35+ Great Reading Board Games for Kids

Four games in one great board game package! Children as young as 2 months and as old as 8 will find this engaging set of games helpful in learning how to construct words and sound them out. 

Inspired by the popular children's TV series "Super Why!", this game introduces early phonics and rhyming to children with inventive finger puppets. For ages 3 and older who will recognize their favorite characters, including Alpha Pig (alphabet power), Wonder Red (word power) and Princess Presto (spelling power). 

The original Boggle is great, but Boggle Jr. is a worthy sequel for ages as young as 3. Young children get all the benefits of grown-up Boggle  — learning new words, spelling — but in a way that's perfect for preschoolers.

Players simply learn the vital ABCs through matching the cubes to picture and word cards. It's ideal for helping to practice memory and word recognition as well.  

Beginning readers (and those needing support) will benefit from this memory card word game for ages 4 and up. The Reading Game offers six decks of matching word cars paired with six picture flashcards and six storybooks with striking images. 

Language skills meet creativity in this family favorite for ages 4 and up. In Tale Tales, players reach into a bag, pull 8 story pieces at once and start telling a story using their drawn pieces.

And that's just the "basic" version of the game; there are four more ways to play that integrate even more words and more complex storytelling.

The plea of "tell me a story" never sounded more inviting. 

Children as young as 4 can practice letter-sound identification through Sequence Letters, where players match pictures with beginning letter sound cards (each card has upper case and lower case letters). Bright colors and fun pictures help players get five matches in a row to win. 

Combining the classic game Bingo with reading practice, Sight Words Bingo Flash Cards helps ages 5 and up practice 46 common vocabulary words in six different formats that address different reading skill levels. It's also good for those learning English as a second language. 

More reading skills building, three letters at a time. Zingo has two levels of play for both beginners and more experienced readers (it's appropriate for ages 5 and older). Players can quickly practice how to form words through disparate letters.

Zingo! World Builder has garnered several honors, including the Oppenheim Platinum Award, Teachers' Choice Award for the Classroom, and the Parents' Choice Gold Award. 

One hundred popcorn word cards come to life in this speedy game where ages 5 and up see a word and shout it out. It's simple and effective, and the cards can also be used in the future as literacy flash cards. 

Quiddler Junior is the junior version of the traditional Quiddler Word Game. In this game, kids will practice early reading skills in a fun and engaging way. Perfect for at home or in the classroom.

A reading and phonics card game, Snap It Up! helps ages 6 and older build reading skills by picking and passing cards as quickly as possible to create words from one- and three-letter words. The first one to three correct words wins.

Even short words can yield big results in Quiddler, which helps with both spelling and vocabulary. The goal: arranging all of your cards into one or more words, and there are bonuses for the most words and longest words.

The original Quiddler is for ages 8 and up, but the Quiddler Junior edition is fine for ages 6 and up, too.

Two all-star game favorites come together in this mash-up that helps ages 8 and older with reading and spelling skills.

Well, the Scrabble part helps with that, but who would complain about practicing coordination hilariously as players spell words Twister-style. 

Sentence structure is the major lesson in this game based on Dan Gutman's "My Weird School" book series. Geared toward elementary-school ages, players build sentences — there are more than 570,000 combinations — with sets of playing cards to collect points over three rounds.

It's funny, inventive, and engaging — and never the same game twice. Our family plays this game as an entire group so even though this game is recommended for elementary-aged kids, tweens, teens, and adults will certainly have fun too.

Hello, creative wordplay! In this popular game (there's also a semi-naughty adult version), children ages 9 and older create word combinations through two different stacks of cards — one stack has descriptive words while the other has names of people, events, or places.

Players' hands contain the descriptive words and in reach round they pick the best cards from the other stack to complement those in their hand. Judges select the favorite word combinations in each round. 

Teachers love this challenging but fun game that challenges players ages 6-12 to create certain words from categories that include certain letters. For example: What's an animal that contains the letters "C" and "A." Players must create the most words in just one minute. Hmm... "Cairn terrier, camel, Canadian Eskimo dog..."

A long-time family (and classroom favorite) Bananagrams helps ages 7 and older practice spelling through racing to build crossword grids and working to be the first to use all of their letter tiles.

Bonus: The banana-shaped pouch is cute and perfect for long road trips.

Fast-paced memory and word recognition are the keys here for this game geared toward ages 8 and up.

The game's 200 double-sided cards test fact recollection and memory of words both new and already learned. Plus, there are easy and hard gameplay levels to accommodate different ages. 

Like wearing a headband? How about words on your headband? In Hedbanz, for ages 7 and older, players wear a card and asks basic yes or no question to figure out what word they're wearing.

Bonus: Both the guesser and the players giving clues expand their language skills and vocabulary. 

Instead of collecting tiles to build words, in Lexicon-Go! you're trying to get rid of as many tiles as possible by creating words. Players can even swap letters and attack the competitions' words.

Like Bananagrams, it comes in a travel-ready pouch with 52 playing card tiles. Great for ages 8 and up

A vocabulary game with a detective twist, Super Sleuth helps third-graders and older practice multiple-meaning words, as well as homophones and synonyms through more than 180 mysteries. And, yes, it comes with a magnifying glass. 

The price tag is a bit hefty, but this collection of three games not only alleviates boredom but takes players on wide-ranging story journeys. Using context clues, reading informational texts, and reading for details are all covered within these games for 2-4 players. 

This one is for the entire family (technically, ages 7 to 107). Players race to form the most words in just one minute after flipping one card emblazoned with letters.  You'll uncover vocabulary you forgot you stored — or add some new words to storage. Your brain will thank you. 

Dubbed "the uniquely fragmented word game," Rewordable features 120 cards for word crafting; players build words and steal from each other. The goal: creating the largest collection of words. Cards featuring one-, two- and three-letter sequences and were selected through linguistic research.

This one was funded by a Kickstarter campaign and is appropriate for ages 8 and older. 

Build high-scoring words through vowel dice and consonant cards as quickly as possible in this card game particularly adept at developing word building starting at age 8. Stands out from the spelling game back by dividing vowels and consonants when children are learning to combine them to create more advanced words. 

The ever popular Mad Libs parts of speech activities have been turned into a super silly game! If you like Mad Libs, you are going to love this Mad Libs Game. Perfect for practicing parts of speech and other literacy skills.

Tweens, teens, and adults will enjoy the grown-up version of Boggle. This word game challenges players to find words amongst a jumble of letters. The longer the word, the more points you get!

Think of it as a word search with no structure and no key. It's super fun and very challenging.

Scattergories has been popular for more than 30 years for a reason. Who knew individual letters could be so fun?

Reading, spelling, and vocabulary get a workout with this game, appropriate for ages 12 and older. A spin of the die reveals a letter and players must use the letter to fill out several categories.

For example, roll a "B" and your animal category may be "badger" and your body part may be "brain."

The winners fill out the most categories with the most
unique answers. 

Work in teams to guess words from verbal or pantomimed clues, which helps build vocabulary and refines grammar. The 144 cards are divided into eight different themes. It reflects standards set by both the National Council of Teachers of English and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. 

Older readers (ages 10 and up) race to unravel a word in this highly regarded game recognized for improving concentration and building vocabulary. Players use card discs to figure out where a word starts, and the game is to read it out loud before the other players.

Perfect for those developing their vocabulary quickly and effectively. 

Scrabble was invented in 1938 and has never waned in popularity; it's available in more than 30 languages and is one of the best-selling board games of all time. The secret's in the simplicity. Players collect iconic wooden tiles to spell words and collect points.

The most strategic placement of words and words using letters with higher points are the keys to victory. But so is good vocabulary and creativity. 

Your spelling will be improved after just one round of Dabble, which has 2-4 players racing tp use 20 tiles to spell five words (the fastest player wins). Like Scrabble, each tile includes different points

This is another tile spelling game but with a fun twist. Players ages 8 and up must stack their letter tiles the highest. The higher the stack, the larger the score.

It's a bit intense — players can move across or down to make new words to stack — but helps to develop advanced spelling and reading comprehension. Plus, it could lead to a future architect in the family. 

The Genius Games is known for its extensive library of board games centered on fields such as chemistry and biology. This one keeps the science but adds in vocabulary building.

Players must identify science words from one-word clues that get more revealing as the game goes on. This one's good for eighth-graders and up.