Are you looking for some quick phonics activities for when your children finish their main task? Maybe, you are seeking an activity as part of your continuous provision? My phonics sorting game is ideal learning resource for children to use independently, as a pair or small group. There are 48 rea...

So many ways to teach, practice, and master sight words.

Last week, after a meeting at church, I chatted with a sweet friend. She asked me, "Liz- what in the world are SIGHT WORDS, and do you have any ideas for how my daughter and I can practice them at home?" (Her cutie had just started Kindergarten...) Before long, a few other Moms joined in on the conversation, and I knew right away I wanted to write a blog post sharing EASY and FUN sight word activities that parents can do at home with their kiddos. Just as parents help their child study for a weekly spelling test, they can also help their child read and review their weekly sight words. This blog post is filled with ideas for PARENTS to help their children practice and review their sight words at home to compliment what the teacher is doing at school. Sight word activities at home should be... 1. Tactile/Hands On 2. Games/FUN 3. Visual You want your child to have an opportunity to build, touch, and experience the sight words so that his or her brain can make a connection between the letters and the word itself. It's all about exposure, repetition, and practice. 1. Glitter Sight Word Flip Books (This video explains how to make them.) 2. Whipped Cream/Shaving Cream Writing Spray some whipped cream or shaving cream on the counter or table. Have your child spread it out and then practice writing his sight words. Provide a flashcard or list for reference. It's all about practice, repetition, and exposure to the words. Don't worry if your child needs to look at the word list. 3. Sand/Sugar letters Get a school supply box or cookie sheet with edges and fill it with play sand or granulated sugar. Have your child practice writing sight words in the sand with his or her finger. It's all about the touch! *Hint: You do not need very much sand!* 4. PlayDoh Flatten a piece of play doh and use a toothpick or skewer to write sight words in the PlayDoh. Kiddos can also form long snakes with the PlayDoh and then build the words with PlayDoh. 5. Build the Word Build the word using magnetic letters, cut up pool noodle pieces, alphabet cereal, or with yummy items from the pantry! Brynn had a blast with this pool noodle sight word activity. Such a cutie. Find out more about the pool noodle sight words. PULL AND PEEL TWIZZLERS They are so easy to bend and shape. So much easier and less messy than PlayDoh. Delicious too! :) Sight Word Snacks: Pull and Peel Twizzlers, pretzel sticks, raisins, chocolate chips, spaghetti noodles, Cheerios, Cheez-It letters, animal cracker letters, string cheese... 6. Go Fish Make a set of playing cards with index cards using the words of the week or the words your child needs to review. (2-4 per word) Deal the same number of cards to each player and then leave a "Go Fish" pile in the middle. 7. Memory Make a set of playing cards using the words of the week. (Two per word) Place all of the cards upside down. Each player flips over two cards and reads the words aloud. If the words match, the player keeps the pair. The player with the most matches wins. *If you child has A LOT of words to learn, start with just a few and then add more to the memory game as they become more comfortable with the words. Your child will be extremely frustrated if they have 20 cards in the game and they can't read any of them, so start simple.* 8. Hopscotch Grab some chalk and make a hopscotch board in your driveway. Fill in the week's sight words, and have your child hop across while practicing the words. While you are outside enjoying the weather, let your child decorate the sidewalk or driveway with all of his or her sight words. 9. Hide & Seek Sight Words Write the weekly sight words on sticky notes. When your child is not looking, hide the words all over the house! After you hide the words, let your child loose to go find all of the hidden words. For extra practice, your child can write the words after he or she finds them. This game is so easy and endless fun! Tip: Collect found words on a clipboard. 10. Printable Board Games I love this editable game from Playdough to Plato. It's FREE! I love that you can type in the words that you want on the game board. So cute and fun for practicing new sight words. (If you don't have a TpT account, you will need to sign up to download the freebie.) 11. SWAT Game Write all of the weekly sight words on index cards. Grab a fly swatter. Yes, a fly swatter. :) Call out one of the words. As quickly as possible, your child SWATS the word with the fly swatter. Silly fun! If your child is struggling with ALL of the words, just start with 2-3words. Add a few more words as they become more familiar with the words. 12. Sight Word Password Kids love secret passwords. Use this love of passwords to help learn sight words. Pick the trickiest word of the week and make that the "password." Write it on a big piece of construction paper and post it somewhere in your house that gets a lot of traffic (i.e. the bathroom, the fridge, the pantry...). To enter the pantry, everyone in the family must read the password. Hearing Mom, Dad, and older sister say the "password," as well as looking at it and making a connection with it throughout the week will help your child remember it as well. Remember, it's about exposure, repetition, and practice. If you are a teacher, please feel free to share the link to this blog post with parents in a weekly e-mail, class newsletter, during Parent Teacher Conferences, etc. Please e-mail me at [email protected] if you have any questions. If you would like to download the sight word cards I used, visit my TpT store.

Get the ultimate list to teach SIGHT WORDS with fun sight word games and worksheets! Use technology and apps. Explore sensory activities. Enjoy reading games and writing practice!

Pin It After sharing our 10 Fun Ways to Learn Sight Words Through Play and seeing all the positive feedback I wanted to start sharing o...

Train Track Word Building- Fun and easy literacy activity inspired by the book Old Tracks New Tricks. Great preschool or kindergarten activity for teaching sight words, phonics, or CVC words to beginning readers.

Teaching Sight Words - practical ways to teach high frequency words plus printable sight word mats to use | you clever monkey

I have a super fun Sight Word Sampler FREEBIE for you! I have taken some of our BEST selling sight word products and combined them to bring you a sample

So many ways to teach, practice, and master sight words.

Looking for a fun, Monster Theme for Preschool? These Play-Based Math and Literacy Centers and crafts are a huge hit with the kids.

Teaching Sight Words - practical ways to teach high frequency words plus printable sight word mats to use | you clever monkey

Find 10 sight word activities and games for Kindergarten or 1st grade. These sight word activities can be played whole group, small group, or in centers.

Another fantastic sight word game. Fun, easy and low pressure game for teaching your kids the words that will help them read.

Have you kitted out your classroom with all things autumn, or are you in need of some inspiration? Check out these 10 autumn continuous provision ideas for EYFS and KS1!

It's that time of year again... We've got just a few short weeks left with our kiddos. Let's be honest though, we're all tired. More like exhausted. Summer

Let's make learning sight words fun with some games! Children need to experience sight words in a variety of situations. So I created some ...

When it comes to learning a new concept like sight words, the process is a whole lot easier, for both the teacher and the student, if you can find a way to

So many ways to teach, practice, and master sight words.

Sight Words are such an important component to any successful reading program. When kids learn sight words along with phonics skills, they become strong

Last week, after a meeting at church, I chatted with a sweet friend. She asked me, "Liz- what in the world are SIGHT WORDS, and do you have any ideas for how my daughter and I can practice them at home?" (Her cutie had just started Kindergarten...) Before long, a few other Moms joined in on the conversation, and I knew right away I wanted to write a blog post sharing EASY and FUN sight word activities that parents can do at home with their kiddos. Just as parents help their child study for a weekly spelling test, they can also help their child read and review their weekly sight words. This blog post is filled with ideas for PARENTS to help their children practice and review their sight words at home to compliment what the teacher is doing at school. Sight word activities at home should be... 1. Tactile/Hands On 2. Games/FUN 3. Visual You want your child to have an opportunity to build, touch, and experience the sight words so that his or her brain can make a connection between the letters and the word itself. It's all about exposure, repetition, and practice. 1. Glitter Sight Word Flip Books (This video explains how to make them.) 2. Whipped Cream/Shaving Cream Writing Spray some whipped cream or shaving cream on the counter or table. Have your child spread it out and then practice writing his sight words. Provide a flashcard or list for reference. It's all about practice, repetition, and exposure to the words. Don't worry if your child needs to look at the word list. 3. Sand/Sugar letters Get a school supply box or cookie sheet with edges and fill it with play sand or granulated sugar. Have your child practice writing sight words in the sand with his or her finger. It's all about the touch! *Hint: You do not need very much sand!* 4. PlayDoh Flatten a piece of play doh and use a toothpick or skewer to write sight words in the PlayDoh. Kiddos can also form long snakes with the PlayDoh and then build the words with PlayDoh. 5. Build the Word Build the word using magnetic letters, cut up pool noodle pieces, alphabet cereal, or with yummy items from the pantry! Brynn had a blast with this pool noodle sight word activity. Such a cutie. Find out more about the pool noodle sight words. PULL AND PEEL TWIZZLERS They are so easy to bend and shape. So much easier and less messy than PlayDoh. Delicious too! :) Sight Word Snacks: Pull and Peel Twizzlers, pretzel sticks, raisins, chocolate chips, spaghetti noodles, Cheerios, Cheez-It letters, animal cracker letters, string cheese... 6. Go Fish Make a set of playing cards with index cards using the words of the week or the words your child needs to review. (2-4 per word) Deal the same number of cards to each player and then leave a "Go Fish" pile in the middle. 7. Memory Make a set of playing cards using the words of the week. (Two per word) Place all of the cards upside down. Each player flips over two cards and reads the words aloud. If the words match, the player keeps the pair. The player with the most matches wins. *If you child has A LOT of words to learn, start with just a few and then add more to the memory game as they become more comfortable with the words. Your child will be extremely frustrated if they have 20 cards in the game and they can't read any of them, so start simple.* 8. Hopscotch Grab some chalk and make a hopscotch board in your driveway. Fill in the week's sight words, and have your child hop across while practicing the words. While you are outside enjoying the weather, let your child decorate the sidewalk or driveway with all of his or her sight words. 9. Hide & Seek Sight Words Write the weekly sight words on sticky notes. When your child is not looking, hide the words all over the house! After you hide the words, let your child loose to go find all of the hidden words. For extra practice, your child can write the words after he or she finds them. This game is so easy and endless fun! Tip: Collect found words on a clipboard. 10. Printable Board Games I love this editable game from Playdough to Plato. It's FREE! I love that you can type in the words that you want on the game board. So cute and fun for practicing new sight words. (If you don't have a TpT account, you will need to sign up to download the freebie.) 11. SWAT Game Write all of the weekly sight words on index cards. Grab a fly swatter. Yes, a fly swatter. :) Call out one of the words. As quickly as possible, your child SWATS the word with the fly swatter. Silly fun! If your child is struggling with ALL of the words, just start with 2-3words. Add a few more words as they become more familiar with the words. 12. Sight Word Password Kids love secret passwords. Use this love of passwords to help learn sight words. Pick the trickiest word of the week and make that the "password." Write it on a big piece of construction paper and post it somewhere in your house that gets a lot of traffic (i.e. the bathroom, the fridge, the pantry...). To enter the pantry, everyone in the family must read the password. Hearing Mom, Dad, and older sister say the "password," as well as looking at it and making a connection with it throughout the week will help your child remember it as well. Remember, it's about exposure, repetition, and practice. If you are a teacher, please feel free to share the link to this blog post with parents in a weekly e-mail, class newsletter, during Parent Teacher Conferences, etc. Please e-mail me at [email protected] if you have any questions. If you would like to download the sight word cards I used, visit my TpT store.

My wonderful kindergarten class just finished their 3rd week of school! I can’t believe how fast it has gone by! We have been working hard, having fun, and learning so much each day. They have really started to build their stamina at being at school all day long. (They were very sleepy the second half […]

Play High Five Sight Words for a fun way to teach your child to read! Beginning readers will love this reading game!

Combining sight words and word families is the perfect way to start a child's reading journey. Download free printable worksheets and centers!

Get outdoors this spring (or stay inside if it's really raining) to practice reading with this fun gross motor sight word game for preschool & kindergarten.

Find 10 FREE sight word games and activities for your students to use during literacy centers. Many of these require very little materials to make.

Learning to read sight words has never been more fun! Grab your chalk and head outside to practice reading with this chalk sight word game.

Have you seen them? Pool noodles are everywhere... especially Pinterest. I'm here to share my ideas on using pool noodles for word work, spelling, and sight word activities in the classroom or for your homeschooler. Keep reading for my "oopsie" moments as well! If you are wondering why pool noodles are all the craze, let me tell you why...CHEAP. QUIET. EASY TO FIND. TACTILE. FUN. Seriously, pool noodles are my new favorite manipulatives because they are so inexpensive and don't make any noise! They are colorful, easy to manipulate, and perfect for fine motor skills. You can stock your literacy centers with pool noodles for building sight words, practicing spelling words, creating word families, or working on CVC/CVCe words for just a couple bucks. I was cutting my pool noodles while my littles were napping. My cat was very skeptical. She couldn't imagine what we were going to do with all of these. As soon as my preschooler saw these, he was all over it. He wanted to build every word he knew! He started with his name and then progressed to some simple sight words that we keep on index cards. We worked together on this activity, but he could also work independently by using the sight word cards to build his towers. These noodle letters are great for building spelling words and word families too. Here is my #1 tip for teachers and homeschoolers who are planning to run to the Dollar Store to bring this activity to life for their kiddos... Think about which way you write the letters on the noodle pieces. When I first started writing with a Sharpie, I was writing them all sideways. OOPS moment #1. Here is my next tip- think about how you want kids to build the words. Do you want them to build towers like this? If so, a paper towel holder from the Dollar Tree is perfect. If you would rather them build the words horizontally, like they are written, you will want to use something like a dowel rod instead. This is my four-year old, Reed, when he first started building his name. He started with R, so he ended up spelling "deer." Oops #2. I'm loving pool noodles for hands on, easy, and fun additions to any Pre K, Kindergarten, 1st grade, or 2nd grade literacy center! I would love to find out how you use noodles in your classroom or with your homeschooler. Leave a comment and share your ideas!

Teaching Sight Words - practical ways to teach high frequency words plus printable sight word mats to use | you clever monkey

Hack your Jenga game for reading fun with your early or struggling reader. Great for revising sight words and CVC words, developing decoding skills and fluency.

Free, fun and useful Kindergarten - 1st Grade, Common Core aligned lesson plans, math games, calendars, behavior charts, materials and more!

Here we are again - another month of AMAZING bloggers getting together to share some Bright Ideas. This time I'd like to share some ideas for those wiggly, bouncy, chatty, energetic, wonderful, kinesthetic learners. We all know 'em. We all have 'em. I think kinesthetic learners would pretty much describe almost every child in my class in 1st grade. Maybe it's the age, or maybe it's just my group of lovelies this year - but either way, I think all primary teachers can agree that it pays to have some strategies in your back pocket to break out when you see the wiggles start kicking in. Not to mention that most children learn best by doing. All of the ideas I'm going to share are ones I use in my classroom. I'm not claiming to have created these ideas, and I'm sure many teachers use the same ones, but I just wanted to share what I do. I hope you will see something that inspires you and you can try out in your own classroom. I named these ideas just to help explain, but if there is another name for them that maybe I don't know about or if there is an original creator, please feel free to let me know. I will always give credit where credit is due. So let's start with some ELA ideas: Whole Body Spelling is using your whole body to form letters to spell a word. You could do this with sight words or other spelling words. You can do it in the classroom, but my students love going outside to do this. We even go out in the winter and do this in the snow. Write in the air is just a quick way to practice spelling. We use our fingers in the air as if we are writing and spell words out loud together. This is a hard one to capture in a picture, but here is my attempt. Maybe you can tell that they are spelling the word again. :) Listen and Jump is something we do when reviewing sight words, rhyming words, or vocabulary words. In this picture all the kids have sight words and when I say a word that they have, they jump up in the air. They LOVE this one! Sometimes I will give them other words and say if your word rhymes with "cat" then jump up or if your word starts with a "b" sound jump up. This is also fun because a couple kids might jump up at the same time. Again - simple, but gets 'em moving. Lifesize Making Words - We use letter cards to spell words. As we stretch out the sounds the kids will either stand up or hold up their letter. Sometimes we have vowel teams and those kids link up their arms and say their sound together or we put a Super E at the end of the word and have him/her flip the vowel sound. The person holding the vowel turns around in a circle and says the long vowel sound instead. Acting out phonics is something that really helps my lower readers. They seem to remember things like flipping the vowel and linking arms and so on. Great visual for the whole class. Finally, and probably our MOST favorite, is a variation of the game Hullabaloo. This is such a cute game and my 3 and 5 year old girls really love playing this at home. In the actual game there are rubber mats that have pictures and words with things like animals, food, instruments, etc. You spread these out on the floor randomly. Then you turn on the "announcer". The announcer says things like "Slither over to a yellow mat" or "Hop over to a food". The kids move around and find the mats he's talking about. Then he will say something like, "If you are standing on the elephant you win - take a bow." It's super cute! So I decided to make this into a classroom game to practice word families and as we learn new spelling patterns. I use these pack of foam shapes that I got from the Dollar Tree. Then I write words on them using a sharpie. Right now we are working on long vowels so the pack of words I'm using has CVCe words, vowel teams, and also includes blends and digraphs. But in the beginning of the year I just use CVC words and slowly add in blends. We spread out the words on the floor and I will give directions like, "Tiptoe over to a word that rhymes with feet" or "Crawl over to a word that has a long e sound." We just stand next to the word instead of on them and then I have them read the words they chose. I play this with small groups of children so it is more manageable and because I don't have a ton of room, but it could be played as a class too. In the actual game kids can share mats, so sometimes we do that too. I also use these same cards at our reading table with fun fly swatter to swat the words if we don't have time to spread them all out on the floor. This is also a class favorite and super quick to set up when I don't have the time for the full thing. Now for some kinesthetic ideas to use in math: First up is skip counting. We use numeral cards that I quickly printed on the computer and laminated and each child has a number. We sit in a line or a circle. If we are counting by 2s for example, we will count around the circle and whisper the odd numbers and then shout (not too loud) the even numbers while those children stand up. Then we switch it up and count by other numbers. If we're counting by 3s, we would whisper 1,2 and shout 3, whisper 4,5, and shout 6, and so on. For Greater than/Less than we use the same numeral cards. We make numbers between 0 and 120 (first grade common core standards). Then I have a student stand in the middle and hold their arms like the sign. We practice reading it together. For example: 57 is greater than 46. We will also make numbers and put them in order from least to greatest or vice versa. Sometimes we turn the numeral cards into necklaces using sheet protectors and string and they don't have to hold up the numbers. This next one is something I am planning on getting when I have the money, but wanted to share it with you. In my classroom I have made a Lifesize Tens Frame out of a dollar store plastic tablecloth and washi tape for the lines (sorry no picture). We have kids stand in the tens frame to practice counting, adding, and subtracting using our bodies. But I also just found online this giant 120 chart and blow up dice that I think I will HAVE to get. I also saw another one that was even bigger where the kids move around on it. How fun! Finally is my version of Math Hullabaloo. This is the same idea as the reading version, only using numbers. Again, I write a bunch of numbers between 0 and 120 on the foam shapes using sharpie. Then we spread them all out. I give clues such as, "Dance over to a number with 6 tens" or "Slide over to a number greater than 30." Super fun! Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my Bright Ideas for Kinesthetic Learners. If you enjoyed these ideas, please consider following my blog on Bloglovin' over on the side or following me on Facebook or Instagram.

DIY letter beads to use for practising high frequency sight words.

Sight word bounce is a fun, outdoor partner game that has students practicing reading and identifying sight words while running around!

Practice sight words with these two fun sight word games that can be made in a snap. Great for kindergarten sight word practice.

Learning with Lego - ideas for learning letters - upper and lower case, alphabetical order, letter formation and sight words in the Early Years through hands on play. Perfect learning activities for preschoolers at home and in the classroom | you clever monkey

Outdoor chalk games are great for the nice, warmer weather! I know my two preschoolers at home are always obsessed with a little chalk, so I thought I would share 3 three fun games you can take and use at home or in the classroom all summer long. The three games I’ve included are […]

Time: 10 minutes Ages: Big kids Difficulty to make: Easy peasy Skills taught: Tricky Words – reading and spelling them

“Sight words are boring!” They certainly can be… but they don’t have to be. When children are learning to read a huge emphasis is placed on the alphabet – working on l…