Up until Wednesday, 8-year-old Jonathan Leon had never played the board game Junior Scrabble.

But after going up against a couple of volunteers from Assistance League of Santa Clarita, the Newhall Elementary School youngster was bouncing in his chair as he laid tiny letters on the board game and formed words like “buzz” and “eggs.”

“Even when I lose, it’s still my favorite (game) because we’re having fun,” Jonathan said as he played with a handful of Junior Scrabble letters.

The game session is part of Assistance League’s newest outreach program, Board Buddies. The monthly program gives Newhall Elementary School youngsters a chance to build literacy and character skills after school.

The program, which started in February with games of Yahtzee, recently expanded thanks to an anonymous donation, that paid for 168 new games.

On Wednesday, about 70 youngsters, mainly students from grades 1, 2 and 3, met at the school to play Junior Scrabble against the nonprofit organization’s team of volunteers.

Older students duked it out over Jenga, a game where players strategically remove wooden blocks from a tower in the hopes that it will remain standing after their turn.

Board Buddies teaches youngsters character and social skills like patience, turn taking and how to interact with adults, assistant principal Carla Hicks said.

The program is also educational because Junior Scrabble teaches kids about letter recognition and spelling. Jenga helps students develop problem solving and critical thinking, Hicks said.

Back at the Junior Scrabble game, Jonathan said he already learned how to spell “humongous” words like television.

And the budding wordsmith was eager to learn new words.

“I look forward to just having fun,” he said.