5-Minute Sight Word Game

You finished a lesson early, now what?! I know, that very rarely happens. But, indulge me for a minute.

So, you have an extra 5 minutes before you have to get ready for lunch/ music/ PE…

Hmmm, what can you do? There’s not enough time to read a book or have kids write in a journal.

So you pause.

Harp starts poking his friend. Greg starts a conversation with his neighbor about the bug he squashed on the bus. Suzy starts complaining that she’s hungry.

Oh, no, you’ve lost them. You still have a few minutes. Better think of something before someone starts climbing on a desk.

What can you do?

I’ve had a few moments like this and I found a great way to use those 5 minutes to keep my students engaged in a meaningful way.

Grow a Picture!

It’s like hangman, but not. I never really liked the idea of drawing a hanging man, but maybe that’s just me.

Whiteboard Game

In this version, kids get to draw a line to build a dot-to-dot picture if they guess a letter incorrectly. It’s a win-win-win (guess a letter correctly / get to draw the picture / incorporates math)! You simply project the game template onto your whiteboard to play. It’s the perfect way to review sight words in an engaging way, and in only 5 minutes (although I think your students will want to play longer)!

To play, all you have to do is edit the number of lines in your word (blank ones are included, if you just want to write in your lines). Then, as kids guess letters, they can cross them off the alphabet. If the letter is in the word, write it in the appropriate line space, and if not, they get to draw the next line in the dot-to-dot picture. Keep track of games in the Teacher/Student tally chart.

Your students can even play with a partner during centers! I included a version with a word box they could reach.

The best part?

It’s free!

I just added this free game template to my free resource library! You can get access by signing up here. You’ll get an email to confirm, then one right after with my resource library password.

If you’re looking for more fun ways to teach sight words, read this post about incorporating movement to engage your students and get a free sample of my Body-Spelling Sight Words resource!

I also have a free instructional course all about how to teach sight words! Each of the emails includes a freebie and there are over 60 pages of freebies in all. You can learn more and sign up for it here.

If you liked this post, share it with other teachers you think may like it too!

Thanks for reading!

GET YOUR FREE Five 5 minute sight word game below.