The sight word activities
48 Fun Sight Word Activities That Work
Teachers are always on the hunt for great sight word activities. Sight words are any words readers recognize automatically “by sight”—for fluent readers, that’s almost all words! High-frequency words, the most commonly occurring words in written English like those on the Dolch list, are often thought of as the most crucial sight words.
It’s a myth that blindly memorizing every letter in a sight word is the only way to learn it. The science of reading tells us that linking sounds and letters is the most effective way for kids’ brains to learn any word. Many common words are easy to tackle using beginning phonics skills (like “at,” “can,” “him,” etc.), so staying true to a strong phonics curriculum is one way to support kids’ sight word learning. Even irregularly spelled words have decodable parts, e.g., kids can use the sounds of “s” and “d” to help with “said,” even if the “ai” is unexpected. Experts often call these words “heart words” to call out for kids that they should learn the unexpected word parts “by heart. ” (If all this is unfamiliar to you, it can feel overwhelming, but you’ve got this! Check out teaching guru Jillian Starr’s explanation for more help.)
Check out these low-prep and engaging sight word activities for both teaching and practicing words.
1. Map it and drive it
This is a genius way to introduce words with appealing materials: Say the word, represent each sound with a LEGO brick, write letters for each sound, and “drive” to read it.
Source: @droppinknowledgewithheidi
2. Smush play dough for each sound
Set up a routine that works for any word. Play dough squishing for each sound is the ultimate multi-sensory component.
Source: @playdough3plato
3. Map words with a magnet wand
It is so super-satisfying to drag those magnetic dots around! Watch the video below for lots of tips on introducing a word using this process.
Source: @warriorsforliteracy
4. Make a mini book
Lots of handy info in one place for your little learners.
Source: @hughesheartforfirst
5. Tap it, pop it, learn it!
Hardwire those words in kids’ brains with this comprehensive word intro routine. (You had us with the pop its!)
Source: @hellojenjones
6. Find and swat words
An oldie but such a goodie. Find a word in an array and WHACK! Swat it with a fly swatter!
Source: @kids_play_learn_laugh
7. Flip word pancakes
Serve up sight word pancakes while practicing spelling them aloud.
Source: @bee_happy_teaching
8. Wear heart word bracelets
Make kids feel like sight word VIPs.
Source: @teachingmoore
9. Search for sight word balls
Write sight words on ball pit balls with a chalk marker or dry-erase marker. Kids can race around hunting for balls to read and toss in a basket, or hunt through a big tub of balls for a certain word.
Source: @preschoolforyou
10. Start a sight word band
Loud but oh-so-fun! Feel the rhythm while tapping and reading sight words stuck to homemade percussion instruments.
Source: @earlyyears_withmrsg
11. Drive on a sight word path
This is one of many fun ways to use magnetic tiles for learning! Kids love “knocking down” word tiles with a toy car as they read each one.
Source: @travisntyler
12. Use sticky notes to inspire sight word sentences
Have kids stick words on items that give them ideas for sentences. “My Mom said to wear a helmet!” = so good!
Source: @kinneypodlearning
13. Write words on a sensory bag
So easy: Fill a zip-top bag with a small amount of kid-safe paint, seal well, and have kids practice “writing” sight words with their finger or a cotton swab.
Source: @makeitmultisensory
14. Wear a sight word crown
Wear your word proudly and practice reading others’ words. Fun in person or virtually.
Source: @mrsjonescreationstation
15. Play a magnetic-tile board game
We love new ideas for ways to use magnetic tiles for sight word activities. Easy to set up and fun to play.
Source: @twotolove_bairantwins
16. Spell words to a familiar tune
Get sight words stuck in everyone’s head, in a good way. We’d add a line for chanting the sounds in the word!
Source: @saysbre
17. Feed a word monster
Nom, nom, nom.
Source: @ecplayandlearn
18. Search for the pom-pom under sight word cups
Read all the words as you try to find the cup that hides the prize.
Source: @la.la.learning
19. Play sight word KABOOM
This classroom classic is perfect for sight words. If you need a refresher on the rules, Jillian Starr covers them.
Source: @essentiallykinder
20. Roll and write words
Roll, write, repeat.
Source: @mylittlepandamonium
21. Write words with rainbow colors
Bonus points for aromatic markers.
Source: @mylittlepandamonium
22. Trace words with flashlights
Stock up on batteries because kids never get tired of this!
Source: @giggleswithgerg
23.
Find words in plastic eggsGive kids a checklist of words to find as they open each egg.
Source: @blooming_tots1
24. Spy words around the classroom
Just add a magnifying glass and clipboard to make kids feel like supersleuths!
Source: @readingcorneronline
25. Find words in the morning message
Don’t forget about old standbys! This is one of our favorite ways to get kids to recognize sight words in connected text.
Source: @tales_of_a_kinder_classroom
26. Build words with bricks
Such a great use of extra building bricks!
Source: @raysinkinder
27. Write words in sand
Easy-peasy to set up and keep neat if you use plastic pencil boxes.
Source: @teacherhacks
28. Spell words on a construction site
Bulldozing over each word to read it is the best part!
Source: @planningplaytime
29. Spell words with toy cars
Drive on over!
Source: @lozlovesprep
30.
Park in a sight word “parking lot”This one is easy to modify based on whatever toys are available in the classroom or at home.
Source: @msbendersclassroom
31. “Plant” words in play dough
Watch those reading skills grow!
Source: @planningplaytime
32. Build words in a sensory tub
Because spelling is just more fun when your hands are covered in beans!
Source: @coffeeandspitup
33. Write words on a magnetic drawing board
That eraser track makes for a perfect word card holder!
Source: @moffattgirls
34. Or write words on the window!
Everyone wants a turn to write on the window!
Source: @kindergarten_matters
35. Shhh! Discover words written in invisible ink
Write words in white crayon and reveal them with watercolors on top!
Source: @teachstarter
36. Dot-paint words with a cotton swab
Calming and effective.
Source: @sightwordactivities
37.
“Type” words on a keyboardBusy day at the sight word office! Use a keyboard cover or any old keyboard.
Source: @lifebetweensummers
38. Read words before heading through the door
The line leader can double as the word pointer during transitions.
Source: @ms.rowekinder
39. Read the word the teacher’s wearing!
Wait, is there something on my shirt?
Source: @theprimarypartner
40. Take a sight word cakewalk
Choose a winning word when the music stops!
Source: @joyfulinkinder
41. Play sight word hopscotch
If you can’t get outdoors, tape on the floor works just as well.
Source: @wheretheliteracygrows
42. Play tic-tac-toe
I’ll be team “the.”
Source: @create_n_teach
43. Go sight word bowling
No bowling pins? Use half-filled plastic water bottles instead.
Source: @thecreativeteacher_
44. Ready, aim, read
Just throw a beanbag at a word target if foam darts are a no-go.
Source: @laurens_lil_learners
45. Play muffin tin ball toss
Toss and read. It’s easy to use colored muffin cups to prep different sets of words.
Source: @homeschooling_fun_with_lynda
46. DIY sentence flash cards
Authentic use of words in context for the win.
Source: @teachertipsandtales
47. Play sight word checkers
King me! If kids don’t have a partner available, they can “play” with a stuffed animal and get double practice.
Source: @sightwordactivities
48. Play sight word Guess Who?
Set up this game once and use it forever.
Source: @lessons_and_lattes
We’d love to hear—what are your favorite sight word activities? Share in the comments below.
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Plus, what are sight words?
14 Fun Sight Word Activities and Games (Printables Included!)
Are you looking for fun sight word activities and sight word games that you can do in the classroom with your pre-k or kindergarten students? Or maybe you are looking for something different to send home for homework with your children?
Whether you use the Dolch sight words, the Fry sight words, or another list, we have some options to make this part of your ELA curriculum a whole lot more fun!
Sight Word Games
Sight word games make learning all those words that early readers need to recognize a whole lot easier and a lot more fun too. So we did a deep dive into the world of sight words to come up with some games that would help kids remember the most common sight words and make teachers’ lives easier too!
Many of these games are printable, so you can easily use them in the classroom — but there are virtual options too!
How to Play the BOOM Sight Word Game
To kick things off, teacher @misslearningbee shared this sight word game with Teach Starter, and we were instantly hooked not only because it is super easy to set up, but because it has already been tried and tested, and her kids just love it! The best thing about this game is that you can easily differentiate but keep each sight word level together using some rubber bands. Here’s what you need to know:
- Write the chosen sight words on colorful craft sticks.
- Write the word BOOM on a few sticks — this is the key to making this game fun!
- Pair students off to work together (or create small groups!), and set a timer for your desired time.
- Place the sticks in a cup with the word side down.
- Students should then take turns passing the cup, pulling out a stick, and reading the word.
- If they read the word correctly, they get to keep the stick!
- If they pull out a BOOM stick, the other player gets all of their sticks. If they’re in larger groups, the student gives their sticks to their partner or person to their right.
- At the end of the time limit, the person with the most sticks wins!
As an extension or alternative to using Boom sticks as a sight word game, you could do rhyming words, or students could put the words into a sentence. Other ideas include:
- parts of speech
- describing words
- numbers
- addition/subtraction problems.
Sight Word Hopscotch Game
Inspired by hopscotch, this sight word game is an active one that will help them get the wiggles out.
Find a tiled area and write one sight word on each tile with three different colors. Children then pick a color, and by hopping only on that color sight word, they can get home. They must say each sight word as they hop on it to get to the end.
Sight Word Fishing Game
It looks basic, but children in my class loved this game — it’s sight word fishing!
Attach paper clips to sight word flashcards, and create a fishing rod with a magnet at the end of the string. In a small group, children take turns trying to fish out a sight word. If they can successfully fish the sight word and say the sight word, they get to keep that flashcard. The child with the most sight word flashcards at the end wins!
Bowling for Sight Words
Pick up a cheap plastic ten-pin bowling set from your local dollar store. Using some sight word flashcards, place a hole punch in the corner, and attach one word to each pin using a rubber band.
Students try and hit as many pins over as they can, then correctly say each of the sight words they knocked over in order to add to their overall score!
Sight Word Popcorn
Print out sight word flashcards on yellow paper and scrunch up just like popcorn. Have students pick a piece of popcorn and read the sight word. If they get it correct they get to keep that piece of popcorn. Who can fill their popcorn bucket first?
Printable Sight Word Games
If you are looking for another sight word game that you can play in your reading centers or to send home for some fun sight word practice, we’ve got you covered! Here are some of our sight word games. Although we have used the Dolch Sight Words list of words, you can use the editable version when available to suit the sight words that you may use at your school.
Fishy Find Sight Word Game
For this version of a fishing sight word game, we’ve created the fish you’ll need to get started! Just follow the instructions below!
- Set up a station with a large bowl.
- Attach metal paper clips onto the creatures and attach a magnet to a stick and string.
- To help build word recognition, students need to lower their fishing rod into the bowl, then read the word on the fish they have caught, and then place them in a pile.
Sight Word Bingo
There was a game to play with sight words, and Bingo was its name-o! (Sorry, we had to!).
This printable sight word game takes classic Bingo and adds the first 100 words on the Fry Sight Words list to make a game the whole class can play! Print them out on sturdy cardstock, and you’ll be able to use the bingo cards, again and again, to help your early readers really nail those crucial words.
Available as a Powerpoint or in Google slides, this is also a great sight word activity for virtual students. Get additional words:
teaching resource
Sight Word BINGO (Fry Word List 101-200)
Practice learning sight words 101-200 on the Fry Sight Word List with our set of 22 Sight Words Bingo cards.
42 pagesGrades: 1 - 2teaching resource
Sight Word BINGO (Fry Word List 201-300)
Practice learning sight words 201-300 on the Fry Sight Word List with our set of 22 Sight Words Bingo cards.
42 pagesGrades: 1 - 2Fun Sight Word Activities
Need other sight word activities that will get your preschoolers and kindergartners excited? These options are not necessarily game-like, but there’s still plenty of fun packed in.
Let Students Write on Their Desks
What’s more fun for kids than the ability to write on the desk?
Use a window marker to write sight words on the desk (don’t worry, the writing comes off easily with a damp wipe). Have students pick three or four sight word flashcards suitable to their level, then have them copy each of the sight words on their desk.
Sand or Rice Writing
Fill a tray with sand or rice in a tray and have students pick sight word flashcards, then write that word in the sand or rice.
Place a sheet of colored paper on the bottom of the tray for a more visually appealing activity.
Sight Word Paper Cup Tower Building
Using paper cups, stick sight words to each cup using a glue stick. Children must correctly say the word on each cup before they can place it on their “sight word tower.” Challenge your students to find out who can correctly say all of the words and create the tallest tower! Bonus: This sight word activity also helps them build those engineering skills.
Play Dough Sight Word “Writing”
Who doesn’t love to play with play dough? Using sight word flashcards, have students pick a word and then create it using play dough. You can also print the sight word cards and send them home for parents to practice sight words at home with their children.
Mess-Free Paint Writing
Put some paint or cheap hair gel in a plastic zip-lock bag, have your students pick sight words, and then use a cotton swab or their finger to write the sight word! Easy-peasy lemon squeezy.
Scratch Paper Fun
Black paper that can be “scratched” to reveal rainbow-colored designs isn’t just good for art class. Encourage your students to write each sight word on the scratch paper to create a colorful list of sight words.
Magic Sight Words Activity
Using a white crayon, write some tricky sight words on a white piece of paper. Children then use watercolor paint to discover their magic words. Can they work out what the magic sight words are? Challenge students by writing a secret sight word message for them to discover!
Want more sight word fun? Check out our mini sight word books!
Synonyms and antonyms "activity" - analysis and associations to the word activity. Morphological analysis and declension of words
- Translation
- Associations
- Anagrams
- Antonyms
- Synonyms
- Hypernyms
- Morphological analysis
- Declensions
- Conjugations
Translation of the word activity
We offer you a translation of the word activity into English, German and French.
Implemented using the Yandex.Dictionary service
- English
- German
- French
- activity - event, work, action
- professional activity
- area of operations - area of operations
- international action - international action
- scientific activity - scientific effort
- inner working
- business - business
- core business
- performance - performance
- mental performance - mental performance
- practice - practice
- medical practice
- agency agency
- Tätigkeit - work, activity
- activity - Art von Tätigkeit
- activity is Art von Aktivität
- Arbeit - work
- professional activity - berufliche Arbeit
- Unternehmen - operation
- all company activities - im gesamten Unternehmen
- Funktion - work
- Wirksamkeit - action
- Verpflichtung - work
- Aktivismus - activity
- political activity - politischer Aktivismus
- activité - work, practice
- joint activities - activités conjointes
- current activities - operations courantes
- to regulate activities
- activities
- les activites
- operations - actions
- fait - action
- effort - work
- activity support - soutenir les efforts
- ACTIVITE - line of business
- exploitation - exploitation
- economic activity - exploitation économique
- profession - occupation
- main activity - coeur de métier
- geste - action
- faits et gestes - behavior
- praxis - practice
Relationship with other words
Words ending in -activity:
- inactivity
- life activity
- amateur performance
Hypo-hyperonymic relations
change
- process
- action
- work
Hyponyms of the word activity
- trade bibliography competition creation economy government creativity thinking practice leadership literature craft diplomacy lawmaking architecture behavior profession physical education photography building
- hysteria rustle
Case Question Unit Mn. number Nominative (who, what?) activities activities Genitive (who, what?) activities activities Dative (to whom, what?) activities activities Accusative (who, what?) activities activities Creative (by whom, what?) activity activities Prepositional (about whom, about what?) activities activities Activity sentences
Please help our robot to recognize the mistakes. There are still a lot of them, but with your help they will become much less. Here are some suggestions he made.
1. Anti-Soviet activity visibly appeared in the upper world
2
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2. Teaching activity illegally took about an after-school hour
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3. Terrorist activities have led to a terrible death enough
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Productive activities in speech therapy practice
Rozhkova TV, teacher-speech therapist, Preschool Educational Institution No. 91, Murmansk
Fiction is of great importance in the development of children's fine arts and coherent speech. Works of art, folk traditions, contribute to the formation of moral and aesthetic feelings and relationships. Raising sensitivity to beauty, goodness, we thereby form the child's evaluative attitudes towards the world.
It is possible to single out the main directions of introducing the child to the elements of artistic culture, which are also characteristic for the development of the speech of children with ONR:
- the formation of a sensory-emotional and moral-aesthetic response to beauty;
- accumulation of figurative impressions and associations with one's own experience;
- mastering elementary visual and technical skills of artistic activity;
- development of creativity and creative storytelling.
Along with the solution of the main tasks in the classroom of fine arts, the development of children's speech is also successfully carried out. The use of a variety of children's activities in order to eliminate speech defects is most fully developed for stutterers and in defectology (oligophrenic pedagogy, deaf pedagogy, etc.).
At the lessons of visual activity, you can introduce children to new words, teach them to understand, distinguish and use words in active speech. The child learns the names of objects, the actions that he performs with them, learns words denoting the external signs of objects and actions.
In productive activity, the perception and understanding of speech are formed much faster, since it acquires a practical orientation, and problem situations contribute to speech activity. The child relies simultaneously on several analyzers (vision, hearing, tactile perception), which also has a positive effect on speech. And the word helps to comprehend the process of the image.
In these classes, various methods of working with children with OHP are used:
- lexical topics;
- clear speech of an adult;
- examination of items;
- commenting on actions;
- reproduction of movements in the air;
- comparison;
- detailed questions for children on shape and color;
- preliminary exercises for the development of fine motor skills;
- individual approach.
For a preschooler, drawing is an unexplored and attractive world. Children love their drawings very much, are proud of them, show off, recognize their “works of art” among many others, even after a long time. At school, unfortunately, the child often loses the craving for drawing. The conclusion suggests itself: in kindergarten it is necessary to actively use this interest. It is better not to send the "masterpieces" of little artists to the scrap, but to use them to draw up pictures and develop the speech of children according to their own drawings, which are of such value to them.
At the first speech development lessons, you can use the drawing technique to compose stories based on the picture. For example, children should come up with the story "Christmas Tree Feeder". But first, the speech therapist asks them to draw their decorations for the Christmas tree so that different animals and birds will like them.
For the development of figurative thinking and memorization of poems, the method of illustration is used. For better memorization, children draw images for each column of the poem.
Winter
White snow, fluffy,
Spinning in the air
And quietly on the ground
Falling, laying down.
Children draw snowflakes.
And in the morning with snow
The field turned white,
Like a veil
All clothed him.
Children draw a field.
A dark forest with a hat
He covered himself with a wonderful
And fell asleep under it
Strongly, soundly.
Children draw a forest.
The days have become short.
The sun shines a little.
Here come the frosts -
And the winter has come.
I. Surikov
In order for children not to lose interest in the case and the artistic drawing is not replaced by conditional graphic, schematic and conditional images can be used in free drawing. For example, there is such a technique as an unfinished drawing, which is indispensable for the development of creative abilities in both drawing and speech development. Unfinished figures can be turned into anything: a spaceship, mountains, plants, inhabitants of the planet, astronauts, etc. Then the speech therapist, together with the child, examines the drawing and discusses the result. In drawing, as a rule, there are no difficulties.
This is how an unfinished drawing turned into “Kolobok's Journey” by Pasha P. (6 years old).
Preschool pedagogy recommends the use of multi-figure demonstration paintings in kindergarten classes to form primary natural science ideas in pupils. Thus, children get acquainted with the habitat of some representatives of the animal world, expand and refine the vocabulary, and work on the figurative structure of speech. You can use these pictures for children with speech disorders, using the technique of self-cutting and coloring characters.
To draw the attention of children to a multi-figured picture and hold it for a long time, preliminary work is necessary:
- children cut and color their characters at home, and look for them in class, thereby reducing the time for viewing;
- parents help children learn more about their character or read additional literature on the topic.
Educators and speech therapists experience the greatest difficulties in selecting illustrations. To deal with such problems, a specialist can do the following:
- decide how clear and interesting the content of the illustration is for children;
- to determine whether the child is familiar with a work of art (fairy tale, story) illustrated by the artist;
- determine whether the selected illustration reflects a certain mood and character of the characters.
All these requirements are met by paintings made from children's drawings, used both for composing stories and for retelling stories.
For example, in the classroom of a teacher in fine arts, a picture is drawn up based on the fairy tale “How the magpie crossbill judged”. This is done for further retelling in the classroom with a speech therapist in coherent speech.
The following drawings are being prepared: Sparrows; Magpie looked around; The crow is flying.
Children also make applications: Titmouse on branches; Bullfinches on rowan branches.
Such work is more emotional than work on a finished painting. If necessary, one can also draw up a conditionally graphic plan for the story and retelling from a picture, or a picture plan from the children's drawings. Under such conditions, the stories of preschoolers become more voluminous and colorful. Several descriptions appear in the narrative.
Sparrow is a small bird. Plumage color is gray and brown. If we compare the proportions of a sparrow and a magpie, it will be immediately noticeable that the sparrow's head is large in relation to the body, the beak is short, and the tail is about the same length as the body.
The magpie has two colors in its plumage, sharply different from each other - black and white, therefore it is called the white-sided magpie. Its wings are long and wide, rounded at the top and toothed at the bottom.
Comparisons are more common because children compare birds with an overlay technique.
A sparrow is smaller than a crow. The bullfinch is bigger than the tit.
Children also pay attention to the composition, compare the arrangement of trees (closer, farther, in groups), help with advice on where it is better to place a forest, a clearing, mountains, etc.
Children with OHP have special difficulties in compiling descriptive stories based on a picture. To overcome them, you can make a picture of ready-made objects of nature and get the so-called "constructed stories". Various visual and didactic aids can serve as the basis for such classes. Children in a circle choose a picture and put it on a common panel, explaining their choice. Then the resulting picture is analyzed. Children answer the questions: Do you like the picture we made together? How is it different from ordinary paintings? And others. In conclusion, a collective descriptive story is compiled.
You can't do without origami in speech groups. Such activity contributes to an increase in the activity of both the left and right hemispheres of the brain, since it requires simultaneous control over the movements of both hands, which, in turn, leads to a positive change in a number of indicators. Folding paper figures, a person concentrates on this process. Acting automatically, without mind control, origami is impossible. Therefore, such work is a kind of psychotherapy:
- it distracts from everyday worries and anxieties;
- increases the accuracy of small movements of the fingers;
- develops intellectual abilities;
- activates creative thinking, increases its speed and flexibility;
- develops spatial imagination;
- improves the eye;
- reduces anxiety;
- stabilizes the psycho-emotional state at a high level.Learn more