When the weather outside is chilly, warm up your reading skills with these Mitten Sight Word Games. Great for literacy centers!
Mitten Sight Word Games
Learning Objective: Recognize and read basic sight words.
More about Sight Words:
You may see many matching games for kids to play.
That is because they are some of the easiest games for young learners to play and require children to look at how the word is formed and find the match to that shape.
The word “the” for example is made up of three letters two tall and one short. The first two letters are made with sticks and the third has curves.
With sight words, children learn the words with memorizing them, rather than sounding them out based on the phonics rules. These words also happen to be the most common words in written print, making learning to read sight words, an essential part of learning to read.
Some children may remember these words after a few times while other children need upwards of 300 or more times hearing and seeing these words in print to remember them.
Sure, 300 times may seem like a lot of times to tell a child that the word {the} is the, but if you do a few activities every week over the course of several months they will gain familiarity and confidence in reading sight words. As their confidence increases, use these words in sentences.
Have them help read the words in books. As you read out loud, stop, point to the sight word, and let them say it.
Games and activities that are fun, make practicing reading the sight words much more enjoyable.
The key to this game is to read the words out loud so that children can begin to connect the oral word to the written sight word.
Sight Words for Beginning Readers
I like to start with the following sight words:
- I
- see
- my
- me
- like
- we
- on
- the
- an
- a
- and
- it
- to
- me
- go
- you
- is
- play
- he
- she
- said
Mitten Sight Word Games 1
In this game, children match colorful note cards with sight words on them. Using a clothespin brings in some fine motor strengthening as well.
Materials Needed
- Mitten sight words printed on card stock
- Scissors
- Yarn
- Clothespins
*Make mitten clips by tying one end of the yarn to 2 clothespins.
Directions
- Cut the mitten sight words out. Place them in a pile near the middle of the table. Set the mitten clips nearby.
- Have them draw a sight word mitten from the pile and read it out loud. Clip it to one side of the mitten clips.
- Search through the pile to find the matching sight word. Clip it to the other side of the mitten clip. Repeat until all mitten clips are filled.
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Mitten Sight Word Games 2
In this game children scoop a sight word snowball up with mittens, read it, and put it in another basket. A great game to put your mittens to good use reading!
Materials Needed
- White Ping Pong Balls
- Permanent Marker
- 2 baskets
- Pair of Mittens
Directions
1. Write a sight word on each ping pong ball.
2. Put them in the basket.
3. Have the child put the mittens on and select a ball, read it and set it in the next basket.
* Add gross motor to this mitten sight word game by placing the balls further apart from each other.
My boys would love the second mitten game. I think we will play it today!
Fantastic – I'm seeing how different kids can be my eldest instantly saw the pattern in the words and remembered them – my youngest we're on about our 200th time for the I would say and we're still not quite there yet getting these set up for afterschool today.
I have lots of mittens left over from our games so we are going to try the sight word matching game. I think my preschooler will like that.
These sight word games are perfect for our kids. I'm off to pin this now!
love this idea! I really cant wait until we are at the point to learn out sight words. you always have such great ideas!