Sight Word Activities That Last the Whole School Year!

Teaching sight words can be tricky.  If students are not seeing these words again, and again, and AGAIN, then they will not learn them.  They need to constantly see the word, read it and write it to help them become fluent.  Here are some fun activities I do in my classroom to have my students practice sight words.  Each of these activities can be used multiple times to practice all sight words.  They are used frequently throughout the school year. Some of the activities can also be used for homework! 


Sight Word Worksheets: Students practice each sight word individually by coloring, tracing, writing, and shading the word.

Play-Doh Mats: Children will trace each sight word using a dry erase marker, then they will use play-doh to form the word.

Sight Word Mini-Books: These books are great because you can customize them for your students.  You can choose which words to include in each book and how many sight words you would like to include. Students stamp the sight word, write it, and highlight the word by reading a sentence.  My students like doing these during centers.

Sight Word Build It!: These are great for morning work or homework!  Students will read, color, trace, and write each sight word.

And I love using the centers found below!  These interactive and hands-on sight word centers are my students' favorites!!...I rotate new sight words into the centers throughout the year.

-Fishing For Sight Words: Students will "fish" for sight words by using a magnet (or fishing pole found at Lakeshore Learning) to read sight words on each fish.

-Sight Word Hop: Students will work with a partner to hop on lily pads that contain sight words.

-Pancake Flipping for Sight Words: Students will flip over pancakes that contain sight words. They will read each sight word and record it on their recording sheet.

-Magnetic Sight Words: Students will use magnets to build each sight word.

-Sight Word Detectives: Students will use magnifying glasses (found these cute children's magnifying glasses at Target) to hunt for sight words! They will record the words they find on their recording sheet.  There are 10 hunts (each with 10 sight words).  Each hunt contains a different theme.

I hope I have given you some new ideas to spice up your sight word instruction!  If you are interested in any of these activities you can find them here: Sight Word Activities.

Treasure Map Fun!

As a kindergarten teacher, I have learned the importance of getting children excited about learning social studies and science topics that can easily be considered boring for kids.  Themes help out great with getting children excited about learning!  I enjoy teaching maps mainly because I use a pirate theme to get the kids excited about learning!  I begin the unit by telling the children that we are going to pretend to be pirates for the next few weeks.  We read books that include pirates and books that teach us about the properties of maps and their various uses.  Here are some great picture books I use:

I use this book to get my students excited about the new unit!  This book does not focus on maps, but it sends a great message about friendship and accepting everyone regardless of differences.

I use this book to introduce the concept of maps.  I like how the author zooms out by first showing a map of the child's bedroom.  Then she zooms out to a map of the child's house and continues to the map of the world.  

This book is great for teaching about map keys.

 Another great book to teach how to use maps.

 The kids love this book.  Can you guess why?

I have the children make many maps throughout the week which include maps of their bedroom and of our classroom.  I also have them make their own treasure maps!  They love making these!!  You can find these for FREE in my TPT store here: Pirate Treasure Maps.

 I hope I have given you some ideas of how to make your next unit on maps more exciting!