Sight Word Games

Sight word games are tough for me in the classroom.  This is my first year as a teacher and my first year doing Daily 5.  There is a lot going on during our reading time.  I'm working with students on their reading and my assistant is helping with writing (we run the Daily 5 writing time like Writer's Workshop).  Between the two of us we still can't seem to make sure our kiddo's are actually reading and learning the sight words in the activities I give them. 

After Christmas I completely revamped my Word Work section and put a bunch of games from Tara West in her Word Work Super Pack.  I bought pack one and two.  These have been awesome, but far and away the favorite game is baseball.  However, I still have the same problem: are the kids actually reading, understanding, and learning the words? 

My management of this time goes something like this:

I look up from the student I'm working with and scan the room.  I'll sometimes arbitrarily pick a student who is working on words and yell across the room ask, "What word is that?"  To which they mostly answer with a shrug.  Then I tell them the word, make them repeat it to me and go back to the poor student at my table that was getting ignored.

Here is my current solution: make a game similar to Tars West's baseball game, but use the actual words I am teaching in the classroom AND introduce the games in the order that I introduce the words (we work on a different group of words every month or so.  That means a new game every month).  At least with this method I know they have been exposed to the words in the game again and again and I'm hoping this exposure will make all the difference.

Enter my game: Sight Word STRIKE.  I made six different games (one for each word group we study) and the first one is FREE in my TPT store.

Check it out here!

Does this seem like common sense to all of you old pros?  Yeah, I thought so.  What can I say?  I learn a little more every day.