20+ Fun Ways to Practice Sight Words at Home
Unlock the world of reading with a touch of excitement and a sprinkle of creativity! From games and challenges to arts and crafts, discover a world of imaginative ways to practice sight words and help young learners become more confident readers.
Learning sight words doesn’t have to be a mundane task — it can be an engaging adventure. Whether you’re a teacher looking to engage your students or a parent eager to make learning more enjoyable for your child, these creative and interactive activities will turn the often-dreaded sight word practice into a joyful journey.
Be sure to check out our other fun family-friendly kid activities and crafts!
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Sight Word Books
Enjoy these Sight Word Books that are perfect once your kids are done playing!
Bob Books – Set 1: Beginning Readers Box Set Phonics, Ages 4 and Up, KindergartenLearn to Read: Sight Words Storybook: 25 Simple Stories & Activities for Beginner Readers200 Must Know Sight Words Activity Workbook: Learn, Trace & PracticeFlash Cards: Sight Words
200 Essential Sight Words for Kids Learning to Write and Read: Activity Workbook to Learn, Trace & Practice 200 High Frequency Sight WordsSight Word Readers Parent Pack: Learning the First 50 Sight Words s a Snap!Bob Books Sight Words: KindergartenMy Sight Words Workbook: 101 High-Frequency Words Plus Games & Activities! (My Workbook)
It’s the perfect way to integrating learning sight words into storytime.
Extra Sight Word Ideas!
Don't miss these printable sight word ideas to do at home or for your classroom!
Fry Sight Words Playdough Mats
Dolch Sight Words Pre-Primer Level Slap-It! Card Game
Sight Word Readers for Kindergarten
As a parent, it’s extremely important for you to practice sight words at home.
Sight words are one of the essential skills your child will need for reading success.
And while practicing sight words with your child at home will make a big difference, it should also be a fun experience!
Sight words are one of the first ways your child begins reading.
As a parent, I first thought that memorizing words isn’t really what reading is all about!
Now that my second child is in kindergarten, I understand that these sight words help build confidence and the beginning understanding of how words are formed, sound and work.
Fun Games to Practice Sight Words at Home
Paper Plate Toss
Write sight words on paper plates. Use them like frisbees to throw after reading the word.
Add in some additional fun by adding a target.
Flashlight Words
Turn off the lights. Tape words on the wall or ceiling.
Use the flashlight to shine on the word, then have your child read it.
Go Fish
Use a duplicate set of word cards to play “Go Fish.”
You can easily make your own cards out of index cards.
Stepping Stones
Place the word cards on the floor, making a fun stream going across the room.
Have your child walk over the stream.
As they step onto the stepping stone (word), have them say the word before they move on to get to the other side of the stream.
Tic-Tac-Toe
Another fun way to practice sight words is to write words in the tac-tac-toe spaces.
Take turns selecting a space to read.
If read correctly, an X or O is placed on the space until someone wins.
Word-O
This is played just like BINGO. Fill in a card with the words that you are working on.
Call out the words and mark the spaces.
The first one with a card covered calls out the word “WORDO!”
Word Hunt
Look for target words in books or in the newspaper.
If using the newspaper your child can highlight or circle the words that she finds.
And throw in these sight word coloring pages for extra fun!
Word Jump
Write the sight words onto the driveway with sidewalk chalk.
Call out a word.
Have your child jump their way to the sight word.
SNAP
You put the sight words you want them to practice on flash cards and put the flash cards into a jar.
Also, you write the word SNAP on a few flash cards and put them in to the jar.
The kids can play in partners or in a groups of 3 or 4 with siblings. They take turns pulling a card out of the jar.
If they can say the word on the card automatically with no struggle, they get to keep the card.
If they struggle, they have to put it back.
If they pull out one of the cards that says SNAP, they have to put all of the card they’ve drawn back. The first person to 5 cards (or 10) wins!
Stair Chase
To practice sight words, place two sight word cards on each stair.
Let them pick one sight word on the way up, saying the word and picking up the card when they get it correctly.
Have them practice the other sight words on the way down.
Coin Toss
Put words on the floor. Children take turns tossing a coin onto a word and saying the word.
If they get the word correctly, they keep the coin.
If you like, first to 10 coins wins. Or see if they can collect all of the coins.
Concentration
Create two sets of word cards. Place the word cards face down.
Have your child turn over two cards, trying to make a match.
Continue until all of the words are matched.
Play who am I?
Lay out the word cards. Then give the child clues to what the selected word is.
For example, if the word was “red,” you could say – I rhyme with bed. I had three letters. I end with the letter D. Have the child locate the word.
Chalk Writing
Go outside and practice writing the sight words with chalk on the sidewalk.
Beat the Clock
See how many times your child can write a word in one minute.
Or see how many flash cards your child can read in one minute.
Words You Can Eat
Write your words in whipped cream, peanut butter, carrots or anything you can eat.
Who has more?
Flash words cards to your child.
If they read the word within 5 seconds, they get to keep the card.
If not, you keep the card.
If the child has more cards than you at the end, they win.
You can use these free dolch sight words flash cards.
Salt Tray
Grab a tray or baking sheet with edges. Pour in salt.
Write the word in salt.
When your child says it correctly, they get to erase the word.
Be sure to check out these printable sight word activities you can easily do at home!
More Fun Ways to Practice Sight Words: Write Them Out
Having your child recite sight words isn’t the only way to have them practice sight words. Having them write them out in fun ways helps them learn the spelling, too. You can make words using:
- Playdough
- Stencils
- Wiki sticks
- Alphabet stamps
- Scrabble tiles
- Magnetic letters
- Legos
- Popsicle Sticks
- Salt on a Tray
- Sidewalk Chalk
- Sticks (in sand or dirt)
You should be a Waldorf teacher 😉 Out of all the choices, I think Isaiah would like the paper plate toss the best! I think we’ll have to try it!
Ha! Thanks for the compliment 🙂 We’ve done so many of these!
Lots of great ideas here! My kids all enjoy reading, so I guess we’re lucky in that respect. My kindergartner went to the neighbors a few weeks ago to deliver something for me and he came back and told me they weren’t home. I said okay, did you leave the package on their porch? He said, “No, they had a sign that said no soliciting so I left.” Lol. How in the world the boy sounded that word out correctly is news to me. He recently tested into our school district’s gifted program, whatever that means for a kindergartner. I’m proud of him. It sort of helps explain some of his uh, let’s call them idiosyncrasies. Lol.
That’s wonderful that your kindergartener loves reading already. Loads of kids are excited to start, but even for those who aren’t do love many of these games.
Great ideas for my 5 yr old granddaughter. I emailed this blog to my daughter.
Thanks for sharing with your daughter. I hope it inspires her 🙂
I love this! My kindergartener had to know all of his 53 words by this past report card. These ideas are great and add a lot of freshness to a daily dull task! We had one more idea for the active boys / girls that need a bit of fun with their sight word memorization… http://www.kinderkeepsakesblog.com/2014/11/sight-word-ninja.html
LOL. Sight word ninja sounds cool! And yes, we’ve been working hard with our kindergartener as well to get all of his sight words…. thus all of the games!
Thank you for all these fun ideas! 🙂
Absolutely! We’ve worked hard on sight words at home… even I got bored. So we needed to mix it up a bit.
My mom bought my kids an art easel. My daughter practices her words by writing them out by herself and with her best friend (she’s in 1st grade)
So cute! Playing school is a great way to practice 🙂