A friend contacted me about a student who is struggling with sight words. I sent her my sight word resources, but my brain couldn’t stop thinking about it. The student also needed to work on fine motor and gets frustrated when they are asked to write out sight words. We need an activity that will let the child build the word without writing but still help to build the fine motor skills so that they can write with ease eventually. This is what I sent to her – a fun and hands-on sight word activity that would be a great addition to any kindergarten literacy center!
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Sight Word Jars
Gather your materials. You will need some lowercase letters, I’m using my favorite magnetic ones ( find them here), but you can use whatever fits. If I were creating this for a classroom, making multiple trays, I would buy two sets of magnetic letters to use. You will also need and tray, permanent marker, and small plastic containers – I got them from Dollar Tree.
Start by building sight words yourself. I am using the Dolch Sight Word Pre-k List, use whatever list your school uses, they can vary.
Next, write the words on the lid of the container with the marker.
Fill them up and pop them on the tray.
Invite your student or child to the tray, and explain how to open the lid, take out the letters, and to use the word on the lid build the sight word with the letters.
Not only will your student be working on recognizing these high frequency words, but they will also be working on hand strength when opening the containers and their fine motor skills while taking the letters out and placing them. These tasks will help develop the skills needed to physically be capable of handwriting with ease.
More Sight Word Activities
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