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Mastering sight words is a necessary skill in learning how to read and spell. And here are seven board games to help your children study, develop, and expand their sight words vocabulary.
These seven sight words board games are for children aged 5-8. They also:
- include words from Fry’s and Dolch sight words list
- are designed for emerging to early fluent readers and ESL students
- can also be played at home or school
Sight Words Board Games Comparison Table
| Game | Age | Players | Rating |
| Sight Word Space Station | 6-8 | 1-8 | ★★★★☆ |
| Word Racer Game | 5+ | 2-4 | ★★★★☆ |
| Sight-Word Salad Bar | 5+ | 2-4 | ★★★☆☆ |
| Treasure Chest Sight Word Game | 5+ | 2 | ★★★★☆ |
| Sight Words Pizza | 5+ | 2-4 | ★★★★☆ |
| Digging Up Sight Words | 6+ | 2-4 | ★★★★☆ |
| Zingo Sight Words | 4-5 | 2-6 | ★★★☆☆ |
Sight Words Board Games
Sight Word Space Station (Key Education)
★★★★☆
For Homes and Schools | Age 6-8 | 1-8 Players | Price $$$ | Duration 20-30 min
Sight Word Space Station
is a space-themed matching board game for learning how to read high-frequency words. It features color-coded cards for two play levels – easy and difficult sight words.
Players need to find the sight word pairs from a set of face-down cards. Then, you may ask them to read the word and use it in a sentence for more challenging gameplay. Before playing, you may also ask your students to guess what is hidden behind the cards. Finally, when all cards are flipped, the hidden alien space station is revealed.
I like this game because:
- It can be played in small groups in the classroom or alone at home.
- It also does not require full adult supervision because it is a matching game.
- It also enhances memory and social skills.
However, this game is limited to only 48 sight words. So, you may need to create your own playing cards to add more variety and difficulty to the game.
Word Racer Game (Teacher Created Resources)
★★★★☆
For Homes and Schools | Age 5+ | 2-4 Players | Price $$ | Duration 20-30 min
Race to the finish line and let your children master using sight words in sentences with Word Racer Game. This drafting board game is an engaging way of teaching word recognition and sentence-building skills.
The rules are simple. Players only have to:
- Choose a car and a car lane to play on
- Draw a card from the deck
- Read the sentence with the correct missing sight word
- Move their cars according to the number of spaces assigned in the card
- reach the finish line to win
This game is simple to play and easy to understand. There are 50 sentence cards included in the set, and each sentence has decodable words and age-level sight words. The answers are also on the other side of the card, so your children can play without adult supervision. You can also easily expand the game by having your child use the other sight word in their own sentence!
Sight-Word Salad Bar (Really Good Stuff)
★★★☆☆
For Homes and Schools | Age 5+ | 2-4 Players | Price $$$ | Duration 15-30 min
Sight-Word Salad Bar is a dexterity board game that allows to practice sight words recognition and fine motor skills. It features 50 colorful sight words toppings, a salad bar mat, two-sided salad plates, and child-friendly salad tongs.
I like this board game because it offers different three different ways to play in one set. For example, you can use this game as a:
- Matching Word Game: let your student find the matching sight word from the salad bar mat and read the word before picking and putting it on their plate.
- Salad Order Game: students encircle their sight word order from the salad ordering sheet, then another player can complete their order and place it on the blank salad plate
- Salad Order 2: have your player write five “salad topping sight words,” then let another participant pick it and place it on the blank salad plate
While there are various ways to play the game, I still feel that it is too limited for sight word learning. It is only focused on recognition and not on vocabulary development and sentence building. I believe that these two skills are necessary for learning about sight words. Students must understand the word’s meaning and how it is used with other words to create sentences.
Treasure Chest Sight Word Game (Really Good Stuff)
★★★★☆
For Homes and Schools | Age 5+ | 2 Players | Price $$$ | Duration 20-30 min
Treasure Chest Sight Word Game is a Battleship-inspired board game for teaching sight words. It features two-sided magnetic board games, a dry-erase tent grid, writing cards, and a laminated instruction card.
This board game is fun and engaging. It follows the rules of the classic Battleship game, which are adapted to teach sight words. To play, players have to:
- Capture all the plot points of their opponents
- Call out a plot point, then their opponent will write the word on the provided writing card and have the player read it
- If there is a treasure chest, the player also has to use the word in a sentence
I like this game because it features 100 sight words compared to the other games on this list. It also allows your players to practice writing and reading sight words during gameplay. The treasure chests add another dimension to this game. It lets your child enhance their vocabulary and sentence-building skills.
And if you want to use this in your classroom, you can divide your students into groups and let them take turns in capturing all their opponent groups’ plots.
Sight Words Pizza (Brybelly)
For Homes and Schools | Age 5+ | 2-4 Players | Price $$$ | Duration 20 min
The Sight Words Pizza introduces fun and sight words on an actual pizza-shaped board game. Each set comes with 16 pizza slices, 4 pizza pans, 1 spinner, 90 basic sight words toppings, and 30 advanced sight word toppings.
This is a fun and colorful board game to include in your collection at home or classroom. It is easy to understand and play, so minimal guidance is needed during gameplay. To play the game:
- Use the spinner to know what kind of topping to add to your pizza slice
- Pick a matching topping to put on your slice
- Allow stealing a topping by letting another player correctly read the word on their opponent’s slice.
- The person with the most toppings on their pizza wins!
I like this game because it features over 100 Dolch and Fry sight words in each set. It also:
- has sixteen pizza slices, so you can accommodate up to that many players and skip the pans
- adds three additional challenges for more points – use a word in a sentence, spell the word in your arm, or read it aloud
The added challenge allows repetition of the sight words during play. So, students are more likely to recall them as they’re having fun.
Digging Up Sight Words (Teacher Created Resources)
★★★★☆
For Homes and Schools | Age 6+ | 2-4 Players | Price $$ | Duration 10-20 min
Digging Up Sight Words is a drafting board game featuring sight words and cute dogs! Children expand their vocabulary, practice their reading skills, and develop their oral language with this game.
This game is similar to the Word Racer Game above in mechanics. Players need to pick a sentence card and fill it with the correct sight word to advance. Answers are also provided on the other side of the card, so they can self-check. But to win the game, your child needs to have the most bones at the end of the game.
I like this board game because:
- It is not merely a racing game because all players can bring their pieces to the dog houses.
- It practices counting and oral language skills as players need to count and communicate with other players during the game.
- The sentence cards include high-frequency and decodable words for age-level reading skill development.
You can also use this game to practice sentence-building skills. Let your students use the incorrect sight word in a sentence for extra bones.
Zingo Sight Words (ThinkFun)
★★★☆☆
For Homes and Schools | Age 4-5 | 2-6 Players | Price $$$ | Duration 10-20
Zingo Sight Words is an award-winning Bingo-inspired game to teach reading and word recognition. It features 24 sight words, 72 word tiles, and a zinger for a fun and engaging play.
This game is easy to use. There are only three steps to follow:
- Slide the zinger.
- Call out the word and match.
- Fill your card to win.
There are only nine words on each card, so the game does not take long to finish. It can also be played at home and in schools. I like this game because players develop their motor skills when they fill and slide zinger. Each bingo card also has small icons that can be helpful for children having difficulty remembering their sight words.
However, this game only has 24 words. Therefore, it is not sufficient to review and master the required number of sight words for kindergarten and first graders. The required list of high-frequency words for these levels is 100. And Zingo Sight Words only covers about one-fourth of the requirement.
Other English Language Arts Board Games for 5-to-8-Year-Olds
If you are interested in more board games to include in your ELA classes and study sessions, check out 10 Rhyme Board Games and Toys for Preschoolers and Primary School. Using board games in teaching English to kindergarteners and first graders helps your children have more fun while developing their vocabulary, word recognition, and reading skills.
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