Playful Ways to Practice Sight Words

Hayden was very young when we started learning sight words. Most resources that I found were simply not age appropriate for him. I wanted to only focus on one new word at a time, and I wanted our learning to be playful, so most of the time I was creating my own resources and games! Here are some of the activities and games we used to practice sight words.

Hidden Sight Words. Write the sight words in white crayon, and then have your child watercolor paint over it, to reveal the hidden word.

Where is the dino? I hid a small dinosaur under a cup. He would read the word on the top of the cup, as he guessed where the dinosaur was hiding.

Sight Word Parking Lot

For this activity, I wrote a few sight words on a wipe and write dice. He rolled the dice, read the word, and covered it with a sticker.

Cornstalk Sight Words! I used contact paper on the back, and then cut out cobs of corn from foam. On each piece of corn I wrote a sight word. As he harvested the corn, he would read each word.

We LOVE kinetic sand.... and TRUCKS! I wrote his sight words on construction paper, covered it with kinetic sand, and gave him a paintbrush to uncover and read each word.

Cover the sight words with mini erasers! We do this one a LOT!

For our pirate week, we used foam stickers and popsicle sticks to make sight word flags.

When we learned about space, we poked these sight word constellations on our light pad.

Another space activity, was reading sight words with glow sticks!

Over the summer we studied bees. I created a beehive out of some spare cardboard and toilet paper rolls. I placed a sight word card in each hole, and he read the word as he pulled them out of the hive.

This quick activity went along with the book Ten Black Dots. I wrote his sight words on a piece of construction paper, and then he stamped over them with a painted toilet paper tube.

I always grab a few paint samples when I can, because we use them ALL THE TIME! This was a quick word matching activity!

This beanbag toss went along with the book, Jack and the Beanstalk. I drew a beanstalk on paper, and wrote several sight words on the leaves. Hayden threw the beanbag, and would read the word it landed on.

To go along with our bird study, I hid several small TOOB birds in a sensory bin of bird seed. I attached a small dot sticker to each bird, with a sight word on it. I wrote sight words on construction paper, and placed the words in a muffin tin. Hayden would search for a bird, and then match the word on the bird to the word in the muffin tin.

Rock Sight Word Sentences. A summertime FAVORITE.

When we did our weather unit I had about 1000000 ideas, so here are a few of our favorites! I wrote a sight word on gem stones, and hid them in a cloud (cotton ball) sensory bin. Hayden found the gems, and matched the words.

It's raining sight words!!!! I hung up streamers, with a post it note attached to the end. He would pull the post it note off, and read each word. This may be my all time favorite sight word game!

Windy Words! I wrote his sight words on post it notes, and gave him a straw and cotton ball. He blew the cotton ball around, reading the word it landed on.

Weather I Spy Jar! I filled an empty bottle with blue chickpeas, cotton balls, rainbow erasers, and sight word strips. Hayden shook the jar, and would cross of the words as he found them.

Puddle Jump! I cut out puddles from blue construction paper. Hayden hopped around, reading each word as he went.

Painters Tape Apple Tree. Using apple die cuts, I wrote a sight word on each, and placed them along my painters tape tree. Hayden had to follow the lines to gather and read the apples.

Sight Word Caterpillars. I punched several circles and wrote a letter on each circle. He would spell out each word on the caterpillars.

Dinosaur puzzles. I printed out two copies of an outline of a dinosaur. I cut one copy apart, and wrote words on all the pieces. He completed the puzzle by matching the pieces.

Chalkboard Tracing. I wrote a few sight words in chalk, and Hayden traced over them with water and a paintbrush.

Dot Markers- Such a easy, and QUICK way to practice a LOT of words. I like to write words in rain drops, lily pads, ANYTHING works, and then Hayden would read and dot each word.