In my last post, I shared a simple tip for supporting sight word recognition and spelling. If you missed it, you can access it here. Today's post, again, targets sight word learning. Sight words can be so challenging for many young readers, so it's important to have a good collection of strategies you can use to help support them with these words. Fortunately, there are many effective strategies that are also extremely simple to prepare and use! Today, I am sharing one more example of a great strategy to support your child's sight word learning.
You are probably already familiar with this one! The name of the game is "Concentration," but it's often referred to as "Memory" as well. That's appropriate, because this game directly supports the development of long-term memory with sight words!
Simply choose the words you want to use, and write the same word on two separate cards to create pairs.
Then sort all of the pairs into two groups and place them face-down on the tabletop.
Then flip one card from each section to try to make a match! It's important to place each card back in it's original location if the two words do not match. This process of having to recall where the words are located "exercises the brain."
If the words do match, then you get to keep the cards! Continue playing until all cards are gone.
When finished, both players count their cards to see who has the most and wins!
Another great aspect of this game is that it is so versatile for home and school use. It is great as a small-group activity or as a center activity. You can play with partners or small groups; you simply take turns! This can even be used as an independent activity; simply set a timer and see how many matches the child can make within that time limit!
One important note: Always try to provide follow-up reading exercises so your child can apply newly-learned words to meaningful print. This can be as simple as reading a decodable, sight-word reading texts. I love using emergent readers from The Measured Mom. This is a great resource for free, printable sight-word reading texts.
