4 Sight Word Games for Kindergarten to Try Today
What is a Fun Way to Teach Sight Words?
Learning sight words is a big part of kindergarten. It helps set up students for reading success and makes them faster, more fluent readers.
Here’s the catch:
When you are teaching 5 and 6 year olds sight words, you have to make it really fun to learn them because otherwise they just won’t stick.
Below I’m sharing 4 simple sight word games to try with your kindergartners.
These are all super easy to prep for teachers, simple to play and best of all- will keep your students engaged and having FUN!
What is the Fastest Way to Teach Sight Words?
The average kindergarten student is expected to read and know around 50 sight words by the end of the school year (give or take).
Usually, kids are expected to learn 2-4 new sight words per week during the school year. This doesn’t even count the words they should know from pre-k.
The better that they can read their sight words, the faster they will be able to do things like read and write simple sentences.
To help speed up this process, try to incorporate sight words into as many parts of your day as possible.
I always liked to incorporate sight words into center time and play lots of partner games with my students.
4 Easy Sight Word Games to Try with Kindergartners
I’m sharing my 4 favorite games to play to practice sight words below. I love these because they are simple and extremely minimal prep on the teacher’s end.
Plus, they are all games that students can play without much help from you which is a huge win in my book!
1. Oh Snap!
This first one is super simple and once it’s made, it’s made forever… that’s what I love about it!
For this sight word activity, you will need:
- popsicle sticks
- a plastic cup
Take a sharpie and write each sight word near the TOP of each popsicle stick. (Make sure it’s only on one side).
On two of the popsicle sticks, write the words, “OH SNAP!”
Then, put all the sight words in the cup FACE DOWN.
Students then take turns picking the sticks and reading the sight words.
If they can read the high frequency word, they get to keep it; if not-they put it back in the cup. (You could also choose to tell them the word or have them ask their partner if they know it so they are still being exposed to it).
If they pull one of the “Oh Snap!” sticks, they must jump up, spin around and then put all of their sight word sticks back in the cup while saying “Oh snap!”
I have them do something silly like jump up and spin because it makes the fact that they have to put their sight words back a little better and more fun so they don’t get bummed out!
As you can tell, this gives students multiple opportunities for sight word practice.
The game keeps going until the cup is empty!
2. Sight Word Roll and Trace
This little game is perfect for your kids to play during center time to practice their sight words.
Start by printing off the sight word pages you want them to work on.
Students will need:
- a six-sided die
- colored pencils, crayons, markers, etc. in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple
To play, they will roll the die and trace one word using the color that they rolled.
They will repeat until all of the words have been traced.
3. Sight Word Read and Sort
This one is similar to the game above but it’s for your students who are starting to read simple sentences and need a challenge.
This one is more of an independent game but you can have them work with a partner if you choose.
To play:
Simply read the sight word sentence at the top of the page
Then cut out the sight words at the bottom and sort them into the correct column on the page.
This one is nice because it helps them work on some fine motor skills as well!
4. Go Fish [Sight Word Version]
This one is perfect to do during small group sessions or have students do with a partner or group of 3 or 4 other kids.
- Simply pick a few sight words that you are working on (I would keep it at 4-5 for the week).
- On index cards, write each word on 2 separate cards. (So if you are working on 5 sight words, you will actually have 10 cards.)
- Deal 4 cards to each person.
- Then play like Go Fish only they have to ask for the sight word instead of a number.
- When they get a sight word match, they put it down in front of them.
FREE Sight Word Mini Book
Need some other ideas for practice with sight words?
Check out sight word mini books!
They are the perfect way to reinforce knowledge of sight words!
You can grab a FREE ONE right here to try today!
