Have you been through the process of teaching your children sight words? It can be a little difficult to make the learning fun. Sight words can include puzzle words and high-frequency words. Puzzle words are words that cannot be sounded out or decoded by the child and therefore need to be memorized, making them extra difficult to learn. 

I've asked teachers for help with this before and have simply received a list of the sight words my child should know. Recently I asked another Montessori teacher friend and she gave me a handful of interesting and creative ideas to try! One idea that we tried immediately (with lots of giggles) is a DIY version of the above Swat a Sight Word Game. I've found that including a fly swat or any novelty (see above fishing line) really helps to take the child's mind off the learning and allows them to relax and have fun! In the home, I love the idea of turning this type of learning into a game. 

For our DIY Swat a Sight Word Game we used a couple of clean fly swats and the Sight Word Cards from Miss Rhonda. I have a list of all the sight words that Otis (6 years) isn't having success with on the notes section on my phone. So the sight words we were working on are words that are relevant to him, not from a list of words my children should know. It's also a good idea to keep these words in the child's personalised dictionary, if they have one.  Here are a few materials for learning sight words that I really like!

1. Swat a Sight Word Game - by Learning Resources (Australia here). 

2. Fishing For Sight Words Game - by Lakeshore Learning, similar to the swat game, it is a novelty of the fishing line that makes this a fun way to learn sight words. 

3. Sight Word Zingo - My children love Zingo, there is something about the small tiles that makes it appealing to children. This contains only 24 sight words which is good for a child just starting out (Australia here). 

4. Bob Books, Sight Words - Bob Books are continually popular in Montessori classrooms, these allow the child to practice sight words in context.  

5. Sight Word Cards - by Miss Rhonda's Readers. These are easy to make at home yourself, but for those that are time poor, this is a good set of sight word card produced by a Montessori teacher for use in her own classroom. This is the set that we use. Contains 64 sight words. 

6. I have, Who has? Sight word game - download at Montessori Print Shop. This is a really smart game! 

We've also tried learning three new sight words a week. We leave the sight word cards on the kitchen table and every so often we ask Otis to swat them as he says them. It's been really effective and because of the swatting, he loves it! I'd love to hear any tips or tricks you have for teaching sight words especially if you are a Montessori teacher and have ideas for learning sight words at home.