If you are looking for a fun way
to make practicing sight words a part of your family routine, why not make it a
game? Worksheets that come home from school for practice can be pretty boring.
Most kids learn best by interacting and homework is typically not very
interactive. When you let the kids make up the rules to a game they’ll be more
willing to play. My kids created this game on their own and asked me to share
it with all of you. There really aren’t any rules except that you get a little
silly.
My daughter came home with a gumball
sight word game that she earned at school. She thought it would be fun to add
to our growing game collection. The only problem is this game is pretty boring
on its own (at least for older kids). Each player pulls out one gumball card,
reads it out loud before the next player pulls out one card to read aloud.
That’s how the game is played until all the words are gone. Or you can also
select a “pop” card that pops all your bubbles and you start all over again
which can be frustrating for really competitive kids.
This game just wasn’t
interactive enough for my girl. So when she pulled out her sight word she read
the word and added, “As in” and made up a silly sentence to use the word in. It
sounds ridiculously simple, but the things your kids come up with will have you
rolling! This is guaranteed to make learning more fun!
Here are some real life examples
from our game night. My daughter selected the word “gave.” Sounds easy enough
to use it in a sentence right? Well, if you’re my kid you are throwing it in
with a side of silly, “Gave. As in that time my pants gave me a wedgie.” This unexpected
twist made us all laugh and suddenly it was game on! Each player HAD to outdo
the last with their silly sentence. The next sentence was, “pull as in that
time dad asked me to pull his finger.” There were 100 sight words in this game
and we laughed through every single one. We were almost disappointed when the
game ended. But we picked it right up the very next morning at breakfast! It is
kid tested and approved!
READ MORE: Mom, How Do I Spell…?
Here’s how to make your child’s sight word practice much more fun:
You can use almost anything you
have on hand. You don’t even need to make it as fancy as this game because the
kids won’t really care. But for the sake of this tutorial, let’s pick colorful
Post-It notes. You can also use scraps of white paper, construction paper,
colorful index cards, etc.
-
Write
that list of words your kid’s teacher sent home for practice on individual
Post-Its. One word per note.
- Give
each player a stack of words.
- Starting
with the youngest player, go around the table and have each player read the
word out loud then use it in a silly sentence.
- Get
ready to laugh!
Really, that’s it! So easy right?
If the whole family is on board for this game it feels way less like homework!
There aren’t any rules that say you can’t have fun while learning. And there
aren’t any rules that say your whole family can’t help you with homework.
Making it fun and painless means your child is more likely to practice their
sight words and it will be over super quick. Not to mention adding a little laughter to
your homework routine. Who couldn’t use
a little more of that?