Activities for Sight Words

I purchased these flower cut-outs from Michael’s for $2.99 (plus the 15% teacher discount that I never knew we got! Ahh!). So, here is how you play…

It is played much like musical chairs, but in a less, well, aggressive way! We all know how intense musical chairs can get sometimes. Anyways, the amount of spots or flowers you need depends on the amount of students in your group. My after school group only has 8 so I needed 28 flowers. I wrote “about” on 7 flowers, “any” on 6 flowers, “every” on 5 flowers, “just” on 4 flowers, “our” on 3 flowers, “could” on 2 flowers, and lastly, “then” on 1. This made it so one student got out each round. (The students were great sports about getting out! I just let them help me control the music on my Pandora radio app and call out the next word!)

I randomly laid out the flower spots all over the classroom floor. Like this…

I played the music and the students began dancing around the room! They loved this part and the fact that I had Alvin & the Chipmunks on my phone!

When the music stopped I called out the words in order (about, any, every, just, our, could, then). This way one student got out each round. As a variation, you could do enough of the same word so that no one gets out, however, the students enjoyed the excitement of the elimination.

The kiddos had soooo much fun!

Our group did sight word discovery bottles with glow-in-the-dark rice! OMG, it was a BLAST!!! Check out the pics and learn how you can use this activity in your classroom too!

I got white rice from Wal-Mart for $3.50 for 5lbs of rice. One bag was plenty to make 8 discovery bottles. I purchased glow-in-the-dark paint and simply mixed each color with some of the rice. I found that using zip-loc baggies was nearly mess free! I added a tablespoon of rubbing alcohol to each color bag to help the paint dry faster. After letting the baggies sit and dry overnight (with zip-loc open), I mixed all the colors together in one bowl. Lastly, let the rice charge in the sun and then there you have it, glow-in-the-dark rice!

After making the rice, I purchased glow sticks from the Dollar Tree (15 for $1) and added one stick to each water bottle. Then I filled each water bottle with 3 sight words (Be sure they are double-sided so they can be read regardless of which way they are shaken.). Fill the rice about 3/4 of the way full to allow the rice to move around the water bottle.

Let me just tell you, the students LOVED this! The students had to find the 3 words in his/her bottle and use the words in sentences before getting a new bottle. The children were so motivated and wrote some great sentences using their words! You better believe I saved that rice too! I plan on doing this activity again sometime!

Even with the lights off, the glow was enough to see the words. Being that the classroom isn’t pitch black, it was perfect! I HIGHLY recommend a black light if you can get one! The rice glows so much more with the black light. I know you are probably thinking who really has a black light lying around?! Well, you probably don’t! But, no worries because a black light can be purchased for a cheap $11 at Wal-Mart!

Practice sight words in a fun, hands-on way!

Your students will absolutely love this activity! I got these colorful bowling pins from Michael’s for $5. (They were originally $10 but I had a 40% off coupon plus the teacher discount.) I used pieces of ribbon to tie their sight words to each bowling pin. Students took turns bowling. They had to read the words they knocked down, then write the words down on their paper. SO. MUCH. FUN!!!

Students mixed and fixed their sight words using these egg cartons. I got ping pong balls from the Dollar Tree and used Sharpie to write the letters in each word. Each student got an egg carton and mixed and fixed the letters to figure out the word. After, students were asked to use the word in a sentence before switching to the next egg carton. At the end we shared out some of our sentences!

I wrote the letters Y-O-U-R on the back of Dixie cups that I found on sale at Wal-Mart (pack of 100 for $2). The students worked in pairs to mix and fix the letters in the word. They LOVED being able to manipulate the materials. I think whiteboards can get a bit boring for the kiddos so this was a hit!