June 11, 2012

Sight Word Activity

I am helping my 5 1/2 year old to learn to read.  He's not too excited, and I've started and stopped several times with him this past year because I don't want reading to become a chore, but I finally decided to just force it on him.  I know that sounds mean, but he has a lazy, easy going personality and doesn't like to do anything that requires effort, so it's necessary.

We've been working on sight words.  Today we played a game with them that he thought was a lot of fun.  It's a version of the game "Don't Eat Pete", using words instead of pictures.


I printed out a chart of 9 sight words he's currently working on.

We put cheerios on each square.  He closed his eyes, and I pointed to the one that was going to be "Pete". (Maren was playing with us too) Then Christopher opened his eyes and began choosing cheerios to eat.  He had to read the word in the square before he could eat the cheerio he picked up.  If he picked up the cheerio designated as "Pete", we all yelled "Don't Eat Pete!" at him and he laughed, and then his turn was over. Maren also took turns, and at least Christopher was hearing the words even if he wasn't reading them himself.

We played this many times, and then for the last round I put chocolate chips on the squares.

goofball

Even though he puts up a fuss about doing reading lessons with me, I know he is enjoying his new skills. A couple of nights ago I found him reading a book in bed an hour after I had tucked him in.  I had to punish him, but was secretly rather pleased.

7 comments:

  1. HI! I'm visiting from Circle of Moms =-) I think my favorite thing about the contest has been finding other homeschool families and getting to get a peak at their journey!!!

    This is such a fun, clever activity. We'll have to try that.

    I blog at Living Life Intentionally (currently #27 on the list) and would really like to get into the top 25!!! I would appreciate it so much if you would give me a vote!! Thanks for considering and Happy Homeschooling =-)
    Beth
    http://www.circleofmoms.com/top25/Top-25-Homeschooling-Moms-2012

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  2. What a great idea! I think this would be perfect for my daughter. We haven't really worked on reading much yet, but she knows letters and sounds. This sounds like a fun way to learn regardless!

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  3. Cute idea! I have a reluctant reader here so this might be something fun to try out sometime. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. This looks like fun! M&M's might be fun too. I just did a blog on learning to letters and learning to spell with the Upwords game tiles.

    http://farmersdaughterinlaw.blogspot.com/2012/09/using-upwords-game-for-learning-to.html

    My little guy is 5 1/2 too. We are also using the free website ReadingBear.org for phonics. It is more interesting to him than a workbook!

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  5. It looks like he had fun doing it :) How sweet! I have a struggling reader -- he's almost 10. I could still incorporate ideas like this :)

    Thanks for sharing! Visiting from Hip Homeschool.

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  6. Hopefully the punishment wasn't too severe for reading in bed. LOL
    Isn't it a joy to see them wanting to and reading on their own?

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  7. No, it wasn't a severe punishment. I think I just closed his door for a few minutes. :)

    Thanks for all your nice comments everyone!

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