Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Spell or Spill

I am always trying to think of fun and engaging ways to practice reading and spelling sight words. This is actually a Kamii math game that I turned into a sight word game and my kiddos LOVE this game! Here's what you need:
*a pizza tray
*stickers
*counters
*a 20 oz bottle filled with marbles or those colored jewel/rocks
*sight words you want the kiddos to practice reading and spelling
*recording sheet

How to make the game:
1. Fill the bottle 1/4 with the marbles or rocks
2. Cover the pizza tray with stickers. I used those colored dot stickers.

How to play:
(You will need to balance the tray on top of the bottle first.)

1. Player 1 draws a card and reads it.
2. Player 1 takes the same number of counters as there are letters in the word. If the word is "have", he takes 4 counters.
3. Player 1 places a counter on a sticker as he says the letter. He continues to place counters as he is spelling the word.
4. After he places the last counter, he says the word and both players spell the word and record it.
5. Players continue until the entire tray is covered.

Objective: To spell as many words as they can without spilling the pizza tray.

This game is great because the kiddos have to balance the tray. They very quickly realize that if they place too many counters on the left side, the tray becomes too heavy and it spills! This is one of my kiddos' favorite games. Please let me know if I need to explain it better!

The pictures are not great but I hope it helps some!






I included several different recording sheets for you to choose from.

4 heart notes:

Anonymous said...

VERY Interesting!!!!! Thank you for sharing this activity!

shelly said...

Found you on pinterest. What a wonderful idea. Thank you for taking the time to share and create the recording sheets!

Anonymous said...

This is great! Thanks so much for all your freebies, it means a lot!!