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Tactile and sensory activitiesare a fabulous way to reinforce learning and to be honest it’s my favorite way to learn (and teach!) too! Most of these sight word and blends activities need products that you already have in your classroom or office at home so you can get started today on them!
Each activity can be tailored to whichever grade level you are working with and altered based on your needs and stored away to reuse later.
The Sight Word Toss Game:
For this awesome activity you’ll need:
Tri-fold Display Board
X-ACTO Knife
any Sharpie Permanent Marker
Mr. Sketch Markers
Plastic ball(s)
optional – letter stencils
Begin by using your X-ACTO knife to cut 3 holes into the middle of your tri-fold display board. You’ll want a small hole (but large enough that your ball can be thrown into!), a medium sized hole, and a large hole (in any order).
Next take 3 Mr. Sketch markers of your choice and color a (roughly) 2 inch block of color around the hole you just cut out. Each color (and size hole) will represent a different amount of points depending on level of difficulty.
Using your Sharpie permanent marker write sight words on the plastic ball. Lastly write sight words on both “flaps” of the tri-fold display board. You’ll notice on ours we color coded our sight words based on grade level. I also used stencils to make them large and neat.
How to Play:
Each student picks up the sight word ball and must reada sight word out loud. Once they have correctly read a sight word they then get to throw the ball trying to make it into one of the holes. IF the ball makes it into the hole they advance to the bonus round where they must choose a sight word on the side of the board to read. Once read they get a bonus throw!
Each color coded hole is worth a different amount of points. The largest easiest hole is worth 1 point, the medium worth 2, and the hardest worth 3! The first one to make it to 10 wins!
Sensory Sight Word Tactile Rubbings:
This Sensory Sight Word Tactile Rubbings activity is fun and can be done with anything from math flashcards to letters of the alphabet.
For this activity you’ll need:
Elmer’s CraftBond Dual Temp Hot Glue Gun with Glue Sticks
Colored Index Cards
Mr. Sketch Gel Crayons
Printer Paper & Scissors
Directions:
We decided to separate our our colored index cards – one color per grade level. Using your Elmer’s Hot Glue Gun, “write” one sight word per card and let dry.
While your note cards are drying you’ll want to cut out 3″ x 5″ pieces from your printer paper so that they can lay over the top of your sight word notecards. Show the kids how to lay one small piece of printer paper over the top of their sight word flash cards you made with hot glue.
Let them use their Mr. Sketch Gel Crayons to light rub the paper over top of the sight words! They can “trace” the letters in the sight words to make them darker!
Not only does this allow the kids to use their fingers to trace the raised sight words but the amazing scents from their Mr. Sketch Gel Crayons will give them an extra sensory experience while they are learning!
Tactile & Fine Motor Blends Activity:
For this activity you’ll only need 3 items:
Pool Noodle (your choice of color)
Sharpie Dual TipPermanent Marker (2 colors)
X-ACTO Knife
Using your X-ACTO knife cut 2-3 inch slices off of your pool noodle. In the past I’ve tried using a knife to cut up my pool noodles but it really can make quite a mess and rip apart the pool noodle. Using an X-ACTO knife gives you an extremely clean cut without the mess.
Then use one of yourSharpie Permanent Markers to write on each pieceof the pool noodles! I used the Fine Tip side of our Sharpie Dual Tip markers.
