In student teaching, I add one subject each week until I am full time. For this week, I am adding on "Double Dose" where I work with the on-level and below-level students to improve reading fluency. I am wanting to begin with some sight word study and decided some games were in order, as an incentive for these groups since Double Dose means they have to meet with me twice per day.
I first thought about making a set of playing cards with the sight words. We could play a memory matching game or if I make a set with 4 cards for each word so we can play Go Fish or Old Maid. I'm thinking a lot about how traditional card games could be used with words. I am wondering if i could adapt War with the cards- with words closer to A being the winner. Students would be practicing putting words in alphabetical order.
I found a website with some sight word board games that I decided I could very easily just make. Imagine a rectangle, with spaces like Monopoly. In the middle are 4 stacks of cards. Students each have a game piece and roll two dice to advance their piece. In each space there is a sight word written. In the middle there are four stacks of cards, with the words showing. If they land on a space that matches the sight word they can take that card if they can use the word in a sentence. I am not sure if they should end their turn or get to go again if they take a card.
Last week, when I made my first set of cards, I gave each student a stack and tried a matching game I made up on the spot. I gave each student a stack of cards and had them place them on the table. If there was a match, they put the second card from their hand on the card, if there was not a match, the put it on the table to make a new stack. This way, we quickly sorted the cards. After this, I held the cards and flashed them the cards and prompted, "say it" and for each card one student used it in a sentence.
I am really excited to start playing these games this week. I am going to try the board game first. Luckily, my school has a laminated that we are allowed to use for free!
I plan to post some links on here soon, after I have evaluated the games or activities I find. I'm still working on incorporating the Active Board in my lessons and hope to use this soon for sight word games.
