Sight Word Baseball

Do you ever get a little carried away transforming your classroom into a camp ground, cave, beach, or train for special thematic day?

I like to turn mine into a baseball diamond once a week and play ball!  Sight Word Baseball to be specific!  I have always used index cards to play but decided I needed to "jazz" it up this summer.

We play a few different versions of baseball to keep it fresh and separating these words into 5 games will definitely help me differentiate a little more.  I use this game as a whole group and small group activity. You will find several resources in this pack that will help you facilitate both whole group and small group versions.  There are instructions for each, a color-coded poster for students to reference, a baseball diamond game-board, and a score sheet as well as 500 color-coded words printed on baseballs.

For the first quarter we will play ball with the 1st 100 Fry words as a whole class during Skills Block.  Usually I keep the class together and I rotate through all students once or twice.  Sometimes I mix it up and we play on teams or I change up how students move around the bases.  Obviously this is a walking game (unless you like to get a little crazy and let 6 year olds run laps around your classroom, I'm not judging...yes I am).  My top 3 favorite movement variations (in order of most to least) are: 1) dancing, also known as shaking your tail-feather  2) any animal inspired movement, particularly slithering like a snake or doing the worm and 3) dancing, did I mention dancing.  Seriously, what's better than kids dancing?  I wish I had that much fun doing...well, anything :)

Freebie available in Preview

During the second quarter I will transition to the 2nd 100 Fry words as a whole group game and put the 1st 100 words into literacy centers for students to continue practicing words with their partners.  There is a score sheet for students to keep track of the score (for those competitive kids).  When I play as a whole group I don't worry with the score.

I plan on using the 4th and 5th hundred as a small group enrichment activity for my students performing above grade-level.  As the year goes on you'll be able to use the words you've already played as a whole class in remediation activities with students who may not have memorized the words yet.

Earlier I mentioned that I like to keep students in a whole group and rotate through them once or twice during a Skills Block lesson.  The words are color coded to indicate the number of bases the student can move to if they read the word correctly.  Green words are worth 1 base.  Blue words are worth 2 bases.  Yellow words are worth 3 bases.  Red words are a home run!  So if a student reads a blue word correctly they move to 2nd base.  If the next person reads a green word correctly they move to first base and the previous player moves to 3rd base.  If the 3rd player reads a red word correctly they get a home run and everyone scores!

What happens when they read a word incorrectly?  I always "pitch" them 2 more words (3 strikes, you know).  Most of the time a student can get on base with 3 chances.  Occasionally it doesn't happen and you're left with a choice:  walk them or strike them out?  Totally your decision, some kids can deal with a strike out and some can't.  This is supposed to be fun and you don't want them to disengage so keep that in mind as you decide how you will play with your class!

Here's one of the best parts of Sight Word Baseball....the bases!  I found this sweet treasure at the Dollar Tree!  After 4 years of use my old bases were pretty worn so I picked up a brand new set.  I can't wait to tape them down!

Students playing in a small group will need the baseball diamond game-board, plastic bears or place markers, a set of 100 baseballs.  The score sheet and poster for referencing are optional.  Each student will take a turn flipping over 1 baseball and reading it.  If they read it correctly they move the number of spaces indicated by the color of the word and keep the baseball.  If they read it incorrectly they place it in a discard pile.  The next student then takes their turn.  It is up to the students playing the game to keep each other accountable.  I encourage this by telling them that if they catch their partner reading a word wrong they should help correct them and make sure they discard because the objective is to have the most baseballs by the end of the game.  Keeping their partner accountable could help them win the game.

Sight Word Baseball is available in my TPT store and this Score Sheet (pictured above) is a little freebie that you can get in the preview!

Pick up your copy today and play ball all year long!