Activity for ages 3 to 6.
Sight word games are one of my almost four year old daughter’s favorite learning activities. She loved using her finger to write her name and draw pictures using Mama Smiles’ mess free painting idea, so I decided to add an extra layer of learning by making it into a squishy sight word game. It was the perfect follow up to our other sight word games.
The prep for this was as easy as it comes. I quickly wrote a list of sight words down the right hand side of a piece of white construction paper. Then I wrote the same words randomly on the left side of the paper, the part that would go under the Ziplock baggie of paint. I taped it down to A’s table with some packing tape and invited her to come squish and seek.
I also prepared a baggie for my 17 month old, Q, with simple drawings of his current fascination, sea creatures, hidden underneath. I usually do activities with my oldest when Q is napping, so he was pretty excited that he was included in the fun this time.
I told A all the words on her list were hidden under the paint. She immediately began squishing and squashing the paint around until she found the first word. “For,” she exclaimed and crossed it off her list with a marker.
As she searched for all the words on her list, I circled the words that gave her a bit of trouble so we could work on those at a later time.
A loved squishing the paint around and adding a hide ‘n seek element made it all the more fun.
This activity could easily be adapted for multiple ages to learn a whole slew of things: letters, vocabulary, matching upper and lower case letters, or matching pictures to words. The best part was the whole thing, from prep to clean up, took 15 minutes.
I’m keeping the paint in the baggies for future activities, but eventually it’ll end up being mixed, spread, squished on paper the only way my kids know how: with their hands, arms, and even feet. Easy-peasy squeezy fun!
Find More Sight Word Games
For more sight word games, check out our 30 EDITABLE sight word games. They’re a HUGE time and money saver!!