Sight Word Discovery Game

One of my teammates, Jean, has been working all summer to create sight word games… a different game for each week.  (Just as a side note, I am so lucky to have a friend and colleague like Jean. She is so thoughtful and works so hard!  She gives a lot of herself and is willing to do anything she can to help out.  When I say she’s been working all summer to create sight word games- she has been making sets for each of us! What a sweetheart!!)

Okay, back to my story!  Jean has been making these fantastic games.  Meanwhile, I have spent way too much time on pinterest, gathering ideas.  I fell in love with the idea of Discovery Bottles (check out Tunstall’s Teaching Tidbits for more ideas- http://tunstalltimes.blogspot.com/2011/07/discovery-bottles.html ) but I really don’t want to store water bottles.  I wanted something smaller…

Flash forward to Monday.  Jean and I were brainstorming about a game she was working on (that involves Easter eggs). I pulled out some plastic Christmas ornaments out, and was struck with inspiration!

So, here is my version of “Discovery Bottles” a.k.a. “Discovery-Plastic-Christmas-Ornaments-That-I-Found-On-After-Christmas-Clearance”! (Okay, I need a better name-- any ideas?)

They are a little trickier than water bottles because of their design, but I am pretty happy with how they turned out!

(Helpful hint: use another ornament to scoop the rice-- that way you get just the right amount!)

First, I printed and cut out the 5 sight words that I am focusing on.  (Our sight words are broken into sets of 5 words that we focus on each week- and then every few weeks we review all the words we have covered.)

Put a sight word or two in the bottom.

Then I scooped in some rice.  The trick is to make sure that you put it in the side with the raised edge (you know, the part that fits inside when closed.  It makes a BIG difference when gluing it together!).

Stick the other sight words in, have some fun with it! J

Add a little more rice.

Then put a ring of glue around the edge and stick it together.  (This is a little tricky- don’t burn your fingers! Don’t use a high temp glue gun! I learned that lesson the hard way! It will warp the plastic and the two halves won’t fit together!)

I decided to add a ribbon to cover up the glue.  Because of the awkward shape, the glue isn’t quite as pretty as I’d like it- bur ribbon covers it pretty well!

Shake and find your words! It is so fun!

I think we will have a recording sheet that allows our students to collect data on a tally chart to show how many times they see each word. It will look something like this:

Sight Word Data Put a tally mark for each time you see the sight word.
go	you	into	her	down

 Another variation could be just having them write the word each time they see it.  

I am going to make some with numerals as well!

I also think that colored rice would be super fun with the clear ornaments!

Hope this gives you some fun ideas!!

Sarah