DINO PHONICS FLASHLIGHT GAME 💛 Lucky Mary Sunshine

Do you have a dinosaur-loving kid who’s struggling to learn their sight words? If so, don’t despair…you can combine learning and fun with this dino flashlight game!

Max, my 6 year old loves books, but does NOT love to read. This was a big change for me, as his older sister can’t go 2 minutes without asking for a new book to read. To keep Max engaged, I’ve had to get creative! I saw this cool trick on Pinterest awhile back and knew that I could adapt it into a learning activity that Max would love! The best part is that you can really change this up to meet any of your kiddos’ interests! So grab that flashlight and get ready for some learning fun.

The Idea:

Max loves to rescue things, so that’s where the dinos come in. We have 2 piles, one pile with dinosaur eggs and one pile with word eggs. He uses the flashlight to reveal the word and reads it. If he gets it right he gets to pick an egg from the dino pile to “rescue”. He places the rescued dino egg in their “nest” (which is just a paper bowl). We put the word egg to the side and continue until he’s read all the words. If there is a word he is struggling with, we just throw it back in the pile to come back to. We make sure all the dino eggs are rescued before we are done…NO dinos left behind! LOL

Another way we use the eggs is to play a flashlight match game. It’s just a simple twist on the classic that keeps my kiddos extra engaged. Print out double the templates so you have a pair of everything. Place them all image side down and have your kiddos take turns shining their flashlight through the eggs until they find all the matches!

(I’ve included blank eggs so you can customize the words that your little one needs to practice. Just use a black marker to write in any words you’d like and continue with the rest of the instructions to have your very own custom eggs.)

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

plain white printer paper
printable template pages
heavyweight cardstock (130lb. is best)
glue-stick
scissors
small flashlight

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LET’S CREATE!

1. Print your pages. You can print any combo; 2 sets of just the dinos or words for a fun memory game. We even have blank eggs you can customize; have your kiddos draw or write their own personalized eggs.

2. Glue one sheet of cardstock on top of the printed eggs. If you don’t have cardstock, glue a few sheets of paper on top. It needs to be just thick enough so that the design beneath it doesn’t show through when laying flat.

3. Flip sheet over and smooth out any wrinkles

4. Let dry completely. (If it curls up, place the sheets under some books overnight to flatten.)

5. Cut out the eggs. You should still be able to see the egg outline and images on the back.

6. Once all the eggs are made, lay them out with the cardstock side facing up. You should not be able to see the dinosaurs. When your kiddo picks up an egg, have them shine the flashlight behind the image to make the top layer of paper “invisible” and reveal the dinosaur or word.

I don’t know if it’s the dinosaurs or the flashlight reveal, but this has been a game-changer when it comes to practicing sight words with Max! We always start reading time with a quick “Dino Flashlight” game and it makes the rest of our reading lesson go soooo much smoother.

Mighty of course wanted to get in on the action as well, so I created these mermaid shell cards to use for a memory match game. What other themes would you guys like to see? Drop a suggestion in the comments below!