Tips For Blending Sight Word Games into Your Child’s Learning
High frequency sight words are the words children see most often in books, making them a key piece of literacy instruction. While children should learn sight words phonetically at first, they eventually come to recognize them on sight, allowing their brains to instead focus on sounding out unknown words or follow events more closely in a story.
Because high-frequency words are such a useful tool for young readers, helping your child master them can improve their reading and spelling skills. In today’s digital age, integrating digital sight word games into your child’s learning routine offers an engaging and interactive approach that’s backed by research.
According to a study summarized on Frontiers in Psychology, “The combination of multiple sensory stimuli (e.g., visual, audio, verbal, tactile, and olfactory) in instructional content is known to promote cognitive performance, sense of presence, and learning engagement.”
If you’re considering adding digital sight word games into your children’s educational activities, here are a few practical tips to help get you started.
How to Add Sight Word Games to Your Child’s Learning Routine
- Establish a Routine
Incorporate digital sight word gameplay into the daily learning schedule. This could be a short session after homework or a playful activity before dinner. Consistency helps children develop a habit and a positive attitude toward learning.
- Combine it with Other Activities
Complement digital learning with hands-on sight word activities to help commit new information to memory. For example, after playing a digital sight word game, encourage children to write down the words they learned using crayons or markers and adding an illustration of the word or using the word in a silly sentence.
- Encourage Reflective Discussion
When your child finishes their sight word games, discuss the new words they learned. Ask your child to use the words in sentences or point them out in a storybook. This can reinforce their learning and helps keep you involved in their studies.
- Set Achievable Goals
Establish simple, clear objectives like “learn five new sight words a week” and use sight word games as a way to help achieve these goals. Celebrating achievements can motivate further learning and offering encouragement when your child struggles with a new word can help them work through it.
Quick and Easy Sight Word Games
These games are short and effective, which makes it easier for children to hop online to play and learn from them and then log off when needed, whether it’s to eat dinner or read a book with you.
Sight Word Tracing
In this game, children will see a series of sight words to trace with their finger or a mouse. This activity helps children practice sight words, spelling, and letter shapes.
Shrimps in Sight
Children have 60 seconds to “eat” (click on) the sight words they see at the top of the screen and hear being said. The goal is to eat as many sight words as possible.
Carla’s Word Path
In this game, children build their sight word recognition skills by helping Carla find her way to the Golden Gate Bridge by reading sight word signs.
Buggy Sight Words
Players “swat” mosquitoes carrying sight words to advance through the game, “swatting” the mosquito carrying the sight word they hear.
Integrating digital games into learning sight words offers a balanced approach, merging traditional educational methods with modern technology. This creates an opportunity to enhance learning outcomes and prepare your child for additional learning on computers or tablets. We hope these strategies help you incorporate digital sight word games into your child’s daily or weekly learning.
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