Sight words games first grade

Sight Words Games for 1st Graders Online

Children love to read. As babies, they love to flip pages and pretend to read a book. 

The challenges of reading only become real when children start learning sight words. Sight word reading can be a long and challenging process for most children. 

While some words stick to memory easily, others need consistent practice. 

At SplashLearn, we have some amazing sight word games for 1st graders to make reading more enjoyable for your children. 

While most of the words we read in our daily life can be spelled phonetically, certain words must be read by sight. Building sight word vocabulary and reading fluency will help your children read quicker and with more efficiency. 

There are sight words of varying difficulty. Familiarizing your child with grade-appropriate sight words will help them learn things faster.  

Sight word games make learning basic sight words and adding new words to your child’s vocabulary fun and exciting.

Learning sight words can sometimes be overwhelming. For children who are more comfortable learning through phonetic sounds, this process may prove challenging and, at times, difficult. 

Here are some of the best ways to make sight-reading for grade 1 easier and interactive:

• Online reading: There are several books that you can read online. These books flash the text on the screen and have a speech synthesis built into it. As the audio plays, the words on the page light up automatically. Children can familiarize themselves with sight words while enjoying reading their favorite books over and over.
• Word wall: You can now, quite literally, build walls with words. Make flashcards with sight words, one word on each card. Now, you may build this wall in several ways. You can ask your child to pick a card, read it, and lay the brick(card) on the wall. Use some regular masking tape, or just place the brick on the floor. Another way to play the game is to scatter all the bricks(cards) face open, call out a word, and get your child to pick the right one and place it on the wall. Remember that in the learning process, recognition comes before the recall.
• Word catch: This is a wonderful game for kinesthetic learners. Fill a tub with some plastic balls. Write a sight word on each. Get your child to pick a ball, read out the word, and throw it to you. Then you take your turn, throw another ball to your child, and ask him or her to read it.
• Tic Tac Toe: Once your child is quite familiar with sight words, introduce a new challenge. Make multiple tic tac toe grids and write down a sight word in each square. Play the game, as usual, ensuring the child reads the word in the square he or she wants to claim. You can read out your words too, and help make it an interactive experience.

By the time your child has reached grade 1 sight-reading, he or she should already be able to feel familiar with some 2-letter sight words. 

Always begin by practicing what is known. Then slowly introduce one or two new words a day. Try and follow these steps when learning:

• Show the word, spell it out, call the word out loud, and use it in a sentence.
• Now show the word again, and ask the child to repeat it.
• Spell the word, and call it out. Practice these steps a few times before you move on.
• Now show the child three or four words, and ask them to pick the sight word.
• Say the word out, and ask them to spell again.
• Practice reading a few simple, grade 1 sentences with the sight word in them. This will help them gain the context of the word.

First-grade readers are usually very excited about reading and spelling. They may feel a little disappointed when they experience struggles or challenges. Therefore, it is essential to remember a few things when taking your child through the process:

• Take things at their pace. Don’t rush because that won’t help the child or you.
• Avoid comparing with other children or the grade level. Some children may require a lot of practice initially and may pick up very quickly later on.
• Revise and practice. There is a lifetime of learning waiting to take place. Spend time ensuring the child has understood and is comfortable with the words before you move on.
• Motivate and celebrate – even the smallest wins and the effort.

Teach your child the joy of sight words through SplashLearn’s interactive online sight word games for 1st graders. They’ll make your child look forward to a new learning experience every day.

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1st Grade Sight Word Games Your Child Will Love!

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One of the best ways you can help your child learn to read sight words is through engaging and fun educational games. I have pulled together this list of my absolute favorites for 1st grade sight word games your child will love!

Table of Contents

A List Of First Grade Sight Words

Although I rarely use grade level in our learning,  as a reference, I thought it would be good to take a look at an official list of sight words for first grade.

Why Children Struggle To Learn Sight Words

Many children struggle when presented with a sight word as part of their reading practice. This is because sight words rely solely on familiarity and memorization for the child to be able to identify and read it. 

The younger your child is, the less exposure they’ve had to these words, and the less likely they are to be able to immediately recall them. 

Even if your child is well beyond the first grade, these words can cause difficulties for many readers, and may require an out-of-box approach to learning them. 

The Power Of Adding Play To Learning To Read

If you’ve been following our site for any length of time, you’re already know that we are game obsessed.

Children are doing so much more than simply having fun when they are engaged in play. Playing games works on a host of skills, including:

• Verbal communication
• Self-regulation
• Turn-taking
• Sharing
• Listening
• Cooperation
• Focus and attention
• Following directions
• Creativity
• Social skills
• Learning to handle wins and losses
• Cognitive skills such as counting, color/shape/pattern recognition, strategy, problem solving, early literacy, etc.

It has been said that play is the science of childhood.  There is something to be said for the hands-on, experiential learning that playing games together provides. Research has shown that student outcomes are much better in both understanding and retention when an element of play is added to the learning.

First Grade Sight Word Games: Multi-Sensory And Hands-On

These games are perfect for practicing sight words. All of them contain hands-on and multi-sensory learning that is ideal for this age group. 

Sight Words Splat

Sight Words Splat is a card game that helps kids practice quick recall of sight words. 

Zingo

Zingo from Think Fun is a personal favorite. It’s the Bingo of sight word games with a little extra multisensory action as kids “feed” the cards into the Zingo case. 

Matching Letter

Matching Letter helps with the basics of reading sight words, and also spelling them!

Dino Stomp

Dino Stomp is perfect for kids who love to move as they learn. Stomp on the sight words as you practice. 

Pop For Sight Words

Pop is an easy, grab and go game to help your first grader practice their sight words.

Sight Word SWAT

Sight Word SWAT is fun even for mom! Kids literally swat sight words as they practice with their very own “fly swatters”. This one is a favorite!

More First Grade Sight Word Games

I have curated an entire list that can help you see all that’s available for first grade sight word games. In addition to the above games, you may also want to consider:

• Slam Shifts!
• Rhyming Puzzles
• Sight Word Magnets
• BINGO cards for sight words

Looking For More Educational Games For Kindergarten and First Grade?

Playing educational (and non-educational) games with your first grader is something you’ll never forget!

Looking for  more gameschooling resources?

Never Board Learning is a private online community for creative parents and educators who embrace play-based learning and gameschooling. This is a wonderful way to add more educational games and interest-led learning to your homeschool routine.

Never Board Learning features a private community forum (not Facebook), guest speakers, live Q and As, day-in-the-life family spotlights, a private blog, and access to a growing printable resource library. 

Play can boost connection, fuel learning, and revolutionize your homeschool routine. We all know play is an essential part of child development, but how do you fit it in when you have a huge homeschool to-do list?

In this digital course, you’ll learn how to add more play to your homeschool day with gameschooling. Gameschooling is the intersection of play and homeschooling and it can change your entire homeschool atmosphere for the better! 

Join the fun today!

Visit the NBL and MLP Amazon Storefront for more gameschooling, homeschooling, and book recommendations!

Child's vision

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Parents

A child goes to kindergarten and the first grade of school with a face beaming with happiness and sparkling eyes. In the second or third grade, time already seems to him to stretch endlessly, and after the fourth or fifth grade, the school doctor already sends a letter to the parents that the child needs glasses.

What happened to our child? Before Vasya went to school, he might or might not see. It didn't matter at all. If someone asked him, “Can you see a kite?”, he would look up and say yes or no. Whatever the outcome, he didn't care, it didn't matter so much to his amusement. What was unimportant in the game becomes important in school. Vasya felt pressure on himself, a compulsion to study well. So he stared at the blackboard quite diligently. Coercion in itself causes eye strain. If, in addition, the board is in such a place that it gives a glare when looking at it from the place where Vasya is sitting, and the unfamiliar inscriptions on the board are, as it were, covered with a veil from the remnants (traces) of chalk, then Vasya has problems. Since the words on the board are very important to him, he begins, for example, to mow, thus straining his eyes. The more effort he puts in, the worse he sees. In the end, he begins to make even more efforts, but it ends with the fact that he is unable to read even the test card. There is a need for glasses. After grades 5-6, the percentage of children wearing glasses increases significantly. In high school, most A students wear glasses, but in college, glasses are the norm. At the same time, such states can be encountered - the emergence of an effort due to the forced nature of learning, burdened by mental stress, and intent looking due to the stress necessary to see the board. Many adults have said that their tension first appeared at school because of the blackboard. However, these boards are still considered as a necessary element of the school educational process. The teachers tried to facilitate this process by using light green boards and yellow chalk. This, however, worsens the contrast compared to white chalk on a black background, and leads to even more eye strain, since their work is based on contrast.

Children are not the only ones with blackboard problems. An elderly lady, who had recovered her sight by relaxation a few years earlier, returned to my studio again to refresh her memory of the course of treatment. The fact is that she attended a school where she studied astrology and where she again had problems with the board.

Practically all that can be done in this situation is to teach your eyes to relax and maintain this relaxation even under the stress of mental tension. Before the time comes when children are taught relaxation in school, parents need to give them relaxation lessons after school to compensate for the daily stress that their children are exposed to. First of all, it is necessary to find out exactly how this stress affects vision, so that specialized work can be done at home. If the eyes squint, then they can be returned to the correct centering through relaxation with patient exercises. If there is myopia, then you can restore distance vision, gradually instill in the subconscious the correct habits of relaxed vision so that this trouble will not return. If far-sighted eyes do not allow working at a close distance, then you can relax the rectus muscles that flatten the eyeball, and then the eye will focus without tension at a near point. Review the previous article on nearsighted and farsighted eyes.

Let's talk about a method that was used in one of the classes of the school and improved the eyesight of all children. A checklist was hung in front of the students in the classroom. The children were instructed to read as many lines of the table as they could easily do each day. If, for example, the child stumbled on the fifth line, then being intrigued, he, leaving the class and passing by the table, looked at this line from a closer distance, allowing him to see it well. After the change, the student, remembering this line, will most likely see it from his place and will be intrigued by the sixth line. The reasons for these simple daily readings were as follows. First, the disciple used his sight without any compulsion. It didn't have to read every given line. Secondly, the use of memory and mental representation taught the eyes the feeling of effortless looking, looking without strain. The records kept by the teachers show that all the children's eyesight improved - those who had less than normal eyesight improved to normal. In those who initially had it normal, it became even more acute.

Parents can repeat these exercises at home. Since children avoid the test card where they fail to show good vision due to the usual fear instilled by the school doctor, do not use individual letters when training children's vision. Instead, make a table of some words. Choose words that match the age of the child. Hang your artwork on a wall that your child often faces towards, such as in the dining room. If it is problematic to study during a meal, then hang a table in front of his bed or on the kitchen wall opposite the door through which he usually enters. It should hang in good light. Turn it into an "easy sight game". For the first time, let him choose the distance from which he can see the words. Warn him not to try too hard. Help him read. Promise him that "one day he will see all this without any difficulty." After he reads 2-3 lines, let him come closer and read the next line. Ignore the fact that he remembers these lines. Familiar objects are easy to see, so you teach him a lesson in relaxed looking. Remembrance helps vision. Don't assume that without coercion your child won't want to watch. The eyes want to see, they want to see. If the child resists and does not want to look at the table, then the cause of this is the tension caused by coercion rather than his poor eyesight. Also, make sure that the child does not use any tricks, trying to see. Help your child become familiar with the words on the table and praise him for each new achievement. Do not suspect him that he does not see the table, but only remembers it. When he remembers it at the moment when his eyes rest on some word, he will see it.

When his interest in the table fades after a few weeks, it would be good to re-stimulate his attention by hanging up a new set of words. Warn him of the undesirability for the eyes to avoid any change. But don't make such changes too quickly, for it is the familiarity of the objects he is looking at that is what teaches him relaxed looking. When he can't confidently read a word, or as little Joe said, "the word won't just be seen every time", show your child what an amazing thing happens to his vision when he palms, "writes with his nose" this word, clearly and correctly, and then with a deep breath will look at him again. Both old and young are deeply moved by the improvement in vision that this method gives. Adolescents from older classes can be treated like adults, i.e. on your own using this article. Of course, a qualified instructor would be of great help in the treatment, who would keep the practitioners inspired by using various exercises and choosing them in such a way as to arouse the interest of the practitioners, both young and old.

Another piece of advice for parents these days, when there are so many ambitious people in the world, would be not to put too much pressure on students after school. As a serious child with farsighted eyes once told me, full of tears, “During the week I have absolutely no time to solarize. Time goes by like that. I go to the doctor for injections, I go to dance lessons, I go to music lessons, I go to the hairdresser, to the orthodontist, to singing lessons and to workouts. I don't have a minute to do what I want!" This is a very sad statement of a child, a victim of constant coercion, who will surely suffer from a neurosis in the not too distant future. I also worked with another child, a boy of nine who had myopia and who practiced his cello for 5 hours a day from the age of four, just as his myopic father did in his time. In some social groups, we should start a movement that can be called Kindness to Children.

One of the reasons we have so many vision problems these days is that we have absolutely no time for entertainment. We have practically lost the spirit and art of entertainment. Entertainment and games, available, in principle, to everyone, have become the lot of only the lucky ones!

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Farewell to the deceased GVS "Tsar's Wolves" About the return of Sobchak to Russia Lured a 15-year-old schoolgirl neighbor to visit Who is responsible for the safety of children at school? Youth goes to war Service life in the Russian army to be increased to two years All residents of Kyiv are relocated to other regions Teenager torn off three fingers A teenager's bomb went off Eighth grader blew himself up on a coffee grinder Don't dig yourself a hole, you will be threatened! Hello Maya! Exploded right in your mouth Hole "Nord Stream-2" Cessation of dollar trading

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Lifestyle

The Day of Knowledge has passed, and a long period of comprehension of sciences has begun for schoolchildren. Every year new gadgets appear in their arsenal. Tablets are being used more and more in education. For several years, the Ministry of Education has been trying to introduce electronic textbooks.

On the other hand, doctors state that about 5% of first-graders start the school marathon with impaired vision. My grandson went to first grade with 50 percent vision. Ophthalmologists suggested wearing glasses during the examination. I was put on glasses to correct vision defects at the age of 10. Doctors say that young people grow up to the age of 21, and before this age, vision stabilizes. I wore glasses until the age of 45, adding one diopter every 10 years.

In 1995, a man from Novosibirsk came to our city and told us about Dr. Bates and his method of restoring vision by training the eye muscles. The course lasted two weeks. A month later, after practicing the Bates method every day, I took off my glasses and began to see the same way as before wearing them.

Specific words appeared in my vocabulary - palming, big turns, etc. I began to look in bookstores for literature on eye diseases and visual defects. Spoke with the propaganda of this method on local television. More than an hour after the end of the program, he answered questions from the audience.

Science does not stand still. Scientists have found that vision is lost due to heredity, birth trauma, and unfavorable environmental conditions. The eyes are connected with all human organs and work together with them. In Russia, more than 12 million people experience visual impairment. Smart ophthalmologists have been solving the issue of replacing monotonous physical exercises to strengthen the eye muscles with something more interesting for a long time. Found an equivalent replacement in ... the mobile game of badminton. Institute of Eye Diseases. Helmholtz conducted a study, establishing that after 10 sessions of playing badminton, children with incipient signs of myopia completely restored their vision.

How is it that badminton helps save eyesight? During the game, the participants follow the trajectory of the shuttlecock. He approaches, then moves away from the eyes. Their muscles, in accordance with this, either stretch or contract. Thus, gymnastics for the eyes is being replaced. Instant switching of vision from far to near and back enhances the ability of the eyes to change the focal length, which leads to the prevention of myopia. Other games were also tried - table tennis, tennis, but the effect was less. The balls and marbles in these games move slower and the eyes follow their movement at low altitude. When playing badminton, the shuttlecock makes rapid movements at high altitude. Training of the eye muscles occurs in active movement, while the brain is saturated with oxygen. Since the game has to make short runs, bends, jumps, it has a complex effect on the body.

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