How to play Go Fish An explanation for

How to play Go Fish An explanation for IGR Teachers

Go Fish • Go Fish is a revision game, giving children a re-reading opportunity at the level of the phrase or sentence • central to the playing of Go Fish is repetition, to help consolidate what has recently been introduced ie ‘the practice of recall of known items’ (see Marie Clay ‘Reading Recovery’ p 55) Go Fish also teaches social skills and turn-taking, with the dynamic of the game ensuring that all of the children are engaged in play at all times

Go Fish with a group of 4 children The pairs of phrases or short sentences on Go Fish cards have been taken from the previous lesson’s new book Each IGR pack has been supplied with 15 pairs of Go Fish cards, but teachers can reduce the number of pairs as appropriate for their particular group of children. Go Fish is a memory game - the idea is to collect matching pairs by noticing and remembering when another player has already read and requested a card you have yourself. It is important to model good game-playing and reading by including yourself in play (this also means being better able to orchestrate and monitor the course of play, and ensure that every child successfully wins pairs)

Checking Recall and Comprehension • Check recall in a light-touch way as you are dealing out the cards • Give out 4 cards per player (including yourself) and put the remaining cards upsidedown in the middle of the table • Give the children a few moments to look at their cards without letting others see what they have

The Aim of the Game is to Collect Matching Pairs • Make sure this happens for every child • Begin by asking the children whether anyone already has a matching pair (check this carefully) • If they do, they show their pairs, read them aloud, and put them face down on the table • Now begin the game by placing a card from your own hand on the table where everyone can see it and read it aloud to a specific child, asking whether they have it

Requesting and giving cards If the child does have the card, he or she has to give it to you. You then put the pair of cards face down on the table next to you and have one more turn If the child doesn’t have the card you have asked for, he or she says “No, Go Fish”. You then keep your card and pick up an additional one from the central pile

Remind the children to keep checking their cards for matching pairs • Play then passes to the next player • The children gradually begin realising who has what card and can begin requesting cards strategically to add to the pairs they have won • On the occasions when a picked-up Go Fish card matches a card they have already, they read it aloud to you and add this pair to their ‘won’ pile

Ending the game Play ends either: when every child has won at least one pair, or when you decide that enough time has been spent on the game If you forgot to check recall while giving out Go Fish cards, you can do it as you collect them in