Looking for a fun and effective game to practice alphabet identification, discrimination, and sequencing? Or perhaps a game to practice spelling and reading cvc words, digraphs, and words with vowel combinations in a cool and colorful way? Look no further than…My First Bananagrams!

This green banana pouch is for the younger bunch of students. It is filled with bright eighty-single letter tiles, vowel teams, word families, and digraph tiles. The original game is for one to four players. The game invites each player to place all the tiles facedown in the center of a table to form a Bananagram “bunch.” Each player takes fifteen letter tiles and the objective is to be the first to use all your letters in a connected word grid without making a spelling mistake. It’s a super fun game with an advanced option to play using the combination letter tiles too!

The game also includes additional activities to engage your little learners. Children are encouraged to spell their name, place the tiles in alphabetical order, and letter match. Early readers can spell words within specific word families, and more advanced readers can spell using the digraphs and vowel combination tiles too!

These bright and colorful tiles had me thinking of additional activities to use within my own dyslexia therapy classroom. Here are some additional and effective ways to participate with My Fist Bananagram tiles:

1. Closer to Z- (2-4 players) Each child reaches into the banana pouch of the 80 single letter tiles to pull out a letter. Whomever has the letter closest to Z takes all the letter tiles. Whomever has the most tiles after the round wins! This game can also be played Closer to A. The purpose of this game is to have children become familiar with the sequence and positioning of alphabet letters.

2. Ready-Set-Spell- (2-4 players) Place only the vowel teams, word family, and digraph tiles within the banana pouch. Scatter the 80 single-letter tiles face up on the table. One player pulls from the banana pouch a vowel, word family, or digraph tile. Players have 2 minutes to spell as many words as they can using that letter combination. After the two minutes, students share their word list and discard any words that may be shared on a list with another player. The player with the most unique words spelled correctly wins.

3. Sound & Spell- Place all the tiles within the banana pouch. Draw a letter from the pouch. Whatever letter is on the first drawn tile, children must make the sound and spell words using the tiles that begin with that initial sound. This game can also be played with making words using a specific medial vowel sound and final consonant sound. (Example: (b)…bat, ball, bag, beam, boy, etc.)

4. Letter Sorts- While little ones are just beginning to learn to read letters and write letters, focusing on specific letter forms is super important. Students can use these letter tiles to sort letters into specific categories: Letters that are made of straight lines, curvy letters, round letters, letters with circles, letters with stems, letters with tails, tall letters, short letters, consonants/vowels, voiced/unvoiced letter sounds, letters with sounds that are continuant and ones that stop, etc.

   5. Letter Memory Game- Place two of every letter face down on the table in rows. Players take turns to turn over two letters, trying to make a match. They must say the letter name as they turn it over. Player to identify the most letter pairs wins the game!

6. Banana Scramble- These tiles are perfect for scrambling words for beginner spellers. Each player will come up with a word using the spelling pattern you have studied, and the partner player must unscramble it. They are able to ask simple yes/no questions to assist them. Each player takes turns to scramble and unscramble words for a great practice review.

My First Bananagrams is the perfect addition to any classroom or home setting. The bright and colorful tiles are perfect for little hands in identifying letters of the alphabet, sequencing letters, and engaging in fun letter sorts and letter discrimination. For more advanced spellers and readers, this game is an excellent tool for making words, reading words, and engaging in an effective spelling game using digraphs, word families, and vowel teams. By inviting My First Bananagrams into your classroom or home setting, you will have a bunch of happy learners who will fall in love with letters and word play!