Teaching Sight Words with a Fun Water Play Activity
I’m always looking for ways to get my girls outside but here in Florida it’s still SO extremely hot! So, today I decided we would go outside in the front yard and play with water. I set up a baby pool with lots of toys and a really cute sprinkler.
I noticed after about 10 minutes my 3-year-old was getting bored. I really needed to come up with a quick and fun game that would keep her busy.
Teaching Sight Words with Water Play
I looked around the garage and found some sidewalk chalk and a few buckets from our beach vacation. I also remembered I had some sight word flash cards right inside the front door because I was going to start teaching sight words – a few at a time – this week. BAM…….the sight word splash activity was born!
This activity was amazing! It was so easy and quick to set up. It literally took me 5 minutes and we were ready to go. Not only was it easy to set up but Grace absolutely loved it!
She was having such a wonderful time that she wanted to play it over and over again. We stayed outside playing this activity for a good 40 minutes! I know you’re excited to get started so here we go!
Materials
- Printable Preschool Sight Word List flash cards
- A bucket or small container
- Sidewalk chalk
Directions
The first thing you’ll want to do is print the sight word flash cards from the material list above. Then cut them out and set them aside. If you have a laminator you could also laminate them so you could use them over again and they won’t get wet when you’re doing this activity outside.
Then grab a bucket or small container that will hold water and some sidewalk chalk. When teaching a 3-year-old sight words I like to start with 3 to 5 sight words at a time. As they learn them I will continue to add a few more each week.
I picked 3 sight words to start with during this activity. I showed my daughter the 3 sight word flash cards and told her she was going to learn 3 new words today. Then I drew the 3 sight words with the sidewalk chalk on my driveway.
I picked one of the 3 sight words and showed it to my daughter. I told her the word and had her repeat the word after me. Then I asked her if she could find that same word written in the driveway.
She looked at each word and then found the correct one. She repeated the word again, and I gave her a big hug! Then I handed her a bucket of water and told her because she got that one right she could splash the sight word. This of course was her favorite part!
We continued to do the same thing with all 3 sight words and then I wrote them again on a dry spot and we played all over again.
How did my daughter do with this activity?
Grace had so much fun doing this activity! She was really excited to learn new words, and any activity that involves splashing water is a winner in her book.
I love to do activities with her that she really gets excited about and I know she’s actually learning!
What is she learning during this activity?
- Sight word recognition
- Matching
- Fine motor skills
- Following directions
Extending this activity is so easy!
- There are so many things that can be done to extend this fun and easy activity.
- Shape recognition – draw shapes instead of writing the sight words
- Number recognition – do numbers instead of sight words
- Alphabet recognition – do the letters of the alphabet instead of sight words
My daughter LOVED this activity and it was so fun to get a little outside water play at the same time! We will definitely be doing this activity again to learn even more sight words while having fun in the sun!
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Tara is the brains behind Homeschool Preschool, where her journey from preschool and public school teacher to homeschooling mom of three fuels her passion for early childhood education. With a blend of expertise and firsthand experience, Tara’s writings offer practical tips and engaging resources to support families in creating meaningful learning adventures at home.
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