOK on their card BEFORE they grab the tile.  We have always suggested that if you have a player who’s a bit quicker or can’t control their “grab” reflex, then have all the players take turns … 1) to work the gizmo, 2) to look for those 2 tiles on their board.  If they have a match, they get to keep it.  If not, those tiles are fed into the top slot of the tile gizmo to recycle them.

It’s a great little pre-reading game!  The thought behind it is for children to eventually associate the printed word with the picture on each tile.

We had a Montessori teacher who was in our employ for a while.  She loved the Zingo game and told us she’d made the game into a Math game!!!  She took the word tiles, flipped them to the blank side, and wrote numbers on them with a Sharpie!  Then as the tiles came out of the gizmo, children had to add the 2 numbers that came out!  LOVE that idea!  Soon after tho, ThinkFun updated their game and made the word tiles 2-sided, so now there is no blank side.  But if you have one of the older versions, you can still steal that idea!!!  About that same time they also came out with Zingo 1-2-3, which does offer some addition practice.

Recently I got an email alerting me to check out ThinkFun on FaceBook and to join a closed group on FB for ThinkFun dealers.  I was pleased to find an article on there from a Speech Therapist who’s taken those Zingo word/picture tiles to a whole new level!  Kelly Rholes suggests verb tense practice by having children chose 2 or 3 tiles, using those words in a sentence and stating the sentence first in present tense, then in past, and then again in future tense.  And of course, when you’re given words like “foot, tree, and sock” to use, the sentence may be a silly one, but it must be grammatically correct! 

She also notes that many of the words included in the game end in /p/, /t/, /g/, or /k/ … letters that some children may delete in speaking.  She has her students sort out these troublesome words and use each in a sentence.

When you’re done playing and are cleaning up the game, practice following directions by telling the players to put the tiles back in the slots in a certain order.  Using the tiles again without the cards, have your child sort the word tiles by category or play a memory game with them!  Select 4 of the tiles, then have your child hide their eyes while you remove one of the tiles.  What’s missing?

I’m sure you can come up with a few more ideas of your own and that’s what I hope you will do here.  Share what’s worked for you and what games are YOUR favorites!


-Carol