Are you looking for some new ideas to make sight word practice fun?  

This Nerf gun sight word game for kids is perfect for getting kids up and moving while working on their reading skills.  

Amazon affiliate links have been used below.  See my full disclosure for more information.

If your child loves Nerf guns, you may also want to check out these fun Nerf gun games.  

Nerf Gun Sight Words

Materials Needed:

• Nerf Guns and Foam Darts
• Sticky Notes
• Marker
• Cardboard Boxes, Plastic Cups, or Blocks
• List of Your Child’s Sight Words 

To set up this sight word activity, you will first need to decide which sight words your child should work on. 

I suggest using a few words they have been struggling with, along with some that they have mastered.  This gives them words they can have immediate success with and a few they will need to work a little harder for.  

If your child is no longer working on sight words, you could also use CVC words or other words your child can sound out.

Use marker to write each word on a sticky note.  There should be one word on each note.

Stick the sight words onto cardboard blocks, plastic cups, or even a few empty boxes from your recyclables. 

Having the words on Post-It Notes means you can easily switch them.  You can also put words on both sides of your blocks so each time the targets are set back up a new word can appear.

Finally, arrange the blocks or cups in a row.  You can even stack a couple on top of each other for more fun.  

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How to Play Word Shoot Game

Have your child pick a word to read aloud.  If they read it correctly, they get to shoot it, knocking the block or plastic cup down.  

If they miss the word, they can try it again later.   

Alternate ideas for Sight Word Shoot 

• Call out a word and have your child find it to shoot.
• If you have multiple children, set up two different “ranges” and have a contest to see who can find the correct word to shoot first.
• Create your own DIY spinning targets to write the words on.  

Tip:  Using a Nerf laser sight makes aiming at the right word super easy.   Suction cup tipped darts are also fun with this.  

Playing Nerf gun sight words is a fun sight word practice activity your child will want to do again and again.

You may also enjoy these posts:

• Nerf gun math game
• Dr. Seuss Sight Word Game
• Dinosaur Crafts & Activities 
• Learning with Nerf Guns, by Different by Design Learning

Originally published January 3, 2016.

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Sight words help children gain confidence as they read, and increase a child’s reading speed and comprehension.  

Kids learn better when they’re having fun, which is why we love adding different games for kids into our homeschool routine.  

Help get your child excited about reading with these fun ways to practice sight words at home. 

Sight word games are a fun way to work on early reading skills.  

If you have an early reader, chances are they are learning math facts as well.  Check out these fun ways to practice math facts for more learning games you can do at home.  

Fun Ways to Practice Sight Words

Dr. Seuss Sight Word Activities — Mix reading practice with activities inspired by a favorite author of early readers.  

Read to the Top —  Get your child up and moving with this super simple idea that takes just minutes to set up. 

Very Hungry Caterpillar Printable Game — Edit this colorful game with your child’s words for a printable, low-prep game featuring one of the most loved early reading books.  

Reading Farm — Mix up some cloud dough and add toy tractors sight words to create a small world setting that encourages reading.  

Blast Off Sight Word Game —  Outer space fans will be thrilled with this reading game for kids you can make at home.

Dr. Seuss Inspired Reading Game —  Dr. Seuss books are always popular with early readers.  This game, inspired by his books, is easy to make and fun to play.  

Drive to the Sight Word —  Get your little vehicle enthusiast excited about reading with this simple idea. 

Cup Crash — Mix sight words with all the fun of knocking things over in this simple sight word activity.  

Bottle Cap Sight Word Game —   Recycle plastic bottle caps for this fun DIY sight word game.  Start with just a few bottle caps and continue to add words to your collection as your child progresses.  

Sight Word Black Out — Print out one or all 30 pre-made game boards to practice the most common sight words.  

Sight Word Tic-Tac-Toe —  Young children love playing tic-tac-toe.  Turn that favorite game into a sight word activity.  

Sight Word Sensory Bin — Mix sensory play and learning with this simple activity.  Early readers will have fun building words with plastic letters they find in the colorful bin.  

Sidewalk Chalk Reading Game —  Take the learning outside!  Grab the sidewalk chalk and practice those words in the driveway or on the sidewalk. 

Sight Word Bang — Discover how you can use noise makers in a simple sight word game outside. 

Activity Mats — Kids will have fun bending play dough into the letters to form the words on these high frequency word mats. 

Sight Word Smack —  Get your child up and moving while they work on their reading skills.   

Sight Words in Sand —  Incorporate different sensory materials, like sand or shaving cream into learning.  

Contractions with Plastic Eggs —  Those plastic Easter eggs can do more than just hold candy.  Use a few to practice reading contractions. 

Snowy Sight Words — Mix sensory play and learning together in this activity.  This one is perfect for winter time.  

Nerf Gun Sight Word Shoot —  Have Nerf guns at home?  Use them to get your child laughing and learning for hours.

Sight Word Pop.  —  No one can resist popping bubble wrap!  Save those over-sized packing bubbles to make learning to read more fun. 

What is the Purpose of Sight Words

Sight words are sometimes referred to as high frequency words.  These words make up a large portion of the words used in children’s early literature. 

There are two main word lists that are often used in schools. 

• The Dolch sight words are words that appear most often in reading material for students in kindergarten through second grade.
• The Fry words list is based on words ranked by how often they occur in materials for grades 3 – 9, with the first 100 words being the most often used words in the English language.    

Learning to identify sight words is critical for early readers.   

One reason for this is that many of the words are ones that can’t easily be sounded out or illustrated.  For example, think of the words  the, are, & said.  

Being familiar with the sight words also helps children build confidence and fluidity as they learn to read.  

Help your child become a better reader by trying out a few of these fun ways to practice sight words at home this week. 

You may also like:

• Shark Spelling Game
• Printable Activity for Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You
• Lego Sentence Building Activity 

 Originally published February 7, 2016. 

The post Fun Ways to Practice Sight Words at Home first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Over the years we have enjoyed several Dr. Seuss activities inspired by his books.   

One of our favorites for early readers is this Dr. Seuss sight words game.

This simple Dr. Seuss game makes sight word practice at home more fun.   It’s perfect to do in March, while schools are often celebrating the author’s birthday.

You will also love these other Dr. Seuss sight words activities and  Dr. Seuss File Folder Games for preschool & kindergarten.   

Dr. Seuss Sight Words Game

You will need 9 plain white note cards.  You could also cut your own cards out of a piece of white card stock.    

Use markers to draw a hat similar to the Cat in the Hat’s hat on each card.  (You could also do this on the computer and print it out if you have access to a color printer.)

With a black marker write one sight word at the bottom of each card.    I chose to use all rhyming words for our cards, making it easier to sound out unknown words.  (And very Seuss-like, too!)   But you can use whichever sight words your child is working on at the moment.  

Draw a small birthday cake on a piece of scrap paper.  It needs to be small enough to hide under one of the note cards.  

Why the birthday cake?  To celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday on March 2.  If you plan on doing this activity at a different time of year, simply draw (or print out) a picture of the Cat in the Hat for your child to find instead.

Dr. Seuss Reading Game

To play, flip all 9 cards over.  

Hide the birthday cake (or cat) under one of the cards while your child is not looking.

Have your child flip over the cards, one at a time and read the word on the card. 

If they read the word correctly, it stays face up. 

If they read the word incorrectly, read it for them, and then place it upside down again.  

The game ends when they find the hidden birthday cake and correctly read the card it is hidden under.  

How many cards can they read before they find the cake?  

Both my preschooler and kindergartner were able to play this game.  

The kindergartner already knew several of the words in this DIY sight word game and was easily able to sound out the others.

I LOVED that the preschooler was also able to play by sounding out the first letter and then add “at” to it and putting it all together.  He was so excited to read the words “mat,” “hat,” and “rat!”  (And I was excited to watch those wheels in his head turning!)

This Cat in the Hat craft was fun to do after playing the game. 

You can easily modify this game to meet the needs of your child.  Once they are feeling confident in getting through 9 cards, try setting it up with 12 or 15 cards for them to read.  

I hope your child enjoys this Dr. Seuss sight words game as much as we did.

Looking for more Dr Seuss activities?  

• Dr. Seuss Activities for Older Kids (8+)
• DIY Yertle the Turtle Stack the Turtles Game
• Dr. Seuss STEM Activities 
• Daisy-Head Mayzie Craft

Originally published February 28, 2014. 

The post Dr. Seuss-Inspired Sight Word Game first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Does your child grumble when it’s time to practice those spelling words?  We had lots of fun with this spelling practice activity that is perfect for a dinosaur unit (or just your typical dinosaur fan to do at home).

What I love about this activity is that it is super easy to set up.  Plus, once the kids see the set up, they actually WANT to practice those spelling words!

Spelling Practice Activity for Dinosaur Unit

Materials Needed:

• Letter Tiles (We love using the tiles from our Bananagrams game.)
• Kinetic Sand
• Rimmed Cookie Sheet (or other container with sides)
• Plastic Dinosaurs
• A List of Your Child’s Spelling Words

Using your child’s spelling list, find letter tiles to create each word.  If you don’t have enough tiles to make all of the words all at the same time, your child can easily make a word, take it apart and reuse the letters for the next word.

Place a few letter tiles on your cookie sheet.   Cover the letters with sand and add more letters, until all the letters needed have been placed on the tray.

Arrange a few plastic dinosaurs on top.  Place the spelling word list next to the tray for reference.

Your child can use the dinosaurs to help dig up the letters, or they can use their fingers.  You might even spot T-Rex helping to put the letters in the correct order to form those spelling words.

Tips:  

• When using kinetic sand I usually have the kids sit on the kitchen floor instead of at the table.  It actually helps reduce the amount of sand that gets on the floor because it puts the child at a level higher than the tray so they can see/control the mess a little more.    Once they are finished it is easy to sweep up.
• You can further reduce the mess by using a plastic table cloth under the activity.
• Want to increase the difficulty level?  Instead of giving your child the spelling word list, give them the words orally to spell with the tiles.
• You can also add in unnecessary letter tiles to increase the difficulty level a notch.

Practicing those spelling words doesn’t have to be boring.  This simple spelling practice activity will have the kids smiling and begging to do it again.

For more spelling and sight word fun:

• Sandcastle Spelling Practice
• Water Bead Spelling Practice
• 15 Fun Ways to Practice Sight Words at Home

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The post Fun Spelling Practice Activity for Dinosaur Unit first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

I am always looking for fun ways to get the kids up and moving and practicing reading skills.  You can make sight word practice at home fun with this drive to the sight word game.

Setting up for the game is super easy.

I used sidewalk chalk to write a variety of CVC words (consonant – vowel -consonant) on the driveway.  (You can also use sight words or vocabulary words; modify it to meet your child’s needs.)

Then I grabbed the remote control trucks and we were ready to play.

Once he saw the set up, my truck-loving son couldn’t wait to play!

I called out words one at a time and he had fun using the remote control truck to drive over them.

Not only was he practicing reading skills by having to sound out those CVC words, he was also using gross-motor skills and some fine-motor skills, too, as he worked the controls on the trucks.

Plus, anytime I can get them outside to learn is a huge plus!

Want to do this with an older child and use vocabulary words?

Tell them the definition and having them find the correct word.

You could also do it with a foreign language, giving them the English word and having them drive over the correct word in the language they are studying.

Looking for more fun ideas for sight word practice at home?

Check out some of my previous posts:

• Sight Word Pop
• Read to the Top
• Bottle Cap Word Sort
• Simon Says (with a Reading Twist)
• Sight Word Bang! 

The post Drive to the Sight Word first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

To make learning those sight words more fun, we have done a variety of hands-on sight word activities.   

This easy to make bottle cap sight word game is easy to make and lots of fun for kids to play at home or to use in pairs in the classroom.  

We love using plastic bottle caps in learning activities.  For another simple idea, check out our very simple to make bottle cap word sort.  

Bottle Cap Sight Word Game

Materials Needed:

• Plastic Bottle Caps
• Black Permanent Marker
• Sight Word List (optional) 

This bottle cap activity can easily be modified to fit the needs of your child.  

Use your permanent marker to write one sight word on top of each plastic lid.  

On the bottom of each lid write a number 1-3.  

These numbers are for “points” during the game, so I wrote a 1 on the easiest words, with the letter blend in the beginning of the word, and I wrote 2 or 3 for harder words where the blend was at the end of the word.  

Of course, you can assign points as you see fit.

You can play the game two different ways. 

For both ways, start with the words lined up, easy to see.

To play the sight word game in pairs:  Each child takes turns reading a word on a bottle cap.  

If they read the word correctly they place it in front of them.  When all the words have been read they flip the caps over and add up their points.  The one with the most points wins!   (See how I sneaked a bit a math in there, too?)

To play the sight word game alone:  The child sees how many words they can read in a minute (or longer, depending on the level of your child).  

Again, when they finish, they flip the words over and add up their score.  The next time they play they try to beat their previous score until they are able to read all the words in the time given.

Yes, I am aware that the words we used aren’t necessarily thought of as “sight words.”  

However, this activity could be done with any list of words — including the popular Dolch and Fry word lists often used at school, making it a fun way for sight word practice at home. 

It could also be done during center time in a classroom setting. 

Bottle caps make a great tool when it comes to learning.  

We have had lots of fun with our bottle cap sight word game this week, and I plan to add words to it in the future as we work on other letter blends.

You may also enjoy:

• Apple Activities for Kids 
• Nerf Gun Sight Word Shoot 
• Drive to the Sight Word

The post Bottle Cap Sight Word Game first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.