Scarecrow Sight Word Activity
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When it comes to learning sight words, the more practice the better. And, of course, the more engaging you can make that practice, the more willing students will be to keep working on them. This free Scarecrow Sight Word Activity has a couple of fun elements to make sight word matching seem like more play than work.
*Pair this with our October Sight Word Games and Centers!
Preparation
First, you can set up a quick and simple fall harvest sensory bin. I used a 32 oz bag of popcorn and a handful of sunflower seeds – I just picked these up at the grocery store, and they only cost me a couple of bucks. This was enough to adequately fill the plastic dishpan we use for sensory play.
Next, print and cut out the free printable harvest pieces and cards. You’ll probably want to laminate them for durability.
Note that I cut out the sunflowers, corn, and pumpkins along the outline of their shapes rather than as cards. (See the picture of them in the sensory bin.)
You could cut them as cards if you’re pressed for time – but I think they looked nice trimmed closely.
Finally, cut the scarecrows and the crows into cards as shown below, and print and copy the recording sheets too.
RELATED RESOURCE: Editable Sight Word Games & Centers
How to Play
- Start off by “planting” the pumpkins, corn, and sunflower pieces in the sensory bin.
- Shuffle all the crow and scarecrow cards and place them face down in a pile.
- Pick the top card. If you draw a crow, read its word. Then, look in the sensory bin for the piece with the matching word. Finally, set the pair aside and copy the word onto the recording sheet.
- If you draw a scarecrow, it will scare away all the crows you’ve already matched! Pick each one up, read it, and make it “fly” away behind the bin.
Extend the Activity with Read Alouds
You may like to extend this activity with a few scarecrow theme picture books. I love Scaredycrow by Christopher Hernandez. It’s about an adorable scarecrow who is afraid of crows and just about everything else.
A longer story with an interesting chain of events is The Scarecrow’s Hat by Ken Brown. I think this book would stand up well to repeated readings – it’s the kind of slightly complicated story that kids like to hear again and again.
Finally, Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant is a quietly charming description of a scarecrow’s world. It has a slow pace, a positive message, and will help develop background knowledge too.
Grab Your FREE Copy
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