Top That! A Sight Words Game

Summertime is a wonderful opportunity to review those skills that were learned in the previous school year. And what better way to review than through play? Last summer, we spent one morning a week reviewing sight words. We've repeated a few of those simple games this year and added a few more. One of those games was this easy sight word activity with spinning tops {obtained in a fast food kids' meal}. It was a hit with all three of my older kids!

To prepare:
I took a piece of paper and created a 4 x 5 table of sight words from my son's 1st grade year {I picked a few "easy" words, but also sprinkled in some words that were still tripping him up a little.} For my younger son {age 4}, I printed off a 4 x 4 table of sight words from my Reading the Alphabet curriculum. To cut down on prep time, tables and words could totally be hand-written! I placed each paper into a metal cookie sheet.

To play:
My boys spun their tops on the table of words within the cookie tray. When it stopped, they simply read the word aloud and spun again.

To extend:

My oldest son began to cross off each word, hoping to get his x's in a row, which made me think this might be kind of fun to play with your child {or sibling}; one person crosses of in one color crayon and the other in another color to see who can get a row first. My younger son actually grabbed a near-by crayon, paper, and clipboard and began writing every word that the top landed on. The boys were enjoying themselves so much that my daughter {3 years old} asked to join in. I quickly drew a chart for her with letters and she went to town, spinning her top and calling out letters.

To Adapt:
Don't have any tops lying around? Ask your child to stand back a couple of feet and toss a coin onto the cookie sheet and call out the words as it lands! It really is that simple.

Becky Spence is a homeschooling mama to four little blessings. She is passionate about teaching, specifically literacy. She is the author of This Reading Mama, where she shares reading and writing activities as well as free literacy curricula and printables. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google +.