Cool Reading Games to Play this Summer

Inside: 18 Cool Reading Games to Play this Summer – This post is created in partnership with Disney Book Group.

Schools almost out for the SUMMER! Woo Hoo! Who is excited?! I know we are, we can’t wait for a family vacation, long days at the pool and no more running to catch the school bus. We have so many fun plans this summer to really enjoy our time together. But just because there is no school doesn’t mean I want my kids’ growing brains to stop creating and learning new amazing things.

I have always loved reading and have enjoyed sharing that love with my kids. But let’s be honest, reading isn’t their biggest priority this summer.

To combat this, I’m sharing 18 cool reading games and one very book cool series: The complete Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, to make summer 2019 the summer of reading for my kids.

I’ve found that the combo of making cool summer reading games & providing a fun book series to get lost in is part of what makes reading fun for our kids. Let’s talk about this great book series first…

Percy Jackson & the Olympians by Rick Riordan is easily one of the book series my kids are most excited about reading this summer! The 5-book series has been on the New York Times bestseller list for over 500 weeks! As an author myself, I find that completely amazing.

Learn about Greek Mythology as the Percy Jackson series offers readers a fresh and exciting way to learn about the Olympians, the Titans, the Minotaur, and more while enjoying a fast-paced, highly entertaining adventure.

Read on to see how you can win your own collection of the series this summer.

18 Cool Reading Games to Play this Summer

Pull a Story Out of a Hat: Write fun and silly sentences on several different strips of paper. Have your kiddo pull out the strips one by one and read them out loud. Creating a fun and silly story everyone will love!

Rhyming Time: Set a timer for a minute and give your kid a story to read aloud. Every time that the timer goes off, your kiddo has to come up with a word that rhymes with the last word they read. Reset the time and keep going!

I Spy Words: This is a cool reading game to play this summer with your kid. While you’re out running an errand, on a road trip or shopping at the grocery store, pick a word to “spy”! This gives the kids a chance to recognize words and become familiar with different words they may not regularly read in their books. So while you’re shopping at the grocery store, you can “spy” the word “spaghetti”! There are so many fun different ways to play this game!

PBS: PBS offers some super fun internet reading games for your kids. I like letting my kids get on PBS Kids internet reading games because they feel like they are having fun on the iPad or computer but they are also reading and on a safe website.

Rhyming Dominos: I love rhyming with the kids, it’s just a fun game to play. This rhyming dominos game is so fun to play and really makes you think about your rhyming reading skills!

Boggle: This is such a fun game to play for anyone in the family, but it is a great way to get kids familiar with spotting different words!Word Swat: If you wanna get crazy this is a fun game to play. Simply print off some words maybe your kid is struggling with or different sight words. Then tape them to the wall. Give your kid a fly swatter (that’s the scary part) then call out a word for them to “swat”.

4th Grade Reading Games

Since we have a pair of 4th graders in our house here are some of our favorite cool reading games to play this summer.

Headbands: You will need various cards with some challenging reading words. Kids will take turns putting a word card on their headband so that they cannot see it but the other players can. Kids will ask yes or no questions to the other group members until they can correctly guess the word. For example: “Is my word a verb?”  Once they have guessed their word, the next player takes a turn. This is a fun reading game to play this summer with the whole family, without the kids even realizing they are practicing sounding out words!

Synopsis in short: Take a book like the first book in this favorite series, The Lightning Thief  and have the kids act out the synopsis as a short play. This is one of our favorite cool summer reading games to play. It will get them in the habit of grasping the storyline and they’ll have fun while you’re at it.

And just in case you need a little background to ensure their play is on point, and to get everyone excited to read the series, here is the synopsis of the first book in the Percy Jackson series.

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school… again. And that’s the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he’s angered a few of them.

Zeus’s master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Now Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus’s stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. But to succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

Reading Jenga: Write challenging words on each Jenga piece, then stack up the pieces and play! Each time your kiddo pulls out a Jenga piece they have to read the word written on it. To make it a little more challenging they could also have to come up with rhyming words or how to put it in a sentence!

Cheeseburger Book Report: I love this project because it really teaches kids how to breakdown and understands what they are reading. Plus, who doesn’t love cheeseburgers and books?

Summer Reading Bingo: This is a great way to encourage your kids to read fun books all summer. Make a simple bingo sheet with some great summer reads, this is my favorite list. Then once they have completed a bingo they get a prize of something like ice cream or friends coming over for a slumber party!

Reading Tic-Tac-Toe: Do you have multiple readers in your house like us? This is a fun way to get the kids to use each other in a little healthy competition. Whoever finishes a book gets to make a move on the tic-tac-toe board. The object is to spend more time reading than the other, so if you finish a book before your sibling you can make a mark.

Win your own boxed set of Percy Jackson & the Olympians by commenting here or over on my Instagram why you’re excited to read this summer and what cool summer reading games you might want to try.

Open to U.S. addresses only. Prizing provided by Disney Book Group.

For more fun games to play this summer check out these fun outdoor DIY games or these crazy cool trampoline games!