Guided Reading Games

Hi everyone,

I am very happy to announce that we are FINALLY working on sight words in my class! Yes, we started looking at them at the very beginning of the year. However, we are now in full swing “Sight Word Bootcamp” over here!!

We read sight words every morning, during our morning meeting, and we play a bunch of games to review them during the week. I have also been spending lots of my guided reading time on sight words. Take a look at the games we have been playing!

This is our “keep reading” game. We take turns picking a card out of the bucket and reading it out loud. If a student chooses a “keep reading” card, he/she puts the cards back into the bucket. These “keep reading” cards are very helpful because the game never ends – I can choose when we stop!

This is our “SUPER Reader” game. For this game, I place all the word cards on my pocket chart and I hide a few trophy cards behind random word cards. Students takes turns reading the cards and turning them over. If a student finds a trophy card, he/she gets to keep it. The student with the most trophy cards at the end of the game wins!

Our trace & match game is a hit in my classroom! Students use dry erase markers to trace the sight words. We use different kinds of clips to attach the matching word cards. I’m always changing the clips because I have found that kids get really excited when they get to use a new tool with our guided reading games 😉

“5 In A Row” is probably my favorite game! I love playing this game with my little readers!

Kids take turns spinning the paper clip to choose a word. Then, we all look at our game board and try and find the word. If we have the word, we cover it. The first person to get a line of 5 words in a row wins!

This “Roll & Read” game is played on a pocket chart. I place the colored number cards on the bottom row and the word cards go anywhere above the number cards. We then roll the dice (not shown in this pic). Students take turns reading the words that are above the number that they roll.

This game is different every time we play because I’m always

moving the word cards around!

This next game is very simple. We choose a word card, from the pocket chart game above, and clip it at the top. We have been using various manipulatives to spell the word at the bottom (dry erase markers, magnets, letter tiles, etc).

For kids who are practicing their spelling skills, we play this spelling game. We use dry erase markers and/or play dough to cover the letters for each word.

Easy peasy and VERY effective!

For kids who have mastered most of their sight words, we have been playing this sentence order game. We start by sorting the cards by color.

Then, we order the words to make a sentence.

I have a few students who are starting to read sentences. With those kids, we have been starting reading comprehension skills. This sequencing game has been very helpful! Students read the three sentences and place them in order, using the pictures on the card.

We have some fun sight word passages that we use to practice recognizing sight words in short stories. Students use different colored markers to circle the sight words on the left side of the cards. Then, they find the words in the story and circle them using the same colors. Finally, we read the passage three times to practice fluency!

This last game is for reading comprehension. Students read the story and clip the correct picture to go with the story.

This week, I will be assessing all my students. The plan is to assess them every week, depending on our schedule. I love to show parents that their kids are improving and this is a very quick and easy way to do that!