Sight Word Drag Racing

One of the best ways to help your child learn and remember sight words is to play a sight word game. One day, as I watched my boys eagerly race two Matchbox cars at a time down their track, I was struck with an idea: With one simple twist, their playful competition would become a motivating sight word game! Sight Word Drag Racing was born.

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Getting Ready

Before inviting Big Brother to play the sight word game, I gathered a few supplies:

- 8 small cars. {Cars with flat roofs stick to the labels best.}
- 8 small labels.
- A marker.
- A race track. {I used my boys’ ramp but you could also make one out of cardboard.}
- A printout of the Drag Racing Bracket available here.

I wrote one sight word in the middle of each label and stuck it onto the hood of a race car. Note: When choosing the sight words to work on first, many teachers use the most common English words in print. The first 20 words on that list are: {a, I, it, the, and, in, of, to, he, is, that, was, look, you, said, for, up, go, we, play}.

Sight Word Drag Racing

I helped my son write one sight word on each line of the Drag Racing Bracket. The left hand column looked like this:

The two words in the blue box raced in the first round. In this example, the cars labeled {my} and {he} were assigned to Heat One. The two sight words in the green box raced next, and so on.

Then came the fun!! My son placed the cars that were racing in Round One at the top of the ramp. After counting down in my best announcer’s voice, he launched them down the track.

Since the {my} car crossed the finish line first, it was the winner. I helped my son write it on the line next to the blue bracket. We continued racing and writing until the {me} car sped its way to the winner’s circle.