We teachers know that the more hands-on an activity is, the more senses and learning styles you are engaging. This means that students learn and retain more, and have more fun!
When teaching sight words I like to use
as many hands-on activities as possible. One of my favorites is Sight Word
Play-Doh Mats. I sell sight word play-doh mats in my TpT store for Dolch Pre-Primer, Dolch Primer, Fry's 1st 50, and Fry's 2nd 50. Click here to go there and take a look. Or, you can download a sample here. This is what they look like:
Let me tell you why I like play-doh mats so much. Many children have weak hands. Kneading
and rolling Play-Doh helps to strengthen their hands and fingers, building
muscles used for writing. Click here to download my favorite home-made play-doh recipes.
Forming the snakes into letters helps the
students remember how the word is spelled. Additionally, it helps them recall proper letter formation (especially helpful in resolving letter
reversals), letter spacing, and letter placement.
Using their sense of touch helps
children
register information better and retain it for a longer period of time.
This is an effective strategy when teaching sight words!
Keep it exciting! Don’t stop at play-doh
mats. Engage students by using a variety of hands-on activities such as these:
I hope that this post has given you some ideas! What's your favorite hands-on sight word activity? Leave a post and share yours!
