Now for the variations to differentiate the game a bit for different levels and also make it a bit more FUN:
- Write upper and lowercase letters on the sticks for children who need letter recognition skills.
- Put random consonants on the sticks,but make sure you have added lots of vowels so the kiddos can make words with the sticks. As children pull the sticks, they can make words with the sticks. If a player pulls BANG, they only have to put back the random letters that are not a part of a created word. ( You might want to actually make sure that you enough letters CVC pattern to create many words).
- Write sight words on the sticks in sets 1-50, 51-60, 61-70 etc. and label each bucket with the numbers and actually designate who can play which buckets then the children are using words they need to learn or master. Keeping with this idea, if a child pulls BANG, but they can construct a phrase that makes sense with the words, they can keep the words in the phrase and put back the others.
- When you are creating the sticks in addition to the sticks with BANG, add some sticks that have a foam star sticker on the bottom. If a player chooses that stick s/he can keep it and when they get Bang, they can put the star back with the BANG stick and keep their words! (The kiddos actually like this the BEST!!)
- Write numbers on the sticks for a number recognition game. You can label your buckets 1-20, 21-30, 101-120 or what ever numbers they need to know or with which they need work.
- Write addition facts on the sticks. The players pick a stick give the answer to the fact, their partner checks their answer and if they are correct, they keep the stick. If not, the stick goes back into the bucket. If BANG is pulled ALL sticks go back or add a few star sticks to this as well.
- Write CVC words to read on the sticks.
- Write CVCe words on the sticks.
- Write words with digraphs, bonus letters, vowel combinations, 2 syllable words or whatever your students need on the sticks that can be written and reinforced in this manner.