So you can use my free lists and play games all you want, but we both know, everything works better with a plan!

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been working hard on designing a sight word curriculum for my daughter that is both fun and interactive.   I dug into my vault of  teacher tricks and designed a 5 weeks worth of games and activities that will keep her engaged while also helping her learn her sight words.  I meticulously planned weeks worth of instruction she actually looks forward to!

Of course, the easiest thing to do would be to  grab my uber affordable weekly sight word lesson plans that are done for you.  But if that’s not in the cards for you, I’ll still help you use the resources I’ve given you in this short sight word series to design your own lessons.

Below you’ll find my blank lesson plan template. You can click here, or on the image below to download it.  Meanwhile, I’m going to give you a brief run down of how I plan and some ideas for filling it out.

You probably noticed that, just like in my letter of the week plans, I didn’t include specific days of the week in my plans. Why you ask?

Because…Mom life.

If you have to skip a day or couple of days because the stomach bug runs through the family, it will be ok.  Life happens.

Also, another important reminder. Your preschooler is not designed to sit and be focused for long period of times. They simply do not have the attention span for it! I try to do these activities in 15 minute segments.

You’ll see that these plans are divided into 5 main sections. We typically do review and Guided Practice together and then later, I let her do independent practice and the worksheet. I do try and be close by to help with those activities too though. I try to plan each of these sections accordingly and vary the activities so they don’t often repeat.

Just in case you’re already feeling a little overwhelmed at the thought of planning all this.. you don’t have to do all the work. For only $5 you can gain access to my 5 weeks of lesson plans for List 1. You also get access to 47 pages of sight word goodies including: word of the day printables, flashcards, an assessment and more! Everything you need is there!

Still want to pass?  I understand!  Let me tell you how I created mine so you can create your own.  Let’s look at each of the sections briefly:

Word of the Day

As we start our sight word journey, I created a quick schedule which I wanted to follow in my instructional plans. I didn’t do it exactly as the words appear in the lists, as I wanted to take a different approach to teaching them. This schedule can be found in my popcorn words pack.

I have started out with a word a day. I think this will be fast enough paced for my daughter, and it could even turn out to be too fast. If so I’ll slow it down. At five words a week we will be finishing the first list in a little over a month, which will have her easily reading Level A/B books with no problem.

In my plans, I always note the word of the day just to keep myself on track.

Flashcards

The first part of our real lesson is made up of drill. Yes, it is boring. But we try to dress it up when we can. Some days we whisper our sight words, some days well yell them. Some days we sing, and some days we cheer. There are tons of different ways you can do it. I actually have a powerpoint from my teaching days that we use sometimes which makes it a little more interactive and breaks up routine.

We start with the introduction of the new word of the day. We look at it, write it in the sky and practice spelling it. Then we add it to our sight word stack and practice it with the previous ones.

Each day as we do the sight words, I make a stack of cards she knew on the first try, a stack she was able to figure out after a little bit, and a stack of ones she can’t remember. We keep these in an index card container and watch as the sight words she knows grows. We us this as an informal assessment, but primarily as a motivational tool.

Guided Practice

Here is where we will play a game, or do an activity that requires assistance. I do these activities with her. I usually set the time for 15 minutes and we play just that long, unless it’s a board game which sometimes runs longer.

I pull these from the list of games and activities I compiled in my post about engaging and interactive sight word practice. Typically for Guided Practice, we will do one of the following:

• Pop Game
• Sight Word Board game
• Sight Word Matching
• Sight Word Go Fish
• Find the treat
• Sight Words Scrabble
• Magazine Hunt
• Race the clock

It’a also important to note that almost any activity I used in the Sight Words Games & Activities post can be modified to be a game. Adding a timed element to anything adds some competitive fun to it!

Independent Practice

These are activities I know she can do without my assistance. The first time she does anything, we do it together, so I can model the right way to do it. Be sure to account for that when making your plans. You need to probably demonstrate and set expectations, or you’ll end up with sand all over your house!

These again, are the activities I pulled from my sight words games post. You can find more detailed explanations and pictures in the post.

• Legos
• Blocks
• Solo cup stacking
• Bead it
• Write in sand
• Write in salt
• Write in shaving cream
• Paint it
• Shape it with playdough
• Bend it
• Spell with with magnetic letters
• Write it on dry erase board
• Write it on chalk board
• Write it with bathtub crayons
• Spell it with bathtub letters
• Stamp it
• Swat it
• Clip it
• Type it

I typically give her 10-15 minutes to do these activities. Any longer and she loses focus quickly.

Worksheet

Each day we also complete a sight word worksheet independently. There are a ton of options out there that you can find with a quick Pinterest search. However, I wanted something consistent that would focus on using the skills she needed to grow her sight word knowledge quickly. So I created my own set of Word of the Day sheets for every word in List 1. I find that mine are a little different from others in that they were designed to be completely with little to no assistance. I tried to keep the activities simple and predictable so that the word could become independent after a short bit. You may need to help with the reading the sentence on the sheet, but otherwise, it can be done without help. It also makes a great little informal mini assessment. But you don’t have to take my word for it. You can try a free sample of my sheets by clicking here or on the image below.

Books

For the books I just hit up the local library and looked for a couple of books with the words we were focusing on that week in the title. I found that if it was in the title, it occurred several times throughout the book. We read every day, so I just incorporated that into these lessons and as we read we tried to find the sight words we were working on that week.

Here’s a peak at some of the books I included in my plans.  Do you sense a theme here?

For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links. If you purchase from these links I may make a small commission at no cost to you.

Materials

I like to know what I’m going to need for the next week, so I make a materials list to make sure I have everything handy. If I don’t, I usually just pick up at the store, or order something off Amazon Prime. I keep all of our school materials in a big 30 gallon bin, so I’m not scrambling looking for them. Sometimes when my life actually goes to plan, I pull out the week’s materials in advance and set them aside. It’s a habit from my many years teaching. It’s sort of ingrained in your brain that preparation saves valuable instructional time.

Extra Activities

For the extra activities section , I included some other free related sheets and activities I found on Pinterest. Be sure to follow me and you’ll see all these things I’ve pinned and more! The list of these resources are also included in my pack!

So that’s how I plan a week’s worth of sight word activities. You may find you need to modify this for your child. If introducing a letter a day becomes too much, you can back off a little and just introduce one every other day, or however frequently they can handle it.

You can print as many of these free templates as you like here! Don’t forget to grab my developmental lists of sight words for free, as a guide. If you have any questions you still need answered, be sure to drop a note in the comments and I will get back to you!