Sight Word Pockets Activity
These sight word pockets are a hands-on way to learn to spell and identify sight words. I love that you can leave them taped to a wall and use them in a variety of ways. They can even act as a word wall.
We have been doing lots of sight word activities lately. I enjoy thinking up new ways for my son to learn the words in a way that is hands-on and enjoyable. Some of his favorites were this frog hop sight word game, this building sight words with LEGO activity and this sight word card game, but there are so many more that he has enjoyed.
This activity was very effective at encouraging him to really look at the words and the individual letters that make up the words. The pockets gave the activity a novelty that really sparked his interest.
Supplies Needed:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Library pockets
- Craft sticks
- Permanent marker
- Painter’s tape
- Dry-erase tape (optional)
- Dry-erase markers (optional)
- I wanted to be able to reuse the pockets for different words so I decided to use this awesome dry-erase tape on them. I cut off pieces of the tape and placed one on the front of each pocket.
- Then I wrote a sight word on the dry-erase tape with a dry-erase marker.
- After I had words on all of the pockets, I made craft sticks to go in each pocket. I wrote one letter of each sight word on a craft stick with a permanent marker.
- I taped the pockets to the table with painter’s tape because I wanted to be able to photograph them well for you all and my walls are too dark to get a good photo, but I do plan to tape them to the wall.
- I put the craft sticks in a pile on the table next to the pockets.
Sight Word Pockets Activity
To begin, I modeled what to do so that my son could see what was supposed to happen. I chose a pocket I wanted to add craft sticks to and then I searched through the pile to find the sticks needed to make that word. When I found the sticks, I placed them in the pocket in the correct order.
After I did two of them, my son decided to join in. He liked to pick the pocket, find one matching stick, place that one in the pocket and then go back to the pile to find the next stick. Either way is perfectly fine.
I wasn’t positive if he would really enjoy this activity, but he actually liked it a lot. We had never used the pockets before, so I think that was a big motivator. He thought they were pretty neat. He also liked that they were kind of like mini mailing envelopes and he was sorting “mail” into them.
I will definitely utilize these again for colors, shapes, letters and even more sight words and CVC words!
I was inspired to do this activity by Kristina at Toddler Approved. She has several awesome pocket activities for younger children that you should check out! We love this alphabet pocket matching game she created.
Here are some more sight word activities that I think you will like!
Building Sight Words with LEGO
Sight Words with Alphabet Gems from The Educators’ Spin On It
Hands-On Sight Word Activities from Life Over C’s
Rainbow Sight Word Lacing from Preschool Inspirations