Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources Sight Words 15 Fun & Easy Reproducible Games That Build Fundamental Reading Skills by Liane B Onish New York ◆ Toronto ◆ London ◆ Auckland ◆ Sydney Mexico City ◆ New Delhi ◆ Hong Kong ◆ Buenos Aires Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources Hi, Mom! Scholastic Inc grants teachers permission to photocopy the reproducible pages in this book for classroom use only No other part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012 Cover design by Norma Ortiz Interior design by Gerard Fuchs Cover illustration by Anne Kennedy Interior illustration by Rusty Fletcher and Maxie Chambliss ISBN: 0-439-46596-6 Copyright © 2004 by Liane B Onish All rights reserved Published by Scholastic Inc Printed in the U.S.A 10 40 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 Contents About This Book .4 Sight Word Matchup Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources Opposites Concentration Do-Say Charades 12 Cover-Up 15 Color Puzzles 18 Sight Word Go Fish 20 Number Puzzles 24 High-Frequency Word Races 26 in a Row 29 Ask, Guess & Answer 31 Odd Word Out 34 Puzzling Words 37 Rhyme Concentration 39 From Here to There 42 Sign Up for Bingo 45 High-Frequency and Sight Word Lists 48 About This Book Games make learning fun! This book features 15 exciting, easy-to-make and easy-to-play card games that reinforce sight words, or high-frequency words As children begin to read, they need to recognize these “little” words automatically Quick recognition of sight words builds reading fluency Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources This book provides a variety of fun games to give children practice in recognizing and reading sight words The words chosen for the games come from the American Heritage Word Frequency Book: 150 Most Frequently Used Words in Printed School English and the Dolch Word List (see page 48) Many of the games in this book can be adapted for use with other sight words You’ll also find variations for more challenging play, for a total of 31 games We hope you will find these games an entertaining way to help children “own” their growing vocabularies How to Use This Book On the following pages, you’ll find reproducible game cards Introduce the games one at a time Model how to play with pairs, small groups, or the whole class Consider making copies to send home to encourage family involvement How to Make the Cards Photocopy the card pages onto heavy paper so that the text will not show through the other side Laminate if possible Then cut apart the cards How to Store the Cards Keep the cards for each game in a large, resealable plastic bag Label the bag with the name of the game, the skill it reinforces, and the number of players For older children, or for your own reference, photocopy the directions and keep them inside the bag Who Goes First? Try these different ways to decide who goes first • The player whose first or last initial is closest to A (or Z) goes first • Mix up the word cards for the game Deal one card to each player The player with the card closest to A (or Z) in alphabetical order goes first • Have players roll a die or spin a spinner from another game The player with the highest or lowest number goes first For variety, have the player with the lowest number go first Activities for Any Time Use these activities to reinforce the skills developed in the games Flash Cards My Words Materials: bags or boxes for each child, index cards Give each child two large bags or boxes and a pile of flash cards Label one “Words I Know” and the other “Words to Know.” Point out to children how small words, such as the I and to on the bags or boxes, affect meaning Children try to read each word and then place it in the appropriate bag or box The goal is to move all the cards in the Words to Know bag or box into the Words I Know collection Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources Materials: index cards On index cards, make sets of the 150 high-frequency words or the 220 Dolch sight words, listed on page 48 Keep the cards in a large basket Select a handful at random to use as flash cards at in Words to Know Words I Know be go if as he is Great for outdoors or open spaces Sight Word Matchup ✦ Skill: Reading one- and two-letter sight words Players: Whole class Object: To find the player with the matching sight word How to Play • 26 word cards: a, I, am, an, as, at, be, by, do, go, he, if, in, is, it, me, my, no, of, on, or, so, to, up, us, we (pages 6–8) Photocopy and cut apart enough word cards so that there are two cards for each word and each pair of players Mix up the cards Distribute them randomly, one card to each player Tell children not to look at their cards until you say “Go.” Time It Time how long it takes the class to match all the words Play several times, recording the time for each game Challenge players to beat their previous time When you say “Go,” players look at their cards and find a classmate with the same word Once children pair up, have them spell out and then read their word together and sit down Other Words Play the game with threeletter sight words or a random selection, or let children select the words to use ✃ Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources Materials: Materials: a I at am go be an is he by as page in Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources if ✃ no it so of me we to on my page or us Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources up ✃ Opposites Concentration Sorting Hats Races ✦ Skill: Recognizing and reading antonyms Players: Two or more • 24 word cards (pages 10–11): on, off always, never yes, no after, before new, old start, stop take, give come, go work, play over, under big, small in, out • Blank wild card (below) Object: To collect the most pairs of opposites How to Play Photocopy and cut apart the 24 word cards and the wild card Mix up the cards and place them facedown in a by array Play as you would play Concentration The first player turns over two cards and reads the words If the words make a pair of opposites, the player keeps the pair and turns over two more cards If the two new cards not make a pair of opposites, the player turns them facedown and the next player takes a turn Add these opposites to make a larger game: him, her, here, there, is, was, our, their, for, from, up, down Go Wild Add two or more wild cards to the game When a player turns over the wild card, he or she can use the card to make a pair of opposites When the game is over, one card will remain and the player who holds the wild card takes it ✃ More Opposites wild card Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources Materials: Odd Word Out ✦ Skill: Matching words Players: Three or more better, came, don’t, every, fast, good, help, into, keep, live, must, number, own, people, run, same, things, upon, your (pages 34–36) How to Play Photocopy two sets of the cards on pages 35 and 36 and cut apart Make one copy of the word card below Mix up the cards and deal one to each player Players remove pairs of matching words from their hands and place them facedown in front of them Odd Other Word Out Duplicate the card To vary the odd word that ends the game, remove a different single word card each time children play Play as you would play Old Maid Players fan out the cards in their hands The beginning player holds up his or her cards for the player to his or her left That player selects a card from the fan and adds it to his or her hand If the new card makes a pair, the player removes that pair from his or her hand, then offers his or her hand to the next player Play until one player is left with the word card ✃ Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources Materials: Materials: • 21 word cards: word, any, Object: To get rid of all of one’s cards without getting stuck with the word card word 34 page 35 Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources any better came don’t every fast good help into keep ✃ Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources must number own people run same things upon your page 36 live ✃ Puzzling Sorting Hats Words Races ✦ Skill: Manipulating letters to spell high-frequency words Materials: Players: Individuals or pairs Materials: Object: To spell the most small words using the letters in a long high-frequency word • Letter cards for these words: another, because, different, please, together (pages 37–38) • Pencils and paper How to Play Prepare envelopes in advance Place all the letter cards for the words another, because, different, please, and together in separate envelopes Write the words on the outside of their envelopes Spare letter squares are included below Distribute envelopes and writing materials These (and other) small words can be spelled from the letters in the long words: Players place the cards in the correct order to spell the puzzle word Then players write the word at the top of a sheet of paper another: a, an, no, not, her, he, note, hat, rat, ran, hot, rot, ear, earth because: be, cause, use, us, cab, base, bus, ease, see, bee different: if, ten, den, rent, dent, fife, tire, reef, differ, reed, deer please: a, as, pea, lease, sea, sleep, ape, apes, seal, peal, peel together: to, get, her, the, he, go, got, hot, tote, here, there Players use the same letter cards to spell other words, and record each word they spell Players score points for each word (one point per letter) ✃ Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources • envelope for each word a n 37 Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources o b s f t s e t e e e p e t h c d r l t h e a i e e o e page 38 r u f n a g r ✃ Rhyme Concentration ✦ Skill: Recognizing and reading rhyming words Players: Pairs or small groups Materials: • 24 word cards: light, right, all, fall, found, round, she, he, go, no, could, would, not, hot, bring, sing, or, for, is, his, an, can, get, let (pages 40–41) • Blank wild card (below) How to Play Photocopy and cut apart the word cards on pages 40 and 41 and the wild card below Mix up the cards and place them facedown in a by array Play as you would play Concentration The first player turns over two cards and reads the words If the words rhyme, the Add other rhyming word card pairs to make the game more challenging Use fewer pairs when playing with younger children Go Wild! Photocopy additional wild cards for more variety When a player turns over the wild card, he or she can use it to make a rhyming pair ✃ More or Less player keeps the pair and turns over two more cards If the two cards not rhyme, the player turns them over again and the next player takes a turn When the game is over, the player with the wild card can take the one remaining card The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins wild card Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources Materials: Object: To collect the most pairs of rhymes 39 fall light he found right could go round all page 40 she would Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources no ✃ sing not his or hot let an for bring page 41 is get Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources can ✃ From Here to There ✦ Skill: Reading homophones Materials: • 22 word cards: ate, eight, buy, by, for, four, know, no, one, won, hour, our, hear, here, right, write, to, too, two, their, there, they’re (pages 42–44) Object: To line up using high-frequency homophones How to Play Photocopy and cut apart the word cards Distribute one word card to each player If necessary, have some children pair up (because there are only 22 cards) Call on children to read the word on their card and think about how they would use it in a sentence Large Groups Make additional homophone word cards, such as: I, eye, blue, blew, f lour, f lower, fare, fair, see, sea, some, sum, son, sun, tail, tale, wear, where Randomly call out a word (see Materials box) and use it in a sentence The player with that word card can get in line after saying the word, spelling it, and using it in another sentence Then the player(s) with a homophone for that word reads it, spells it, uses it in a sentence, and gets in line Collect the word cards after all children are in line ✃ Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources Materials: Players: Whole class ate 42 eight page 43 Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources buy by for four know no one won hour our ✃ page 44 Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources hear here right write to too two their there they’re ✃ Sign Up for Bingo ✦ Skill: Writing and reading environmental print Players: Individuals, pairs, small groups, or whole class Object: To get four words in a row—down, across, or diagonally Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources Materials: • Sign Up for Bingo game board (page 46) • 20 word cards: bus, closed, don’t, enter, exit, hospital, library, one, open, parking, police, pull, push, sale, school, stop, street, walk, way, zone (page 47) • Scissors • 16 small markers for each player (pieces of paper, paper clips, or buttons) Materials: How to Play Photocopy and distribute the Sign Up for Bingo game boards and a set of word cards to each child Distribute these, plus one set of word cards for the Caller Players cut apart the words and place them in random squares on their game boards Each player’s board will look different Mix up the Caller’s cards and place them facedown in a pile Play as you would play Bingo The Caller reads the word on the top card and uses it in a sentence Players look for that word on their game boards and place a marker on it Continue until one player has four words in a row and calls “Bingo!” Challenge the winner to use the winning words in a sentence or story 45 Name Date page 46 Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources SIGN UP FOR BINGO closed don’t enter exit hospital library one open parking police pull push sale school stop street walk way zone page 47 Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources ✃ bus High-Frequency and Sight Word Lists 150 Most Frequently Used Words in Printed School English* a, about, after, again, all, also, an, and, another, any, are, around, as, at, away, back, be, because, been, before, but, by, called, came, can, come, could, day, did, different, do, does, down, each, even, find, first, for, from, get, go, good, had, have, has, he, help, her , here, him, his, how, I, if, in, into, is, it, its, just, know, like, little, look, long, made, make, man, many, may, me, more, most, much, must, my, new, no, not, now, number, of, off, old, on, one, only, or, other, our, out, over, part, people, place, put, right, said, same, see, she, so, some, such, take, than, that, the, their, them, then, there, these, they, things, think, this, three, through, time, to, too, two, up, use, used, very, was, water, way, we, well, went, were, what, when, where, which, who, why, will, with, word, words, work, would, write, years, you, your Dolch Basic Sight Word List (220) (in alphabetical order)** a, about, after, again, all, always, am, an, and, any, are, around, as, ask, at, ate, away, be, because, been, before, best, better, big, black, blue, both, bring, brown, but, buy, by, call, came, can, carry, clean, cold, come, could, cut, did, do, does, done, don’t, down, draw, drink, eat, eight, every, fall, far, fast, find, first, five, fly, for, found, four, from, full, funny, gave, get, give, go, goes, going, good, got, green, grow, had, has, have, he, help, her, here, him, his, hold, hot, how, hurt, I, if, in, into, is, it, its, jump, just, keep, kind, know, laugh, let, light, like, little, live, long, look, made, make, many, may, me, much, must, my, myself, never, new, no, not, now, of, off, old, on, once, one, only, open, or, our, out, over, own, pick, play, please, pretty, pull, put, ran, read, red, ride, right, round, run, said, saw, say, see, seven, shall, she, show, sing, sit, six, sleep, small, so, some, soon, start, stop, take, tell, ten, thank, that, the, their, them, then, there, these, they, think, this, those, three, to, today, together, too, try, two, under, up, upon, us, use, very, walk, want, warm, was, wash, we, well, went, were, what, when, where, which, white, who, why, will, wish, with, work, would, write, yellow, yes, you, your *From American Heritage Word Frequency Book **A widely recognized list of high-frequency words 48 page 48 Reading Skills Card Games: Sight Words © Liane B Onish, Scholastic Teaching Resources (in alphabetical order)