Sight Words and Word Walls

You have heard from the other half of Journey through Elementary, Caitlin. I am so lucky to work with her and now blog with her! This is my first post. I have put it off because blogging is a little intimidating. I am going to start with what I know-- sight words and word walls. I have to admit I am a little obsessed with sight words, is it just me or is that a Kindergarten teacher thing? I am all about making sight words fun! We exercise to sight words, play games with sight words, cheer our sight words, etc. Then, of course, the sight word goes onto the word wall. But I don't want that word wall to be a big waste of space! I make sure it gets used-everyday! My word wall is magnetic and I love it. We can pull the word down and use it during writing, and then put it right back up on the wall.

I would love to give credit to whoever created the sight word cards, but I got them years ago and can't remember where I got them. When we have a few extra minutes in the day (think dismissal time),we play Guess my Sight Word. I give them a hint so they can guess what word I am thinking of- for example, I am thinking of a sight word on the word wall that is 3 letters long and starts with the letter t. Then they all gasp in excitement and throw their hands in the air.

I also have this handy sight word of the day sign hanging by our door on a clothes pin. We will take it down each morning and fill it in with a new word. Every time we come in the classroom they have to read the word to me, and sometimes I even ask them to spell it. You can get this for free here in our TPT store.

Like I said, we play lots of sight word games and today I am very excited to share a game I just made to add to our sight word and word wall fun. My class last year begged to play sight word hangman, which inspired me to create a different spin on hangman. The idea is the same, I pick a word from the word wall and they have to guess letters. In this version, for every wrong guess we start building a potato head! I am so excited to use this game this year. I know my Kindergarteners are going to love it!! I think I am going to add magnets and put it on a cookie sheet. You can purchase it here in our TPT store!
  Thanks for reading if you made it to the end! I would love for you to comment below on how you use sight words and word walls in your classroom! -Jill

Potato Head Sight Word Game