Many children struggle with learning their sight words and that can greatly affect fluency and comprehension. Sight word recognition is crucial for reading success. There are many ways to help students develop sight word recognition. As a tutor who is trained to use the multi-sensory Orton-Gillingham method for reading instruction, I use resources that encourage students to simultaneously hear, see and touch sight words. Here are some of my favorite resources for multi-sensory sight word instruction.
1. Sightwords.com: When I want to use games to reinforce sight words, this is my go-to resource. This website allows you to easily create customized games for teaching Fry or Dolch sight words. My favorite game is Bingo, using the Bingo card generator but there are a variety of other games as well. Using this tool, I can choose from the pre-selected sight word list or make my own. I also use Dominoes, Memory and Go Fish often. Click here to see the full list of games available on this website. Below are screenshots of what some of these games look like. These are fun games that can be used in centers and possibly even small group instruction.
- Bingo card generator
- Preset Fry word Memory cards
- Preset Fry words Dominoes cards
2. Kidzone Custom Tracer Pages:
Using this free resource allows teachers (and parents) to create customized tracing pages for any and all words. There are tons of theme options (with black and white illustrations for each theme) as well as a blank option, which is usually what I use. Enter the four lines of text (in this case, one sight word copied to all four lines) and then “Make the tracer page”. Print and laminate the pages for a easy reusable activity.
- Entry boxes for making a tracing page
- Tracing page for sight words to reinforce the sight word “my”
3. Puzzle Maker: Word Search
This is an iPad app I use to make customized word search puzzles for sight word identification. It does not take long to make these – it is incredibly easy to publish and print them. I usually provide highlighters and stamp markers for students to use as they find and check off each word. I typically use this is as a teacher tool but if you have multiple iPads in your classroom, you could let your students create word search puzzles for each other (depending on their age, of course).
- Create a new puzzle
- Add sight words
- Publish as a PDF or image
4. Writing Wizard
Writing Wizard is another iPad app that I love not only for reinforcing letter formation but also for sight words. The app has a “My Words” area where teachers and parents can create customized word lists for writing practice.
- Main Menu
- My Words
- Create a word list
- Tracing letters
- Multi-color magic
- Handwriting font options
As students trace each letter of a word, they should say the letter out loud and then when they are done tracing, they should say the whole word. For example, “t-h-e spells “the”. Ideally, each word should be practiced 3 to 5 times before moving on to the next word on the list. This app makes learning and practicing sight words engaging, meaningful, and most certainly multi-sensory.
There are tons of sight word resources out there but for multi-sensory methods of teaching sight words, these are by far my favorite ones. If you are also looking for printable sight word resources, check out these resources on my Teachers Pay Teachers store:
Fry Sight Words Tracing Cards Bundle
Sight Word Magnifying Glass Template for the Smartboard
The Happy Teacher, another TPT author, has a helpful video demonstrating strategies for effective sight word practice. Click here to view it!
Hope you enjoyed this post! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.