This fun and surprisingly simple sight word game was one of my kindergarteners’ hands-down favorite ways to practice reading common words. I hope Showdown becomes a well loved sight word game for your kids, too. And if you’re in need of more inspiration, make sure to grab our best selling 32 EDITABLE Sight Word Games so you get everything you need in one quick and simple download.

Getting Ready

To play this sight word game, I grabbed a stack of blank index cards and markers. I picked 5 or 6 sight words and wrote each one on a separate index card.

Then, using a different colored marker, I wrote the same 5 or 6 words on separate index cards.

Simple prep, super fun sight word game. {Playdough to Plato}

Sight Word Game: Showdown!!

I gave my 4.5 year-old son one set of cards and asked him to spread the cards out in front of him. He pointed to each word and read them out loud. I helped him with the tricky (the) and (to).

Then, I mixed up my cards and randomly picked (the). I read it out loud but was careful not to show it to my son. He looked down at his cards, picked up (the), and held it to his chest until it was time for the big reveal. (As he was making his selection, I closed my eyes to build the excitement.)Simple prep, super fun sight word game. {Playdough to Plato}
After a couple of suspense-building seconds, I called out, “1-2-3 SHOWDOWN!!” My son laid his word down as I slapped my card next to it.

Simple prep, super fun sight word game. {Playdough to Plato}
The cards matched, so the round was complete. He picked up the word and returned it to his original pile. I resorted the cards, picked a new one and played again.

As we continued our game , there were a couple of times when my son grabbed the wrong index card so I had him look at the word I laid down, read it, spell it and then find the matching word in his pile. When he succeeded, I congratulated him and we started a new round of the sight word game.

Grab 32 Editable Sight Word Games

For more sight word game fun, snag our best selling 32 EDITABLE Sight Word Games! You’ll just type the words once and they’ll automatically load into every single easy prep, fun to play activity.

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23 Comments

  1. Thank you so much for this post! I made some sight word cards for my daughter the other day and she loved it. She begged to play showdown each day since.

    1. Yay!!! I love hearing that news, Debbie! Thanks for checking back in to let me know that your daughter loved playing Showdown.

  2. I think you could use this for math as well. Number recognition, even math facts! Thanks for the great idea!

  3. I can’t wait to try this with my 5 yr old son. He’s learning sight words now and is just not interested in sitting and learning to read, but I bet he’d love this! And I can laminate them for durability. Thanks for a wonderful and simple idea!!

    1. Yay! I’m excited to hear that you’ll be playing Showdown with your son. I have a feeling that it will quickly become one of his favorite activities. 🙂

      Thanks for saying “hello”, Jeanne!

  4. I don’t pretend to understand why this game is such a hit in our household, but it is. I use it with my 5 yr old and my 4 year old for letter recognition, math, and sight words. They love it! Thanks so much

    1. Yay! I’m thrilled to hear that Showdown is a hit at your house. Thanks so much for taking the time to share an update.

  5. We do something similar, but the child hops onto the index card with the word. This developed because I had a child who was never interested to do anything that involved sitting and being still but was very interested in jumping and hopping. It worked really nicely. I’d forgotten about that until I saw this.
    I really like this idea too and I’m going to give it a go.

    1. I LOVE your hopping game suggestion, Sally! Thank you so much for taking the time to share it. I’m excited to try it out with one of the super active kids I tutor.

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