mystery sight words
Make learning fun!
If you have a kindergartener you won’t get around practicing those sight words. And let’s be honest, it can be hard to get your little one to do homework after an already long day at school.
So let’s try to make it a little more fun!
What are sight words?
Sight words are commonly used words that young readers are encouraged to recognize immediately upon seeing them, without needing to sound them out. These words often appear frequently in texts and may not always follow regular phonetic patterns, making them difficult to decode for beginner readers. Instead of sounding out each letter in these words, children are taught to recognize them by sight, hence the term “sight words.”
The idea behind teaching sight words is to enhance reading fluency and comprehension. By quickly recognizing these high-frequency words, readers can focus more on understanding the overall meaning of the text rather than getting stuck on individual words.
How do kids learn sight words?
To learn sight words kids need repeated exposure to these words. And there are lots of activities you can do such as flashcards, games, and of course reading practice.
Over the last weeks my daughter’s favorite sight word activity was Mystery Sight Words.
It’s quick and easy to set up (with or without my free printable) and encourages your kid to read and write the words.
How to set it up:
You just need a paper, a blue (light blue works best) and red marker and a red magnetic tile. If you don’t have magna tiles (and I highly recommend having some), an old red plastic folder sleeve does the trick too.
Use the blue marker to write down the sight words you want to practice and the red one, to scribble over the words until they’re not easily readable anymore.
Find the Mystery Words
Now it’s time for your little detective to decipher the hidden words with their magnetic tile and write them down underneath.
Tada! You’ve done your sight word practice for the day.
The science behind it:
And if your little one is curious, here is how the hidden mystery sight words work.
When you look through a red magnetic tile, it filters out all colors except red. If the word is hidden under a red marker, the red tile allows the red light to pass through, revealing the hidden word. This happens because the red marker and the red magnetic tile both absorb or block other colors of light, making the red parts transparent to your eyes.
Have fun learning!
My daughter had so much fun with this activity that I made this printable.
Download it for free and have fun!
More mystery sight words!
If you want to try a different activity with the printable, write the sight words with white crayons.
Get the water colors out and let your kid uncover the invisible words.
Here are some more sight word activities my daughter likes:
Sight word caterpillars!
Write down the sight word on a flashcard and write all the letters on dot sticker. Draw a little caterpillar head and let your little one make the body.
Sight word scavenger hunt!
Write the sight words on popsicle sticks and hide them around the house. Make a quick list on a piece of paper with all the words, hand it to your little one and let the scavenger hunt begin!
You can also hide single letters and let them put the words together with those.
Sight word snack!
Offering food as a reward somehow always works.
Get a muffin tray, put your kids favorite snack in and cover them with magnetic tiles. Choose a couple of sight words, write them on a piece of paper and write the letters of the words on the tiles with dry erase markers.
Time for a snack!
And if you are looking for some magnetic tiles now, find the link here or in my post about our all time favorite toys.
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