My kindergarten VIU class were asked to develop a “FUN” sight word game.
Try these and enjoy! See you soon!
Janet
FUN SIGHT WORD GAME
MICHELLE FITTERER
Name:
Green Eggs and Ham
Words Used: it, in, at, an, he (can be changed easily)
Materials Needed:
-white foam/poster board (x2)
-green paper plates (2 packs of 10)
-rubber spatulas (x4)
-glue & scissors
-sticky notes or paper and tape (to place words on back of eggs and ham).
*All of these can be gathered at the dollar store.
Rules:
1. Spread the eggs and ham over a table or carpeted area with the sight words facing down;
each student will have their own paper ‘breakfast’ plate and spatula.
2. Students take turns flipping over one egg or piece of ham to reveal a sight word.
3. In order to add this piece of food to their ‘breakfast’ plate they need to be able to read the
sight word.
4. If a student flips over a piece of food with a ‘+1’ on it they are given a bonus flip; similarly, if a
student flips over a piece of food with a ‘-1’ on it they have to put one of their food items back
into the pile.
5. The game ends when there are not any eggs or ham left in the pile, and then the students
can count how many eggs and ham they will have for breakfast.
Extensions:
The words can easily be exchanged when you see that your students are not being challenged.
Furthermore, after a student flips over a food item and reads the sight word, he/she can be
challenged to name a word that rhymes with that sight word.
Highlights:
-The smiles on the four students’ faces while they were playing the game told me that they
were engaged and having fun.
-If a student could not recognize or sound out the sight word then another student would step
in to help them out (providing the beginning sounds).
-Their imaginations lit up when I showed them the cover of “Green Eggs and Ham,” and I told
them that we were having that for ‘breakfast’ today.
-Students counted and compared how many eggs and pieces of ham they had to that of their
peers, as well as created patterns with their eggs and ham.
-When they told me they loved the game and did not want to stop playing!
Issues:
-Students liked calling out the sight words even when it was not their turn, and this took away
the much needed practice for the struggling readers in the group.
-Sometimes it looked like they were confused with whose turn it was, and also had difficulty
being patient as they waited for their turn.
-There was some confusion with what they had to do with the ‘+1’ and ‘-1’ cards.
Learnings:
-The main learning for me was just how easy it is to incorporate sight words into a fun and
interactive game.
-Describing the game in a way that connected to their prior knowledge—showing the cover of
Dr.Seuss’ book and igniting their imaginations about having breakfast—was an important first
step to hook their interest. As a result, the students were eager to keep playing the game when
it had finished.
-With the few sight words that I included in this game, I was able to gain a quick understanding
of who did/didn’t know these words; furthermore, whether they could produce a word that
rhymed with the sight word.
-It was also interesting to see the responses of children who did not know they sight word—
wiggling in their chair, calling out a different word that began with the same letter, or not trying
to sound it out.
-By the end of the game, I noticed that the students who mispronounced some of the sight
words at the beginning (eg. “and” instead of “an”) were now identifying then correctly. What a
wonderful feeling to see this progress so quickly!
Student Comments:
-“I liked flipping up the eggs with the flipper the best...don’t switch it I like it too much.”
-“Maybe we could change it up, make it funner or cooler with harder words.”
-“I don’t like the game because of the -1 part...it was fun though.”
-“Loved it!”
FUN SIGHT WORD GAME
ANDREA DOAK
Name:
WORD RACE
Word Race uses the first 50 words provided on the Figure 7.11 The Instant Words list in Chapter
7 Word Identification from the Bible. Each time the game is played, 8 of these words (4 for
each pair of players) is used at one time. The teacher can deliberately select these words to
serve a variety of learning intentions, such as a focus on number of letters, initial consonants,
digraphs, vowel sounds, etc.
I created this game because of the simplicity and multi-use potential of the materials needed.
It requires 2 or more sets of Scrabble letter tiles or an alternative source of letters. I chose
Scrabble letters because of their feel in the hand and connection to an adult game. Other
letters can be beneficial in other ways. In addition, I use a pop up stand to hold the word cards.
This is unnecessary, but it provides separation from the other team of players. It also helps
students to develop their ability to look up and down and carry their knowledge to the page
before them, something we do throughout schooling. In addition, I created templates for the
player cards and sets of word cards. To play, we use 4 player cards and 8 word cards + 2 blank
cards for word creation. The teams share a set of 4 word cards and carefully selected letter
tiles. This number can be modified to accommodate more players if one had enough letter
pieces. I also used special Velcro bags to contain the word cards and the letter tiles.
To play, the rules are simple. The pairs are teams who work together, yet each player has
his/her own bank player card. It is a race to learn all the sight words from the set of 4 word
cards by creating every word on the player cards using the letter tiles. To build in learning the
words and not simply matching the letters, the player card has the saying, “I see, I sound-out,
and I seek! I show, and now I know”. As the player card says, first the players have to see a
letter (we point to our eyes and say the letter name). Next, the players have to sound-out (we
point to our mouths, and say the letter sound). And then we seek (we use a searching finger to
find the letter needed from the letter tiles). This process is repeated until the word is created.
Then we say the whole word together to show what we now know. Because several of these
words are not simple straight forward to sound-out, it is helpful to have teacher support at this
stage. The team that finishes all of their words first gets a point. Then more points can be
accumulated by creating words with the remaining letter tiles (which have been deliberately
selected to make at least two easy words).
What results from playing this game is that players will become very familiar and build sight
recognition with sets of sight words. The fun of this game is derived from the urgency of the
play and from the success of achieving confidence about new words. In addition, students gain
letter knowledge and the ability to utilize reading strategies with teacher support such as,
sounding-out, chunking, words within words, and simple recall. Furthermore, it is an
opportunity to interact with the words on the word wall and build meaning and connection
with them to prepare for use in writing and reading activities.
A discussion of my game...
To document my observations of this game, I invited two rounds of students to play. In the
first round, I was testing my role as teacher facilitator. In the second round, I participated as a
student as well as facilitating as a teacher. By doing so, I gained insight about where and when
facilitated support is needed. In the first few rounds for each student, facilitator support is very
important. However, if this game is used as a regular strategy for sight word learning, I believe
that students will build independence and the facilitator will have a lesser role to play. I also
decided that in our class this game is not suited to use during what is our usual center time
routine, but it will be very helpful as a literacy-based center that supports other literacy
learning.
The highlights of my observations were the glee with which students engaged with each task.
They were eager to open the little bags, discover the letter tiles and reveal their letters, place
the word cards in the stand, and follow the task asked on their player cards. They were so
focused on doing the tasks that, apart from a sense of urgency; they paid little attention to the
element of competition and points. I had intentionally paired students whose letter and word
knowledge differed significantly. The cooperation and supportive team work was exciting to
watch. Because they were told they were a team, sharing in responsibility seemed to reduce
the sense that one was being helped because they were less knowledgeable than the other. I
was amazed by how many words they were able to create with the remaining tiles, far more
than I had originally planned. This also kept the team who finished their player card engaged
while the other team continued working. Their pride at learning and knowing the words was
evident!
The most challenging issues with playing this game stem from considerations needed to
support its organization and application. This activity only appealed to certain students, those
with the highest interest in letters and words, when other center options included the light
table, house center, cars and so on. Therefore, I think if this game is to appeal to all students
(and I really think it offers a fun sight word teaching strategy for small groups), it would be best
during a specific literacy oriented task time. I also think it is important for students to have an
opportunity to apply what they have learned immediately after playing the game, either
through reading or writing and seeking or recording their new word knowledge. Another issue
which I found observing the kids at play was the need for the facilitator to help the strong
students to know how to teach rather than do the task for the struggling students. Given a little
bit of guidance, this cooperative team concept was extremely powerful. However, I did observe
that this way of supporting one another did not come naturally to all students in the excitement
and urgency of the game setting. Finally, it is very easy for students to focus on matching the
word card letters with the letter tiles (which with Scrabble letters also meant matching upper
and lower case letters). When letter shape matching became the focus, learning the letter
sounds and names and the words themselves was neglected. Therefore, I feel it is very
important that teaching this game needs strong teacher or adult facilitation at the outset, a
possible logistical issue limiting when the game can be played.
I was excited to learn how much potential this one game structure had for teaching different
concepts about words and print. For instance, I made sets of words in all different colours so
that I could differentiate between vowels. While I made player cards with space for four or five
letters, I also made word cards in which the letters were separated according to sounds, so that
diagraphs were inside the same square to emphasize the fact that two letters can combine to
make one sound. There is so much playfulness about exploring words in parts. I learned that
even when I did not teach these extras specifically, my students explored and expressed their
own understandings with excitement to their partners. They also asked powerful inquiring
questions which pushed me to address a few of these concepts with the whole class. The
preparation for this game and its potential for multiple learning applications require thoughtful
planning. Based on what I have learned so far, I think I will set it up as a regular part of our
literacy learning which will be very powerful when thought out and planned in advance.
I have included the player cards and word card templates for your reference and use. The font
is not consistent on all letters because I tried to reduce confusions with a few type font
discrepancies. To do so, this meant sizes were also adjusted some places. I only mention this
because you are welcome to change them in order to use them in other ways with your
students, and I thought this information might be helpful. Happy WORD PLAY!!
FUN SIGHT WORD GAME
MARGIE RADIGAN
NAME: Hop On Pop-Scotch
Game was based on the Dr. Seuss book: Hop on Pop, which focuses on the –op word family.
Words used in the game included –op : top, hop, pop, crop, prop, cop, plop, flop, shop, chop,
stop, mop, sop, slop, drop, plop
Required Materials:


Copy of Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss
Sidewalk Chalk




Sidewalk or concrete area
Paper
Pencil
Bean bag or a small stick/stone as a marker
How to Play Hop On Pop-scotch:
1. After you read Hop on Pop with your students, brainstorm a list of all the “-op” words
you can think of (it is okay to refer to the book if need be). Review the words with your
students, sounding out each one as you go through your list.
2. Use chalk to draw a traditional 10-square hopscotch boar on the cement. The squares
should alternate: one square and then two squares side-by-side, and then one square
and so on. You and your students can make multiple hopscotch games.
3. In each square, have a student print one or two of the “-op” words from the list using
the chalk.
4. Now it is time to hop! Play this hopscotch just like the traditional game only with one
important difference: When a student tosses their marker onto a square and begins to
hop through, before she skips over the square with the marker, she must make up a
sentence using the word (or words) in the square. For example, if her marker lands on a
square that says, “drop”, her sentence could be something like; “I hope I don’t drop
these cookies on Pop!” Be creative with your sentences!
5. On her way back through the hopscotch board, to finish her turn, she must make up a
new sentence using the same word or words.
6. If a student hesitates or loses her balance while trying to complete her turn she can
have another chance after the next student has a turn.
7. This is a great chance to model sentence structures so it is a great opportunity to play
along with the students.
8. Extension Activity: Introduce new word families or other sight words into the hopscotch
template. Endless possibilities to play-based literacy learning!
This was a great activity to add to my Dr. Seuss collection as March 2nd marked what would
have been Dr. Seuss’ 109th birthday and the activity dovetailed nicely into my weeklong Dr.
Seuss celebration. To introduce the activity I read the story to my class after lunch and then we
did an –op word brainstorming activity where we listed all the op words. We came up with 16
words!
Since I had earlier in the year introduced the game of hopscotch to my students to play during
their recess breaks, I did a quick review of how to play and explained that we would be going
outside to create our own –op word hopscotch games. The students were numbered off into six
groups of three and one group of four and then they got down to the task of drawing the seven
hopscotch games with ten connected squares. They then took turns printing the –op words in
the squares. The final task before beginning the game was for the students to search the
playground for their individual markers to play the game. Then the fun began!
It was a good plan to have reviewed the traditional hopscotch game using numbers so that they
were comfortable with the rules prior to me modeling the new game where the students were
to create sentences using the –op words. As I recently had a new student join our class from
China and he had never played hopscotch before.
In some of the groups I observed some students copying the sentence structures of their peers,
which I accepted at the beginning. Also, after a while I decided to rotate all of the #1’s in each
group to switch to a group to their right while all of the #2’s switched to the group to their left.
This helped to assist in providing a variety of creative sentences using the words.
I would like to introduce this activity to our big buddy sessions as the big buddies could model
more variety of sentence examples for proper use of the words being learned. It was a fun
activity that I will definitely do again using other stories.
FUN SIGHT WORD GAME
SHAUNA BUFFIE
Name: Word Bottle
Words Used: and, then, they, this, some, over, until, why, what, when, were, too, two, again,
also, make, we, mom, dad, sister, me, I , can, so, above, come, came, jump, made, went, to,
there, it, one, for, word, first, he, she, be
Materials Needed: Bottle labels, printed words, word bottle recording sheet
(http://tunstalltimes.blogspot.ca/2011/07/discovery-bottles.html), 3 empty plastic bottles,
packing tape, pom poms, glitter, sequins, rice (dyed with food colouring – optional)
Rules: Shake the bottle and record the words on the word bottle recording sheet. Shake as
many times as needed. Individual activity that can be done beside another person or alone.
Results: Game/activity ends when the bottle recording sheet is full.
Observations
After showing the children what to do with the game/activity they easily caught on and were
anxious to play. I had this out during the morning as part of their “small job” time, where they
choose something of my choice that I have placed on the tables or carpet. Some of them
enjoyed this so would take it out again at “big jobs” which is when they can choose a center
type activity. I found that because of the paper/pencil aspect of it, the girls were more apt to
choose it during “big job” time on their own. Many of the children helped one another out and
worked together to find the words and see that their classmate got it recorded on the word
bottle recording sheet.
One of the only issues encountered with the children was when it was first introduced everyone
wanted to be first to play. I found issues with how I put together the bottles, that I would
change the next time. I found that mixing sparkles in with the sequins makes the words harder
to find and read. As well, I would print off 2 copies of each of the word sheets for each bottle
and glue them back to back so that there is not a blank side on the back of the word.
For some children they learned some new sight words and for others, it reinforced words they
already knew. Some children simply enjoyed finding a word and copying the letters to record it
on their sheet, helping them with letter recognition and fine motor skills. And some, enjoyed
shaking up the bottle and were excited to find a word and have a friend help them to record
their finding. I learned that I need to make more of this type of activity available to keep it
fresh, new and engaging for my class.
FUN SIGHT WORD GAME
VICKY DODGE
Name:
ROLL A SIGHT WORD
Game
Name
Roll a Sight Word
Varied – based what group of sight words each group was on
Words
Used
List #1
List #2
List #3
a
He
at
the
Was
or
is
As
be
it
with
one
that
For
this
you
His
had
of
On
have
in
They
by
to
Are
from
and
I
word
***most groups learned how to play using list 1 – helped to be a review of the
words they know
Materials
Needed
Rules
1. Copies of the game board – see attached board samples
2. Dice
3. Pencils and/or coloured pencil crayons
Version #1
1. Roll the dice – the number that lands face up correspondence with
word on the sheet.
2. Colour in one of the squares below the correct column – students have
to say the word out loud when they are colouring it in (if classroom
set-up of activity allows for it).
3. Roll your dice again; repeat step one colouring in the corresponding
square on the chart/graph.
4. The first word to reach the bottom wins
Version #2 – created by students in my class
1. The steps are the same as version one except you only get 20 rolls and
you are competing against another person to see which word wins.
2. My students predicted (put a dot above) the word they think will win.
Results
My students were fully engaged for over 25 minutes. They continued to play by
flipping over the sheet and recreating the graph and starting again. I noticed that
they become more motivated as they were able to add new rules or “tweak” the
ones I had given them. In the two weeks they have played this game they have
become much stronger with their sight words. Many of my low students are
more aware of these sight words in their daily lives – pointing them out in the
halls, library, and even at home (parents feedback has been very positive). The
first question in the morning for the past 8 days as been “do we get reading
groups today?” and “do I get to play ‘Roll a Sight Word’ today? I had suggested to
my students that I could change the sheet they write on slightly; getting rid of the
numbers and just having the words. Then taking the dice and putting just the
word on them – taking away the number component. My students did not like
that idea. They said they liked seeing the number and that if anyone asked “we
are doing our reading and our math at the same time”
I am impressed how simple this game is and how it keeps the students fully
engaged the whole time. In fact, the students are now playing this game and
their own versions during center time now. This game allows students to see the
words visually but it also helps them connect to the word by saying it aloud.
The ability to change the words on the board gives a teacher a game that
continue on all year – giving the students the opportunities to continuously
succeed all year.
FUN SIGHT WORD GAME
ROSE BOULTON
Name:
Scrambled Eggs
Words Used: pig, big, jig, wig, cat, fat, the, is (Words taken from short booklets the kids made
using Zoophonics. Use any rhyming or sight words you are working on.)
Make sure the rhyming words are different coloured eggs.
Materials Needed: 8+ plastic egg containers in different colours, permanent felt, basket to
store them in, copies of the booklets read in class (optional).
How to Play Alone or in Pairs:
Begin with scrambled eggs (taken apart) dumped out of basket.
Partners take turns finding a match (e.g. pig/pig) and assemble egg.
Read the word aloud to your partner to see if they agree and put back in basket.
When all eggs are matched, scramble them and begin again.
For round two, find rhyming words and assemble eggs (e.g. pig/wig). Note: This time the top
and bottom halves of the eggs will be different colours.
Read the rhyming words aloud to your partner. Note: there will be some words left over that
do not rhyme.
My observations: The students enjoyed playing this game and were quick to catch on to the
two rounds of matching and rhyming words. Students who could not yet read the words were
able to match them and then work with their partner to sound out the words. The fine motor
skill of assembling and scrambling the eggs was also fun for the kids. Originally, I used erasable
marker to write the words so I could reuse the eggs but it rubbed off on their hands. Now I will
use a strip of electrician tape to write on with permanent felt so I can continue to change the
words we are using.
FUN SIGHT WORD GAME
WENDY DEGROOT
NAME: Sight Words
I introduce Sight Words or ‘Hot Words’ as I refer to them, almost from the ‘get go’ in
September. I pick a word from our list that will appear frequently in a poem or rhyme that we
are learning and then we use highlighter tape to identify it as we learn the poem/rhyme. I start
with simple ones like ‘I’ or ‘a’. I post the word on a Hot Word list that is very visible to the
children and we look at the letters/sounds/shape of the word. Whenever we are learning a new
poem/rhyme/song we look at our list of words and see if any are in the poem/rhyme/song.
Often I will try to include kinesthetic movement to the shape of the word to help them
remember what it says. Once we have introduced a number of the Sight Words I send them
home in the form of Flash Cards with instructions for games to be played at home to reinforce
them.
It is this stage that I have gotten to in the past and felt that something was lacking to keep the
momentum of the learning going. This week I introduced the ‘Memory Game’ below and we
played it in teams- dividing the class in half.
There are index cards in each pocket with a Sight Word written on it; six pairs of words. This is a
great transition game to play during those 5-10 minute periods of time when you are waiting
for the bell, or for Music class to start. The players must call out two numbers and try to match
pairs of Sight Words. I.e. the player may call #3 and #11. The group identifies or sounds out the
word written on each card and decides if they are a match. The team with the most cards at the
end wins. This could work with rhyming words as well.
I also found the following Rhymes that I will use in the future to introduce the words:
The Word on the Bus (tune: The Wheels on the Bus)
The word on the bus says ____ (the), ____(the), ____(the)
______(the), _______(the), _______(the)
The word on the bus says ____ (the), ____(the), ____(the)
All through the town
The children really enjoyed the game and I can see that this will be a good game to play
frequently as we introduce more words.