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.

Teaching Foundational Skills with Play-Doh Mats!

Play-doh mats are great for tactile learning!  I use them often in my kindergarten classroom and my students love them!  They are great to use for centers or when you want to keep your kiddos busy while you are doing beginning of the year assessments.  They are also great for RTI!

In the beginning of the year I use these letter/sound play-doh mats for my students to practice letter identification.  

I also use these number identification play-doh mats.  I like how they include writing the number and number word.  Kids also practice counting by using the ten frame.

As my students learn their sight words, I have them use these sight word play-doh mats (Fry Lists 1-100 and 101 -200 are available!)

As the kids learn addition and subtraction I use the below play-doh mats to practice these skills.  You can also place the mat in a dry erase pocket.  

If you would like to take a look at all the play-doh mats in my store check out my "Play-Doh Mats: The Bundle."  There are 8 play-doh mat products that you can use throughout the year to practice skills that include:

Letter/Sound Identification

Number Identification (1-20)

Kindergarten Sight Words (Fry List 1 - 100)

First Grade Sight Words (Fry List 101 - 200)

CVC Short Vowels

Addition and Subtraction

CVCE (Long Vowels)

Digraphs

Shapes (FREEBIE)

Here is a FREEBIE for your students to enjoy: Shape Play-Doh Mats.

Sight Word Centers!

I am always trying to think of fun ways my students can learn their sight words.  My district requires kindergartners to learn 75 sight words by the end of the year.  This is a large amount of words that requires LOTS of practice!  To help them learn these words, I incorporate many sight word activities throughout my centers each week to prevent sight word instruction from getting boring.  I have found that my students love the following activities that you can find in my TPT store.

Sight Word Hop: Students work with a partner by hopping on sight words that their partner reads.

Pancake Flipping for Sight Words: Students use a spatula or tongs to flip over pancakes that contain sight words.  They place their read pancakes on the cookie sheet.

Magnetic Sight Words: Place each mat on a cookie sheet.  Students read each sight word and build the word using magnets.  

Fishing for Sight Words:  Students will use a toy magnetic fishing rod or you can make your own like the one I made below.  Children will use their fishing pole to "fish" for sight words.  They will read the sight word on each fish they catch and place it on the jar.

100 sight words from Fry's Frequently Used Word List are included for each activity.  If you are interested in getting all four of these centers, check out the bundle here: Sight Word Centers BUNDLE!

I hope these activities add some fun to your sight word instruction!

Fishing For Sight Words!

My students love "fishing" for sight words!  They have so much fun reading the sight words on the fish and catching them with their fishing rod.  This activity creates an interactive literacy center and can be used again and again with different words!  Here is how I use it in my classroom:

I tie a piece of yarn to a wooden block.  I attach a magnet to the yarn.

Attached to each fish is a paperclip.

The fish are placed in the fishing lake and the students place their caught fish in the fishing jar.

I place about 20 sight words that we have learned in the lake at a time.

My students have so much fun using the rod to pick up the fish.  I also have them count the fish/sight words they caught!

If you would like to use this center in your classroom, you can find it in my TPT store here: Fishing for Sight Words!

Sight Word Mini-Books

As a kindergarten teacher, I am always trying to think of new ways to have my students practice and interact with sight words.  As we all know, the more they see them, the faster they will learn them.  I made sight word mini-books to help my students learn their sight words in a fun way.

For each sight word, they have to stamp it, write it using rainbow colors, and highlight it in a sentence.  They also have to use their decoding skills to read the sentence on each page. 

My students enjoy doing these during centers!  I can choose how many words I want to include in each book.  However, I have found that having my students work on 5 words at a time works for them!

If you would like to use these books, check them out here: Kindergarten Sight Word Mini-Books