Save the Bugs Sight Words Game

Bob Books has a Spider Web Sight Words Activity that is perfect for Halloween.  In fact, it would be a great way to incorporate a little education at your next Halloween party. 

Sight words are words collected and listed by a man named Dolch which, if memorized, expedite the reading process.  The lists are separated by grades Pre-K to 5 and begin with 220 words which children should know by the end of 1st grade.  This link may help you identify words for your game:  Dolch Word Lists.  I actually just printed the appropriate list and cut out the cards.
We've come up with our own version that would work in spring or fall and is adaptable to pre-readers and advanced readers alike.  Let's get out our crafting supplies and make some fun!



Save the Bugs Sight Word Game

1. Use painter's tape to make a spider web on our floor.  (My angel thought this part was great because we could "legally" break the "No taping, gluing, coloring or painting on the house" rule!)
2. Have your angel glue googley eyes on the bug plates from the Hefty ZooPals "Farm Collection".  Meanwhile, print sight words onto card stockand cut them together or write sight words on index cards.
3. Stick a 1 inch piece of velcro (the soft side) to the bug's belly on each plate.  Then, we stuck a 1/4 inch X 1/3 inch piece of velcro (the hook side) to the backs of each sight word card.  If you do not want to use velcro, you can just tape the cards to the bugs.  But, by using velcro, the words can be changed without ripping the plates and the game can grow with the child's ability.
4. You are ready to play the game.

The Rules

1. One person is the Spider and the other is IT. 
2. IT selects 3-5 sight word cards and sticks them on a bug. 
3. Spider stands near the web; this is the nest.
4. Spider tosses the bugs onto the web. 
5. IT calls out one of the words on the web.
6. Spider must walk the web to the bug that has the word that IT called out.
7. Spider picks up the card and reads it. (To make the game harder, have Spider read the card and say another word with it.)
8. Spider walks along the web back to his nest while IT tries to make a sentence using the word(s).
9. If IT makes a sentence before Spider makes it back to the web, then IT "saved" the bug and gets the plate.  If Spider makes it to the nest before IT makes a sentence, then Spider "ate" the bug and keeps it. 
10. The winner is the person with the most bugs.

Pre-readers:  To make this fun for pre-readers, use upper-case and lower-case alphabet letters.

Enrichment:  To make this fun for higher level readers, use vocabulary from books that they are reading or other languages they are studying. You may also make the web larger or require a subject  with a predicate and descriptive words in more complex sentences.