Bang! for Sight Words

Macy has all of a sudden become interested in the words on the pages in books, and, oh, the teacher is coming out in me!!!  When I taught 1st - 3rd grades special education, my favorite thing to teach was reading, and my students loved working on their sight words.

Our favorite game to play with sight words was called Bang!

• Make lists of the sight words you want your kiddo to work on
• Break the lists into groups of 10.  Each set of 10 is a different color.  So, you have 10 red words, 10 pink words, 10 blue words and so on.
• Write the 10 red words on red construction paper and cut them up.
• Put the 10 words in a coffee can...we decorated ours.
• Also, put 2 pieces of paper in the can that say, "Bang!"  You can change the word, if that word leads to violence in your world, but it was just a fun, silly word for us.
• Pass the can around to each child.  (back and forth between child & parent works fine, too)
• On your turn, draw a word and try to read it.  If you read it correctly, you keep the card.  If you miss, put it back in the can.  If you draw Bang!, then you must put ALL of your cards back in the can except for Bang! which goes in the lid of the coffee can.  (Each Bang! is only chosen once and never put back in, so that the game will end!)  
• Whoever has the most words when the can is empty is the winner.

As your children get better at the words, add 10 new words of a different color along with a couple more Bang! cards.  This is a great game to play, because even if you know all the words, you may still not win.  Therefore, no one gets discouraged.  Enjoy!