F.L.A.G.S.

by Letz Farmer

Mastery Publications

Children who need hands-on learning and those who enjoy games will appreciate F.L.A.G.S. (FUNdamental Language Arts Games Supplement). This is a set of 37 game boards, bound into a book, along with phonics cubes (which we assemble ourselves) and Spelling Squares. They introduce and review language arts concepts from beginning letters through parts of speech (pre-kindergarten through about fourth or fifth grade levels). Although not intended to be a complete program, F.L.A.G.S. is a practical language arts supplement for a wide range of ages.

Games may be played by players of differing skill levels using suggestions in the Parent’s Manual. There are over 150 suggested variations, so it is unlikely that you will ever use everything.

The games are fairly simple in concept—essentially bingo games and “loop” games. The variations come from the manual’s suggestions; e.g., if a bingo game has words such as breathe and cloth, younger students simply identify the word correctly while older students must name the part of speech of each word. The loop games have children move a pawn around the game boards by performing such tasks as reading words, supplying missing letters, making contractions, spelling abbreviations, and identifying parts of speech. Flashcards and spinners (which we cut apart) come with the set.

The 18 Roll-A-Word Cubes are rolled like dice for children to practice constructing their own words. They are particularly useful for children who are at the blending stage of phonics. Spelling Squares are color-coded manipulatives for working with roots, prefixes and suffixes.

Everything is printed with black ink on solid color paper. Laminating or covering with contact paper will increase durability. Use the games for alphabet recognition, color and number words, sight vocabulary, phonics, contractions, abbreviations, prefixes and suffixes, antonyms, synonyms, homonyms, syllabication drill, auditory sequencing, visual sequencing, and parts of speech.

An important side note: Mrs. Farmer compared lists of the most common words in current primers with those from 1950. In newer primers, words like “government,” “public,” and “system” have replaced words like “please,” “thank,” “funny,” and “kind.” So she has incorporated many of the “old” words into her games so children practice working with a “kinder and friendlier” vocabulary.