Adventures in Reading with the Zigzag Zebra

Adventures in Reading with the Zigzag Zebra is a supplemental product from All About Learning Press that can be used with All About Reading Level 1.  Since J-jo is still working through the copy we got to review for TOS this year, I was very excited to be chosen for the review of Adventures in Reading.

Adventures in Reading is a full color book with perforated pages of file folder games for you to assemble.  It took me about an hour to assemble all ten file folders, and I laminated the game pieces for durability.  J-jo and Bear were excited as they watched me follow the very clear directions and put together the first two folders.  The various folder games are unified by the story of Ziggy going on a trip around the world.  Each game happens at a different location - the beach in , a market in France, an orchard in the USA - while reinforcing skills such as blending, counting syllables, recognizing vowels and consonants, and reviewing the word and phonogram cards.

J-jo loves games.  Bear would sit still and learn whatever and however I presented, but J-jo likes to hide what he knows. A good way I have found to get him to perform is through games.  I knew he would like these file folder games to practice the skills he is learning in AAR 1.

As I worked on the first folder, J-jo kept asking, "Is it ready? Can we play?"  The bright colors of the game boards and pieces appealed to the kids and beckoned them to hover while I glued and cut.  Bear kept saying, "I wish we had the Ziggy puppet so he could play with us!"  If you don't have Ziggy the puppet, it doesn't matter.  You can still play.  The book comes with a colorful picture of Ziggy that you can glue to a folder and prop up in front of you while you play.  (It's just not the same though and I wish I could convince my DH that we NEED Ziggy! lol)

I loved how well organized the layout of the book was for putting together the file folders.  Instructions for putting together, game board piece 1, game board piece 2, pocket and label page, game pieces, instructions for playing.  The instructions get ripped out too and folded and placed in that pocket that's glued to the front of the folder.  Everything for playing is in one place! The only extra thing you might need for some games are the phonogram or word cards from AAR 1.

The first game we played was "Apples for Ziggy," which is a game to review identification of vowels and consonants.  This was a fun way to review something J-jo wouldn't want to have reviewed otherwise.

 

With a whole bin full of file folders all ready to go, I can just pull out a game to correspond to themes we are working on. We recently pulled out "Ziggy at the Beach" and "Ziggy Plays with Penguins" to tie in to some of J-jo's MFW themes. 

You can purchase Adventures in Reading with the Zigzag Zebra from All About Learning Press.