purposeful play
Water Balloon Sight Word Game
summer learning fun
Recognizing sight words is an important skill for kids to master on the road to becoming a fluent reader. Summer is the perfect time to help your kids boost these important skills through hands-on play and games!
This Water Balloon Sight Word Game will do just that! Kids absolutely love this water balloon reading game and will beg to play it over and over again!
Now- you might be thinking about all the balloons you need in order to play any sort of water balloon game and how awful it would be to fill them all. We all know that filling water balloons is an absolute pain and the endless balloon tying turns our fingers raw! Well-no more!
A few years ago a friend of mine introduced me to Bunch O Balloons and I have never looked back!! You can seriously fill hundreds of balloons in just a couple of minutes! Summer has never been so easy and so fun!
Continue reading to learn more!
why are sight words so important?
Sight words are words used frequently in text and need to be recalled instantly.
Instant recall of sights words is important for many reason.
Because sights words are used so frequently, children need to be able to recall the words quickly so they can spend more time and energy decoding more difficult words.
Another reason instant recall of sight words is important is because many (though not all) sight words are unable to be illustrated and some are not able to be sounded out easily.
Mastering sight words contributes to reading confidence and fluency and paves the path for reading success!
Here is a link to a list of Dolch sight words to use for this game.
materials
purpose
Improves sight word fluency
Increases reading confidence
Summer learning FUN!!
Screen-free play
Improves throwing skills
Outside time
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directions
Water Balloon Sight Word Game
This part is so much fun!
First, add water to the bottom of a large bucket or container
Next, connect the end of the balloon bunch to a water hose
Turn the water on full blast
Once the balloons are filled-simply pull up on the hose and all the balloons will release into the bucket!
Pick a water balloon and wipe it dry
Using a sharpie marker write the sight words your child is working on, onto the water balloons
If your child is already fluent with sight words-pick other words you would like them to work on (I used summer themed words for my son)
Using sidewalk chalk-write the same words that you wrote on the water balloons on the sidewalk or driveway
Draw large circles around each word (optional)
Now it’s time to play!
Ask your child to pick a balloon and read the word written on the balloon aloud.
Next, challenge them to throw the balloon so it lands on the same word!
Continue as long as your child is engaged or until you run out of water balloons!
purposeful play
shop more sight word activities
Check out these super fun sight words games! Both games are excellent ways to help kids master sight word reading while at home!
