23 ENGAGING Sight Word Activities (2023)
Sight words are the most frequently used words in the English language.
Teaching sight words to little ones is one of the first skills that teachers focus on when teaching student’s how to read!
The tricky thing is, is that sight words need to be memorized. They don’t follow the standard phonetic rules, so kids are asked to know the words when they see them instead of sounding them out.
To help kids memorize sight words, I have come up with 23 ENGAGING Sight Word Activities For Kids! These activities are fun and help kids remember these words.
Let’s get started!
Activity #1: Do-A-Dot Worksheets
Do-A-Dots are a fan favorite at our house. Whenever I pull them out, the kids are ecstatic!
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- Do-A-Dot Painters and my FREE Pre-K Sight Word Do-A-Dot Worksheets!
2. The big word is the sight word that your child will focus on.
3. With a Do-A-Dot painter, they should find the matching sight words to the one in the middle to paint those dots (like you see above).
Also, I have FREE Kindergarten Sight Word Do-A-Dots.
The rest of the grade levels are coming soon!Â
Activity#2: Alphabet SoupÂ
Sensory play, mixed with some learning concepts, may just be one of my favorite things to do with my kids.
I love setting up bins for my kids because I’m able to be creative and set something fun up for them to play and learn with.
This is a reading activity, as well as a letter recognition activity. So, if you have younger ones at home, this is great for them to participate in as well!
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- MY FREE ALPHABET SOUP WORKSHEETS, large storage container, a bowl, foam letters, and a ladle/spoon.
2. On my worksheets, you will see that there are MANY different recipes. Some are for alphabet recognition, and some are reading words! Print off what you need.
3. Show your kids the recipes, talk about the word they are looking for, and what letters they need to build that word. They should use the ladle and scoop out those specific letters and pour them into the bowl.
4. After one word is built, move onto the next one!
This activity is super fun! I do recommend grabbing a towel or two to place underneath the storage bin so help if water gets out of the container.Â
Activity #3: Dot Sticker Sight Words
Dot stickers are on my MUST-HAVE learning supplies to have on hand on at home.
They can be used for so many different activities which I love! Plus, they are simple to use, and the kids love them.
Working with dot stickers involves the use of fine motor skills too! These skills are essential for everyday life skills like zipping a jacket, tying shoes, and writing.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- Craft paper roll, dot stickers, and pencil.
2. On the craft roll, write a few sight words that you are working on with your child. Make sure to space the letters out a little bit since the stickers are a little bigger.
3. Before they start putting the stickers on, ask them what the word is. Have them use the stickers and place them on the lines of each letter, so they build the letter with the stickers.
4. If your child is old enough, have them peel the stickers too for extra fine motor practice.
5. When they have completed all the words, review them all one more time! I suggest doing 3-4 words, so they don’t get bored with the activity.
Want to check out my other MUST-HAVES? Check out my 10 FAVORITE Learning Supplies For Kids Activities article.
Activity #4: Sensory Bag Game
Mess-free sensory activity? Sign me up!
This sensory bag is the easiest thing to pull off, and your kids will love the challenge of this activity.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- 2 bottles of hair gel, a large ziplock bag, sharpie, food coloring, and plastic coin.
2. On the bag, write several sight words that you are working on or want your child to practice.
3. In the ziplock bag, squirt both hair gels packs inside, drop several drops of food coloring in, place the coin in, and zip the bag shut.
4. Massage the bag, so the food coloring and hair gel get all over the bag!
5. Ask your child to find a specific sight word. They should move to the coin through the bag over to that word! Repeat this until you have gone through all the words!
RELATED: 8 Easy Ways to Teach Sight Words to Preschoolers
Activity #5: Sentence Building
Building sentences using sight words is a GREAT way to show your child how the specific word is used in real life.
You can do this by verbally saying sentences, or you can also do it interactively.
We have a bunch of Thomas the Train, train tracks at home, so I thought it would be fun to work on sentence building with sight words with them!
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- Thomas the Train tracks, labels, and a marker.
2. On labels, write some sight words that make sense in a sentence that you kids know or you want them to learn!
3. Spread them all apart, so they have to work on building the sentence, so it makes sense. They will have to read each word then create the sentence!
Activity #6: Secret Sight Words
The element of surprise is so much fun in this activity!
Secret sight words are sure to be a hit with your kids because they get to reveal the words you wrote on a piece of paper by using watercolors!
How to do this activity:
1. You need a set of watercolors, white paper, a white crayon, and a cup of water!
2. Write down a few sight words on a piece of white paper with the white crayon. I’d write the words boldly, so they show up nice for your kids!
3. You can write the alphabet letters for younger kids, or you can mix them all up for older ones!
4. Give the kids the watercolors and have them start to paint over the letters and see if they can identify what the letters are! They can switch colors or keep the same color; it’s up to them.
RELATED: 21 Perfect Alphabet Activities For Toddlers
Activity #7: Construction Sensory Word Building
If you have never played with kinetic sand before, this is a must-try activity for you and your kids!
Your kids won’t need any help diving into this activity, no matter what age they are!
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- my FREE sight word cards, construction vehicles, rocks, kinetic sand, and a container to place it all in!Â
2. Write the letters of each word that are on the sight words cards on the rock with a marker. You may have to write the same letters several times, depending on which words you are working on.
3. Your kids can use their hands to pick up the letter rocks and place them on the construction vehicles, or they can use a small sand shovel if you have one!
4. Ask them to find the letters for the words and match them up on the sight word cards or even in the construction vehicles!
5. You can bury the rocks in the sand to challenge older ones to try to find specific letters.
Activity #8: Sight Word Bean Bag Toss
Got a kiddo that likes to throw? This is a perfect active learning game for them!
Work on underhand throwing technique and aiming skills by playing sight word bean bag toss!
How to do this activity:
1. Materials: beanbags, construction paper, reusable folders, and painter’s tape
2. On construction paper, write down a few sight words that you want to review with your kids. This game works best during a review instead of teaching, in my opinion.
3. Put the pieces of construction paper inside the folders and tape them down with painter’s tape, so they don’t slide.
4. Before you begin the game, ask your child to say all the sight words that you have written down. This way, they will have an idea of where to throw the beanbag when asked.
5. Then have them attempt to throw a beanbag at the specific sight word that you ask them to!
Activity #9: Don’t Break the Ice!
Turning board games into learning activities is an exciting way for kids to learn!
My kids love to play board games, so why not add a little bit of learning into the mix while getting to play?
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- Don’t Break the Ice Game, dot stickers, and a marker.
2. On white dot stickers, write some sight words that you are working on. I wrote one that my daughter already knew so she could play the game and be successful!
3. Explain to your kids that they have to tap lightly on the ice with the hammer. If they hit it as hard as they can, a lot can fall at once. Tell them they can play the regular way after you practice the sight words. 🙂
4. Ask them to find a specific word and tap on it with the hammer, or they can tap on a word of their choice and tell you what it says!
5. After they say or find all the words, then you can play the usual way!
Activity #10: Sight Word Stamping
These Melissa and Doug stamps are fantastic! I love using them on paper and using Play-Doh!
Adding in these different ways to learn sight words will make it more memorable for your child, which is important since memorization is KEY in learning these words.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- Melissa and Doug stamps, paper/Play-Doh, and my free sight word cards for inspiration 🙂
2. Have your kids use the ink and paper, or if you are using Play-Doh, you don’t need ink.
3. Show your child the sight word card so they can see what word they are trying to spell. For younger kids, they can look along with the card. Older ones can look at the word, say it then try to spell it without looking.
Activity #11: Match Game
We love to play match game! My daughter is always so excited when she finds a match.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- paper plates and a marker!
2. You can make this game as big or small as you want, depending on what your child knows. Make sure you have a match for each of the words that you write down :).
3. Create a game that is 4-5 words for younger learners, so they understand how the game works.
4. Older children can have a larger game set up, and to add some more learning into the mix, have the kids WRITE the words on the plates.
Activity #12: Locomotor Sight Word Game
Let’s go OUTSIDE!
Right now, we are in quarantine due to the Coronavirus, so we are trying to get outside to get some fresh air.
Want to see how we played this activity? Check out the video below!
This is a simple way to practice sight words and a fantastic way to get your kids moving! Locomotor skills are a way to move from place to place.
Some examples are skipping, galloping, hopping, leaping, walking, running, and side sliding!
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- sidewalk chalk
2. In your driveway or the sidewalk, write down sight words that your child needs to review. This is an activity that works great for review!
3. Ask your little one to use a locomotor movement (listed above) to get to a specific word.
RELATED: 7 Active Games For Preschoolers
Activity #13: Magnetic Letters
There’s just something fun about the fact that magnetic letters can be put on the refrigerator.
Every time I set an activity up with the magnetic letters, the kids get really into it. This one was no different.
The best thing about this activity is that you can change it up depending on your child’s age and abilities.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- my FREE sight word cards and magnetic letters
2. Youngest kids- use the sight word cards and stick them up on the wall with the letters. Have the kids match up the magnet letters with the sight word cards to work on matching and building the words. Discuss what each word is while they are working on them.
3. Older children can try to do it on their own without the sight word cards. You can ask them to build a specific word on the fridge, and they can attempt to do it!
4. Another option is to build part of the word and have your child find the missing letter of the sight word.
Activity #14: Color By Sight Words
My daughter enjoys coloring. It’s one of the things she loves to do most, so I wanted to come up with a way to incorporate it into learning sight words.
This is my FREE Color by Sight Word Popsicle worksheet!
Look forward to more coming your way soon! She enjoyed it so much; it’s something I will be creating more of.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- My Popsicle Color by Sight Word Worksheet and crayons.
2. Have your kids look at the words at the top of the page and attempt to read the color that is associated with each sight word. Assist them if you have to.
3. They should try to locate that word on the page and color the popsicle the specific color it asks for!
Activity #15: Typing Practice
Technology is going to be a HUGE part of your child’s educational experience once they get to school.
This is an opportunity for your child to practice typing and seeing where letters are on the keyboard.
Typing is just as crucial as handwriting nowadays. I know, I think it’s strange too. But, it’s reality. Most school testing is even done on the computer now.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- keyboard, computer (optional), and Eyewords CARDS!
What are Eyewords?
Eyewords are sight word cards that are interactive and fun for your kids to help your kids memorize these words! Eyewords is evidence-based and was researched by Stanford University and the research study published in Learning and Instruction. Want to learn more about this? Click here to see the article!
2. Place the sight word card, so it’s facing your child when they are typing.
3. You can have a blank document up so they can actually see the work they are typing, or you can just have them press the keys to figure out where the letters are to build the word.
4. Start with small letter words for younger ones then move onto longer sight words once they get the hang of typing.
Are you interested in purchasing Eyewords for your kiddo?
Use the Promo code ABCDEE to get 15% off your order! Click here to see what this BIG bundle includes!
Activity #16: Word Search
Word searches are SO much fun, and they are a great way to work on sight words.
I have two entertaining ways of how you can do this at home!
Grab my FREE Sight Word-Word Search or… create something like this at home.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- craft roll paper and a marker
2. On the craft roll paper, make your own word searches by coming up with several words you want to work on with your kids and write those at the top of the sheet.
3. Write the sight words on the paper, making sure all the letters are next to each other to spell the word ( I know, that should be obvious, but believe me, when I made the worksheets, it was harder than I thought).
4. You can make the words just go up and down and side to side for younger ones. For older kids, challenge them by making the words diagonal or even backward!
5. Write letters mixed between the words and have the kids attempt to find the missing words! They should circle them with a marker!
Activity #17: Squirt the Sight Word
Do your kids like to have fun?
Then, this activity is for your kids!
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- sidewalk chalk and a water gun.
2. Write some sight words on your driveway or sidewalk. I like to use a variety of different colors!
3. Ask your child to find a specific word, and they will use to water gun to squirt that word!
4. They will be SO excited to do this activity! You may even need to add a few extra words to the list because they love it so much!
Activity #18: UNO (The Primary Parade)
My friend Jessica from The Primary Parade had such a GREAT sight word game idea; I had to include it on my list.
UNO is such a fun game for kids!
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- The Primary Parade’s UNO Game Bundle
2. This bundle includes the pre-K, kindergarten, and 1st-3rd grade sight words from the Dolch sight word list! Over 200+ words, your little ones to practice in a small group, whole group or word work, and spelling centers!
3. Follow the regular rules of UNO! You can match by color or number of letters in the words. If you’re unsure of how to play UNO, check this video below for a reminder of how to play.
Activity #19: Sight Word Twister
We just got Twister, and immediately, I thought how much fun this would be to make this a learning game!
What I like about this too is that it’s a movement game, so those kiddos that struggle sitting down to learn may enjoy this activity!
How to do this activity:
1. Materials: Twister game and post-it’sÂ
2. On post-it’s, write a whole bunch of words and put them on the dots of the board.
3. You can use the spinner, or you can just ask them to move their hands and their feet to a specific word!
4. Play until they get to move to each space! They should try to stay up without falling! If they do, though, just have them start back where they were.
Activity #20: Block Building Sight Words
We love using our MEGA Bloks to play and learn!
The best part of this activity is, is that it’s simple to pull off.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- MEGA Bloks and a dry erase marker.
2. With a dry erase marker, write single letters on small blocks. Place a larger block out so your kids can learn how to build the word on the larger block (shown above).
3. For older children, you can work on compound words or contractions as well!
Activity #21: Sight Word Smack
I have done this activity with letters, numbers, and now sight words!
This activity works so well; that’s why I have been able to repeat it with these different concepts.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- Post-it’s and a fly swatter
2. On post-it’s, write a bunch of different sight words that you want to work on with your child.
3. Give them the fly swatter and ask them to swat a specific word. Another way you can do this is by having them swat a word and say what word they hit.
They will be so excited to use the fly swatter to smack the word!
Activity #22: Write the Room
I am writing this article during the Coronavirus quarantine. I am ALWAYS looking for ways to keep both myself and my kids moving!
This is a great way to implement some movement around the house. It can even just be walking, but you can also add in some locomotor movements too!
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- MY FREE SPRING WRITE THE ROOM SIGHT WORDS, a pencil, and something to write on like an art tray or a notebook.
2. Print off the 12 sight word pictures and the writing worksheets. Cut out the pictures and make them into cards, as you see above.
3. Place the cards around the house, you can hang them up with tape, or you can just put them around the home.
4. Your little one will move around the room, trying to find the cards. You can have them look for the numbers in numerical order, or you can just have them find whichever one!
5. Once they find the card, they should write the word on the lines by the number that the card states.
6. Kids should try to find all 12 and write all the words! If they want to afterward, they can always color the pictures too!
Activity #23: Sight Word Soccer
Does your kiddo love sports? This is a great way to implement some learning while playing soccer!
Work on aiming, kicking, and reading skills by doing this fun activity.
How to do this activity:
1. Materials you need- a soccer ball, cones, paper, and a marker.
2. On a sheet of paper, write some sight words and cut them into strips. Tape them onto the cones.
3. Ask your child to say all the words on the cones in front of them. This way, you know that they know all the words on the cones in case they miss when they are kicking the ball.
4. After they say all the words, ask them to try to kick the ball at a specific word. Go through this process until they knock down all the cones!
5. Try to have them use the inside part of their feet, so the ball doesn’t go flying. This technique is used when passing the soccer ball to a partner. This will help them be able to aim better!
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
If your child is learning how to read, learning sight words is imperative!
Need a list of all sight words? This is the site that I use!
Dolch Sight Words List
These words are the most commonly used words in writing that your kids will need to memorize! To help them learn these words, you have to plan memorable activities, so the kids will have fun and learn at the same time.
Do you have some excellent sight word games or activities that you would like to share? I know I’d love to hear about them! Please share them with our community by commenting below.
Happy Learning!
