sight word activities Archives

Beginner Sight Words | DRESS or T-Shirt Idea

September 17, 2021 teachersbrain Sight Words, Teaching Tips

Wearable Sight Words? Why not! Sight word and shape templates can easily be used to create your own sight word dress or t-shirt. Buy a white dress or t-shirt. I found mine at Amazon. Use the templates to plan how you want your dress to look. Place the templates under the dress or shirt to trace the words and/or shapes.

Some ideas for students:

Let them pick a sight word to color.
Give verbal directions to students color the word to improve listening skills.
Play the Go Fish game to build a sight word. That word is theirs to color on the dress.
Design their own dress.
Design their own t-shirt.
Get a fly swatter. Place the words on the floor. Call out a word and have students swat the word.
Use the Sight Word Journals to write about the daily or weekly sight words.

Last, wear the dress or shirt to school on a special day. See if students remember which words they colored. You will impress the principal as well as remind students of valuable sight words.

I decided not to place any words on the back or top so I could call out a sight word or shape and have students try to find it without touching inappropriate places.

You can add just 5 words a week and make it a reward to color a sight word, then wear it on a special day.

-OR-

Make the whole dress and have a volunteer work with one student at a time to color their sight word.

Students LOVE seeing their teacher all dressed up in something they helped create! It makes learning new concepts a breeze!

HAVE FUN! Grab the templates HERE.

Fun Ways To Practice Sight Words In Kindergarten

January 1, 2021 teachersbrain education, kindergarten survival, Reading, Teacher's Pay Teachers

Students learn so many valuable things in elementary school. We set the foundation for their education for the rest of their lives. Among all of the important things they learn in school, it all starts in their kindergarten classroom when we teach them the building blocks of reading, writing, and math.

Aside from letters, and numbers, a huge focus is on learning sight words. Sight words are generally words that students will see the most often while reading. Little learners should have them memorized to help them continue to learn to read and write. They help them produce meaning and skip difficult decoding skills as beginning readers.

When deciding on what activities to do to practice sight words in kindergarten, the sky’s the limit! They are young and excited to learn new things. There are a number of fun and engaging activities you can do to practice sight words with them.

Here are some of my favorite sight words activities for my students

Have a sight word hunt while reading. Choose your sight word for the day and have your students hunt for the word in their book.
Get some yummy treats involved. Make a big bowl of pudding. Students can dip their fingers in the pudding and write their sight word on a pan with the pudding. If they get the word right, they get to lick their fingers! This one is guaranteed to be a hit.
Do some task cards. Task cards are a fun alternative to worksheets. Task cards feel more like a game than work!
Use magnetic letters. Get some cheap cookie sheets and some magnetic letters and have your students spell out the words.
Make sight word necklaces. This resource includes 88 sight words that your students can use to make fun sight word necklaces. Everytime your student looks at their necklace, they will be reminded of their sight word. It is also great for getting parents involved in your students learning!

Use shaving cream. Spray shaving cream on the students desks and let them use their fingers to write out their sight words in the shaving cream. Fun and messy!
If you are distance learning, try out these Sight Words Google Slides activities. These reading comprehension passages and questions are a fun and engaging way to improve comprehension and fluency while practicing sight words.

Learning can be so fun when you are working with kindergarten aged students. Everything is new and exciting so just have fun with it!

What are your favorite ways to work on reading with your students? Let me know in the comments!

For more kindergarten ideas, check out these free winter activity ideas!

Sight Word Activities for Kids

December 29, 2019 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

What are Sight Words

Sight words are words that appear frequently in reading and writing. Most of the words are learned by sight and cannot be easily sounded out. When students automatically know these words, they can focus on more difficult words that can be decoded. The more students see the words and use the words in activities, the more successful they will feel and be at reading. The words begin simple and get more difficult the older students get or as their knowledge advances. Provide students with both home and school activities to get the words to create automaticity. These engaging activities will help students recognize the words, improve reading skills and show students how much fun they can have while learning to read.

Shaving Cream

This one is easy, helps clean desks and the students LOVE it! Add some shaving cream to a table for students to spread around. Call out sight words or have students pull sight words out of a bag to have students write the words in the shaving cream. You can do this in small reading groups as well.

shaving cream.jpg

Pudding?

When parents ask what they can do at home, consider having them add pudding to a sheet pan. The parent calls the words out. The child will write the words in the pudding. If they get it correct, they get to lick their finger! YUM!

Fly Swatter

If you have a word wall that is low enough for students to reach, this is a great game for your students. Word walls are a MUST in elementary classrooms because there are so many great activities a teacher can do with words. Create two teams. Each team gets a fly swatter. Call the word out and the “swatters” have to go swat the word on the word wall. The team who swatted the correct word first, gets a point. Play to 10 or 20 points.

Sight Word Necklace

My students loved to have sight word necklaces. Basically they would have a ball chain necklace that could open easily. Once they knew a sight word, they would add the word to their necklace to share with their family at home that weekend. Students would use the necklace during writing activities too. Have them use the necklace to find their words in books during center time or small reading group time.

Paint It

Have students work pull sight words out of a box. They would write the word. Then, they would paint the word next to the word they wrote on paper. They could use watercolors. You can even use chalk instead of paint. Want to have students think a little deeper about patterns? Tell them they have to do every other letter a different color to create an AB pattern. Grab the FREE Sight Word Download Here.

STAMP IT

Find some letter stamps for students to work on spelling sight words using the stamps. This will help with fine motor as well as spelling. Provide some different color stamp pads for students to use during this activity to keep it interesting.

USE IT

This is a great way for students to build some comprehension while working with sight words. Students will first write the word. Next, they will have to use it in a sentence. This way you can check to see if they understand what they are reading or see if they make need to be taught the meaning of the words.

STOMP it!

Print out the sight words you want students to learn for the week. Scatter them on the floor. Another student calls out a word while their partner STOMPS on it. This is a great activities to do at home or in small groups. Need more activities? Click HERE

Hopefully these activities will give you some ideas when planning for future lessons using sight words. I can’t wait to hear about your favorite activities for teaching high frequency words in your classroom!