Musical Sight Words

Directions: 1. Place students chairs in a circle (facing inward). 2. Put a paper and pencil on each chair. (It would be beneficial to have each paper on a clipboard or something hard so students can write on it.) 3. Have all students on the inside of the circle. 4. Play music; allow students to jog, skip, jump, hop, wiggle, etc. in the middle of the circle while music is playing. Play music for about 30 seconds. 5. Stop music. When the music stops, each student must find a chair and sit down. Once they have each found a seat, they are to write a sentence using the sight word on the paper. Allow the students 1- 1 minutes to complete their sentence. (If students are finishing sooner, begin playing the music again. If they are taking longer, give the students more time. Adjust accordingly.) 6. Once students have finished their sentence, they are to leave the paper and pencil on the chair. 7. Play the music again, and repeat steps 4-6 as many times as you would like. 8. Encourage students to find a different word every round.

Musical Sight Words

Rationale: Musical Sight Words is fun way for students to practice using their sight words, while burning off some energy. Sight word acquisition is an important building block that helps students become fluent readers. Sight words are words students are able to read upon sight without having to sound them out. When students use the sight words in natural ways, rather than in isolation they are more likely to remember them because they develop an understanding of the words significance and meaning. Once a student knows the significance and the meaning of a sight word, they are able to use these words in their writing and in conversations, deepening their understanding of the words. Seventy-five percent of literature is made up of sight words. When students are able to read sight words without sounding them out, they have a better chance of becoming a fluent reader, therefore increasing their comprehension. Many sight word games involve sitting at a table using flash cards. By incorporating movement into this sight word game, it provides students with a better chance of learning them. When learning involves movement, students have a better chance of mastering the skill they are being taught.

Affordances: Adaptable- Musical Chairs can be used for any subject matter, at any grade. Choose a topic, make a printout for each chair, set up, and youre ready to play! Interactive- Musical Chairs allows students to be a little silly and move around when music is playing, but when music stops, they know they must get right to work. This is a fun and active way to practice sight words rather than just sitting at desks practicing them. Active- Musical Chairs allows students to have a quick break and run around, getting some exercise and letting some energy out while the music is playing. Extension- The music you choose could be a way to introduce students to new genres. Motivating- Although no chair is getting taken out like regular music chairs, students will be motivated to find a chair with a word they have not been to yet.

Set-up- Fairly easy to set up, do not need many materials. If you do not want to use chairs, you can just place the papers on the floor in a circle. Easy to store worksheets in a folder.

Reusable- If you dont want to always be making new recording sheets, you could have a card with a sight word on each chair and have students write their sentences down in a notebook.

Directions- Are simple, most students have played musical chairs before, and will understand how to play the game with the sight words. Differienation- Some of the papers (words or questions) can be more difficult and others can be easier. Could distinguish levels with different colored papers. All students can be encouraged to try each color.

Everyone wins- In Musical Sight words, no one will loses, everyone stays in the game each round!

**Below is an example of one of the worksheets I created to place on the students chairs. I chose words from the Fry Word list (List of 1000 high frequency words). This would be put on a clipboard, and then placed on a chair with a pencil.

Write a sentence using the word:

school
Name: Sentence:

I have not played Musical Sight Words with my students, and it is tricky to take a picture of the game, so I included this picture of what the set up might look like. If there is not enough room in the classroom to place chairs in a circle, you could place papers on students desks, attach them to the wall, or on easels. It does not have to be a perfect circle!