Teaching students alphabetical order and giving them weekly ABC order practice is so important, especially in the primary grades. I want to share with you one of my favorite, 5-minute games that you can play with your elementary students to help them practice ABC order…
It’s called “I Spy Five…”
This game helps students practice ABC order AND their listening skills! If you’ve been with me for awhile, you know the importance of intentionally helping students build their listening skills!
Here’s how we play:
1. Break students into two teams.
2. Have Team One call out five things they spy in the classroom…for example:
“I spy five things to alphabetize….”
- clock
- pencil
- door
- stapler
- teacher
3. The other team (Team Two) has to LISTEN and put them in alphabetical order without writing anything down (if you are playing with younger students you can let them have one whiteboard per team to write them down).
4. If Team Two is able to correctly alphabetize the given words, they get the point. If they don’t get it correct, Team One takes the point.
5. Teams alternate back and forth until a team reaches 7 points and wins!
Students LOVE this game!
While the 5-Minute Games are fun, I definitely know my students need more weekly ABC order practice! I’ve created this resource, full of fun and themed activities for each month! I’ve put together 40 activities in this ABC Order Through the Year activity pack, which you can grab HERE.
Happy ABC order practice!
Kristen Smith says
Hi Erin,
This ABC game sounds like a fun, engaging activity. I love watching my students having fun in the classroom, especially when they don’t even realize that they are taking part in a learning activity! Please continue sharing your suggestions and ideas with our community.
Abby says
This is a very interesting, fun game! It allows creativity amongst all students. I will be using this idea/game for my future classroom someday!