Be A Dinosaur
For Parents
Be A Dinosaur was created by me, Katy! I’m a mom of four amazing kids who wanted to create a better place for them to time online and a way for my kids to make real academic progress at home.
I hope Be A Dinosaur can be useful to both parents who homeschool their kids as well as any parents who want their kids to practice reading and writing when they’re using tablets or computers. It’s free, it’s fun, and I plan to keep making it better!
There are a lot of games now, see below for what kinds of games are available by grade and how they help kids learn the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic!
Pre-Kindergarten
Pre Kindergarten is all about creating the building blocks for later years.
In terms of math skills, Pre Kindergarteners start learning counting, how to recognize numbers up to 10, the relationship between numbers, and basic patterns.
Here are some great math games for kids this age:
- Counting
- Which is More
- Which is Greater
- Ten Frame
- Number Sequence
- Number Patterns
- Adding Pictures
- Greater or Less Than
For reading, Pre Kindergarteners learn the alphabet, what sounds letters make, what words and books look like, and simple sight words. Some Pre Kindergarteners can start sounding out words and know what letter many words start with based on sound.
These games will help kids this age learn these skills and be ready for the next steps of learning how to read:
- Read the Color
- See the Words
- First Letter
- Lower Case
Kindergarten
Kindergartens will master the Pre Kindergarten skills and start moving on to more advanced areas.
For math skills, Kindergarteners will start counting to higher numbers, understand one-to-one correspondence (counting a set of physical things without losing track), and learn simple addition and subtraction problems. They will start learning shapes, more complicated patterns, and measurements like height and weight.
Here are some math games for kids this age:
- Which is More
- Which is Greater
- Ten Frame
- Number Sequence
- Number Patterns
- Greater or Less Than
- Dice Addition
- Addition
- Subtraction
For reading, Kindergarteners will master the sounds that letters make and learn about combinations and exceptions like “sh” and the different sounds “c” can make. They will learn a number of additional sight words and improve their ability to sound out words they see. Kindergarteners will practice writing letters and simple words, and learning how to express more complicated ideas.
Here are some reading games that will help Kindergarteners learn these skills:
- Read the Color
- See the Words
- First Letter
- Lower Case
- Choose the Color
- Missing Letter
- First Sound
- Picture to Words
- Fill in the Blank
- Sound Blends