I am still searching for engaging and meaningful ways to keep my students interested in practicing their sight words while at home. It’s not easy, and I know their parents struggle. So I thought I would share and idea that is super inexpensive and so easy . . . At Home Sight Word Bugs.

THE BEST IDEAS COME FROM PRESCHOOL

At the beginning of my teaching career, I actually did a stint as a preschool teacher for about three years. The thing I love about preschool is that you can unapologetically get messy, be creative, and have fun. As students get older, we somehow need to justify allowing students to work with their hands, be artistic and creative, and enjoy learning. I have admittedly had a hard time letting go of my preschool teaching roots, and I try desperately to keep learning as engaging as it is in a preschool classroom. To that end, I follow some favorite preschool teachers on Instagram who allow me a peek back to my old days of teaching really little people and also help generate new ideas for teaching in kindergarten. One of my favorites is Katy, from PreK Wolf Pack. She is adorable and so smart and full of ideas for fine motor and sensory and all the things that I love. If you don’t follow her, do yourself a favor and go now and do it. Just click HERE. She’s not paying me or bribing me to shout her out. . . she’s just really good, and I think you’ll love her.

Give Me All The Stickers

Anyway, she recently demonstrated an activity using simple circle stickers on butcher paper to help with counting. Now if you know me at all you know, you know I LOVE stickers for fine motor work. It’s one of my kids’ favorites and mine too. Do you know how quiet kids are when they are working with stickers? It’s amazing.

Anyway, Katy has circle stickers in every conceivable color, but all my stickers are at school. But you know what, I DO have those little colored stickers that you use for garage sales and I thought, ‘hey, most of my parents have circle stickers or you can get them for cheap at the Dollar Tree. What if I do something similar with sight words?’ It’s something parents can totally do at home.

Sight Word Bugs

So here’s what I came up with. Super easy. So cheap. Super cute. Students can program 4-5 stickers with cute little bug faces . . .

Then choose 4-5 especially tricky words from their sight word lists (my kids call them Ball Words because that’s the sight word mastery system we use) and program stickers with the letters from those words.

Then they simply place the bug faces on a piece of paper and place letters from each word behind a bug face.

Students can then add little features like legs and shoes and antennae, maybe some grass or flowers or whatever they want. Then just post them on the refrigerator or their bedroom door where they can see them and practice them every day.

It’s fun and cute and inexpensive and well . . . STICKERS! Need I say more.