Find and Tally Sight Words Activity

Since my youngest daughter is heading into first grade in the fall, we’ve been focusing a lot on ways to learn sight words.

She’s got a great handle on some, but as you know, there are many to learn.

We’re trying to keep up the practice over the summer, but I definitely want to keep things simple.

That’s where this fun Find and Tally Sight Words activity comes in. It’s easy to prep. Simple to do. And, it’s fun.

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How to set up your Find and Tally Sight Words activity

This activity was so easy to set up.

I started by making a list of sight words that my daughter needs to learn. I chose only six because I didn’t want her to be overwhelmed by too many.

Next, I made it into a pretty chart to make the activity all the more appealing. But, this is not at all necessary, you can just grab some paper and jot down a few sight words leaving room for your sight words.

Now it’s time to tally sight words!

Now, it’s time for the fun. Let’s practice our sight words!

Give your child the chart and a book. They need to go through the book and make a tally mark each time they find one of the words.

It can be slow going and they may not get through the whole book. We didn’t. Our focus was on sight word identification and not reading, so we just did a few pages. We’ll read the book together later.

At the end, add up the tally marks. Which word did you find the most often? The least?

Can I give you a quick word of advice?

I made the mistake of not comparing my list of sight words to the book when I did this with my oldest. Oops. It was a lesson in frustration. Page after page and no sight word in sight.

Take the time to make sure the sight words are actually in the book you’re using. The activity is so much more fun when you can actually find the words!

I loved this sight word activity because it was easy to prep and fun to do. Plus, it added in a bit of sneaky math practice with the tally marks.

We’ll do this fun Find and Tally Sight Words activity over and over again for a fun way to practice our sight words.

You may also like one of these sight word activities:

Sight Word Islands – get outside and practice your sight words on the driveway.

Sight Word Pick and Spell – a fun game that is similar to bingo

3 Easy Ways to Practice Sight Words – the easiest ideas ever!

Practice writing your sight words in a Dragon Sensory Writing Tray from Inspiration Laboratories.

Choose a great book for this activity:

We found success using a book that my child was already familiar with. I’d suggest you turn to your own library of books for inspiration.

You’ll want a book with several instances of the sight words you’re working on. Do check to make sure the sight words you need are in the book!

Here are some great options: