A word wall is a common way to display sight words in a first-grade classroom. The sight words hang on a designated wall area in the classroom. The words are organized in alphabetical order with each letter of the alphabet having a separate column or section of the wall. Regular review of the words on the word wall reinforces recognition in the students. Simply reading down the row of words is one way to review. Another option is to play a game using a pointing stick. Call out a word and have a student point to the word with a stick. You can also have two students at a time participate to see who can point to the word first. Whoever finds it first stays at the word wall. The other student passes her pointer to the next student. If you don't have pointers, yard sticks work well. Another option is to have the kids shine flashlights at the words.
This sight word activity is played outside on a concrete area. Using sidewalk chalk, draw large circles that will hold at least five students. Write a sight word in each circle. You can repeat sight words in different circles to make sure there is enough space for all of the students. The kids skip, hop or dance around on the concrete area. When you call out a sight word, the kids find a circle with that word and stand inside of it. To make the game more of a challenge, set a time limit on finding the circle.
Pipe cleaners provide a hands-on method of practicing the sight words. Print the sight words in a large font on card stock. Cut the words apart, so each word is on a separate card. The kids shape pipe cleaners into the letters of the word. They unbend the pipe cleaners after they finish a word and then move on to the next word.
The "colorful words" activity focuses on repetition of the word to make it easier to identify. The child writes the word with a crayon. He then traces over it with a different color. The tracing continues until he uses at least five different colors to write over the word. The result is a colorful creation of the word with lots of practice for the child.