What are sight words and why does my child need to know them? Sight words are words that need to be memorized because they do not follow the typical rules of spelling and they are not easily decoded. The goal is for students to be able to recognize these sight words immediately (within 3 seconds) and read them without having to use any types of decoding skills.
Teachers encourage students to memorize these words by sight through games and activities. I have put together a list of some fun ways to encourage your learners to memorize their sight words!
Magnetic Sight Words
You will need magnetic letters and a cookie sheet for this activity. I love these jumbo magnetic letters from Learning Resources, but you can use any type of magnetic letters for this activity. You can make Sight Word Flashcards for this activity by writing the words on index cards.
Students will pick a flashcard and then find the letters to make that sight word on the cookie sheet. This is simple but the kids really love it.
Sight Word Go Fish
Use my EDITABLE Sight Word Go Fish game to practice sight words! You can edit this to use with sight words your child needs to learn and or practice. After you edit this PDF on the most recent version of Adobe, you can print the cards. I suggest printing the cards on cardstock for better durability. Cut the cards out and you’re ready to play!
You can find the Editable Sight Word Go Fish game HERE.
Sight Word BINGO
BINGO is always a hit with my students. We used heart counters because it was around Valentine’s Day, but I usually always use the Learning Resources Transparent Counting Chips. You can play BINGO at home using coins, pouch tops, cheerios, goldfish, m&ms, or any other small item you have to use as BINGO chips. This BINGO board is also editable so you can type in whichever words your child needs. You can find the Editable BINGO board here.
Be sure to change the boards up by moving some of the words around so everyone doesn’t get BINGO at the same time 🙂 I always keep a list of the words on hand and put a check mark next to my words to keep track of the ones I have already read.
I also have free BINGO board templates that you can print out and write the words onto here.
Sight Word Game Boards
I have a TON of editable Sight Word Game Boards in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop! I have them for almost every season & holiday and am working on creating few more themes. You again can edit these words on the editable PDF on Adobe. When your child lands on a word, they need to read the word aloud.
You can find my Editable Sight Word Game boards here.
Shoot the Sight Word
This is by far the most popular way to practice sight words with the students I work with! If you have a nerf gun, paper, and tape, you can try this out!
You can simply type your child’s sight words and print out and tape them to the wall, you don’t need the set up I have pictured.
You can find out more details about how to set this up as pictured on my blog post here.
Building Sight Words
You can build Fry’s First 25 Sight Words using snap cubes with this freebie from my store. We used snap cubes from Learning Resources, but you can also have your child try to build the sight words using playdoh, posicle sticks, or legos! You can get creative!
You can find all of Fry’s First 100 words here.
Rainbow Roll & Write Sight Words
Instead of just writing sight words in pencil, you can make it REALLY COOL by writing in RAINBOW colors. If you have a die, you can try out Rainbow Roll & Write.
Example:
Have your child write the word “the” 5 times. They will roll the die 5 times. They will write the word “the” in the colors that they rolled. Have your child continue for the rest of their words. You can choose how many times you want them to right each word. We use Mr. Sketch Scented Markers because we love the different smells, it makes using markers even more fun!
You can find this Rainbow Roll & Write FREEBIE here.
Lacing Sight Words
This activity is a little harder for younger students because they really have to use those fine motor skills! It might frustrate some children who are not used to threading and lacing so keep that in mind before you try it out.
I do love these lacing letters, which are also from Learning Resources, for this activity. You can again use my Fry’s Sight Word flashcards or write down your child’s words and then have them find the letters and thread them onto the strings to make the words.
Play Doh Sight Words
I found this Play Doh Shape & Learn Letters set on sale around Christmas time for less than $10.00 so I had to grab it! This is a fun way for kids to spell their words.
Have your child roll the Play Doh into little balls one for each letter of the sight word. They will then press the letter stamp into each one to make a letter circle as pictured above.
Sight Word Guess Who
Do you have the game Guess Who? Turn it into a learning game by using my digital download! Find more information on my blog post here.
Jump and Spell
Grab your chalk, write the alphabet, have your child spell sight words or spelling words by jumping to each letter!
This is a simple and fun outdoor learning activity involving movement.
These are just a few examples of ways to practice sight words! There are SO many other fun ways. How do you practice sight words? Share some ideas below in the comments!
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
