1. Overview

The goal of Sight Words Bean Bag Toss is to provide continued exposure to a set of sight words, with opportunities for repetition and confidence building.

A child simply tosses a bean bag toward an array of sight words flash cards, reading whatever word the bean bag lands on. It is a simple game with a fun physical element to help children use up some of the fidgety energy.

Image: Sight Words Bean Bag Toss

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2. Materials

The game requires one or more bean bags and some sight words flash cards. If you don’t have any bean bags, you can instead use any other item that behaves similarly. It must be relatively small and stay in one place when it lands on the floor, with no significant bouncing or rolling.

For cards, you can simply use flash cards or cards from any of our other SightWords.com games.

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3. Activity

Spread the cards, face up, on the floor. They should be close together, but not touching each other. Have the child stand nearby and gently toss a bean bag toward the cards. He can aim for a specific card if he likes, but it’s not necessary. If a child lacks the coordination to toss the bean bag accurately, have him stand right next to the array of cards and basically drop the bean bag onto one of the cards.

After the bean bag is tossed, the child should walk over and pick up the card the bean bag landed on top of (or closest to). He should then read the word on the card, using his finger to underline the word from left to right. If he reads the word correctly, congratulate him and send him to the back of the line so the next child can have a turn. If he cannot read the word, go through our sight words correction procedure to review and reinforce the correct pronunciation.

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4. Variations

You can scale the difficulty level of the game by using an easier or more difficult set of words. Adjust the distance the children stand from the cards as well as the size of the cards used to match their throwing ability and aim.

Feel free to stop mid-game and rearrange the cards on the floor, if children are hitting the same few cards over and over. This also forces the child to read each word instead of simply memorizing which word is in which location.

With just one child, you may want to remove cards as they are “played,” to encourage the child to go through all the cards.

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5. Assessment

Observe the game and make note of which words the children are struggling with. You can then give these words extra attention in your next lesson. Also look out for individual children who are having trouble with lots of the words.

Remember that the child’s throwing accuracy is the least important part of this game, so do not get distracted from your sight words curriculum by a pitching lesson!

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