Teaching sight words is like learning how to play the piano…it’s 10% instruction and 90% practice. The teacher can instruct until the cows come home, but ultimately it is up to the student to practice. And the teacher providing meaningful, motivating practice is what counts. This article provides some quick, easy, teacher-tested tricks to give students the practice they need using the fun and versatility of custom bingo. Read on to discover BingoCardCreator.com’s top 5 ways our teachers use custom bingo as part of their reading fluency instruction.
Small Group Differentiated Instruction
This is perfect for a small group of 5-10 kids. Simply create and print custom bingo cards with the sight words you are working on in class or use one of BingoCardCreator’s pre-made sets. Play with students noting when a student struggles with a word on their card. You can also have a student lead the game while you check in on other groups or provide some one-on-one time. Best of all, these bingo cards can be easily customized to meet students needs from lower level to advanced sight words.
Homework
Print out sight words bingo cards and send them home with instructions for students to read each word on their card out loud to a family member. Request that parents circle any words that their child struggled with giving you a personalized assessment piece. Another way to use at home is to send the bingo card and call list (automatically included in each set of custom bingo cards printed from BingoCardCreator.com). Parents can use the call list to play bingo with their child or cut apart and use as flash cards.
Fun Friday
TGIF! Reward your students for all of their hard work during the week by adding a game of bingo to your Friday lesson plans. Each game only takes 8-10 minutes and is a great motivator. For even more fun, have some prizes available for winners.
Beat the Buzzer
This is an easy way to help students increase their fluency speed. Give each student a sight words bingo card and timer. Then partner students up, assigning one person as the reader and the other as the timer. Have partners take turns timing each other and recording how long it takes for them to accurately read each word on their bingo card. The goal is to see if they can beat their previous time. Or set the timer for 30 seconds to a minute. See how many words they accurately read in the prescribed time.
Learning Center
Set up a Sight Words Bingo reading center. Provide sight words bingo cards, a bag containing the words on the cut-apart call list (automatically included in each set of custom bingo cards printed from BingoCardCreator.com), and bingo chips. Students at this learning center take turns calling the game while the rest of the students cover their cards.
