Google+ Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas: Kindergarten Fun: Sight Word Discovery Bottles

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Kindergarten Fun: Sight Word Discovery Bottles

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I am always thinking of ways to make learning sight words fun for my Oldest Diva. Repeated exposure to the words is essential but it can also get boring and tedious being so repetitive. So, to change things up a bit I decided to make her some Sight Word Discovery Bottles & turn practicing our sight words into an I Spy Adventure!

Discovery Bottles are great for so many things so I was excited to finally use them at home.


What You Need:
clean & dried bottles 
(Gatorade, Powerade, etc work well because they are larger!)
uncooked rice
food coloring (optional)
rubbing alcohol (used only if coloring rice)
ziploc bag


Prep: How To Color Rice:
1. In a ziploc bag add 1.5tsp of rubbing alcohol and food coloring 
(I used a generous amount for more vibrant colors)
2. Add in 2 cups of uncooked rice 
3. Mix well until rice is saturated with color
4. Spread on napkin and allow to air dry

* My rice came out so pretty - I was very pleased with the vibrant colors!


To Make Sight Word Discovery Bottles:
1. Type out target sight words and laminate.
I used a large font and printed the words on both sides of the paper 
so they can be easily read while in the bottle.
2. Fill bottle 1/4 way with rice and add half of the sight words
2. Add 1/4 more rice on top of sight words
3. Put in the other half of the words
4. Top with 1/4 more rice.
Note: Leave approx. 1/4 of the bottle unfilled to 
allow ample room to manipulate the rice


To start us off I made 2 sets of printables for each bottle.
One has ALL the sight words printed on it that are contained in the bottle.
The other has 2 lists each containing half of the words in the bottle.



How to Play:
There are a few ways to play with these bottles:
1. You can let the child shake the bottle, find a word, read it and then mark it off from their list.
2. The  child can read the words from the list and search for that word in the bottle, in order as listed on the sheet - this would be more challenging and a bit more time consuming.


I also plan to put the papers in sheet protectors and let the Lil Divas use do-a-dot markers or dry erase markers to mark the words they find. This way the papers are re-useable.

I plan to make more bottles but these are a great start and I can't wait to let the Lil Divas use them!

Do you use Discovery Bottles? If so, what do you use yours for?

Bern

35 comments:

  1. Nice idea. I might just have to try this with my students.

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  2. Thanks for the great idea! I have one little learner at home who loves food coloring big time, and adding words and play would certainly entice the homework process!

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  3. I've seen people make all sorts of bottles this way. I love it. We never have appropriate bottles though. I have tons of rice and the girls love helping color it. Maybe I should ask around church or playgroup, see if anyone uses decent bottles and if they can save them for us.

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  4. We just bought a bag of beans to make our first ever batch of beans (not from a can) and my husband got all excited because now we can make one of these for our baby girl. She loved them at the daycare she went to when she was younger. Love the tip on dyeing the rice. Stopping by from Funky Polkadot Giraffe.

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  5. What a fun idea! (the wheels in my head are spinning....getting some neat ideas to expand on this...). I love this!

    Visiting you today from the HHH.

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  6. What a great way to hunt for words! These could be used over and over again.

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  7. We had these at the preschool I worked at! We had all sorts of things in them, too! My daughter would love these, I think I'll try this. Thanks for sharing.

    P.S. Your oldest may be too old to enjoy them, but my daughter loves the Preschool Prep DVDs Meet The Sight Words! They have fun characters and you can break them into mini lessons of 4-5 words at a time. She picks them up so quickly with this and then we reinforce with other activities. : )

    From: Homeschooling, Our Way!

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  8. love this idea. I also plan to write letters ( upper and lower)and numbers for the 3 yr old I nanny.Plus, her name as she knows how to spell her name and a few other words. So, she can feel included as well. Adding this on the list of activities to do.

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  9. love this idea will be sharing it with a friend of mine

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  10. Hey Bern, thought I'd pass through and say hello - LOVE the colored rice, it's gorgeous! XoXo, Mercy

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  11. So colourful! Fun AND educational :-)

    Thank you for joining Kids Get Crafty again!

    Maggy

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  12. Brilliant! My six year old is into learning to read, but has been wanting some variety in what we're doing. This is perfect, thanks!

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  13. I love it! I need to get busy and do something like this.

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  14. This is an awesome idea. I pinned it and hope to add it to our learning soon! Thanks.

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  15. I love using bottles like this on car trips - they are perfect for this. I add little trinkets, buttons, beads, etc. and photocopy them so my son has something to cross off as he finds them. I have never thought of using them to help learn sight words - great idea!! :)

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  16. How smart! I am stealing this idea for sure. In a good way, of course. :)
    I love it! Well done!

    Pinning this one too!
    ~ Meredith From A Mother Seeking Come find me on my blog, A Mother Seeking...

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  17. Thanks for the rice colouring recipe. I teach kindergarten and I think your idea would make great letter discovery bottles, too.

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  18. I'll definitely be doing these! Thanks for sharing :-)

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  19. This is a fabulous idea! I wish I had thought of this for a learning center back when I was a teacher. As soon as my little chunk is old enough we will be enjoying this activity!

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  20. this is great and looks fantastic! thanks so much for sharing on Craft Schooling Sunday!

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  21. This is such a great idea!!! I think I am going to do this for my preschoolers... using pictures. I wish I had thought of something like this when I taught... This is great!

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  22. This looks great too for the kids finding their own names and the names of their friends!

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  23. Great idea I will have to try this. We currently make two copies of the sight words and play " Go Fish" he loves that.

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  24. I just did this today...what an easy and fun activity for my kindergartners. I can't wait to introduce them to this activity...DIY Discovery Bottles...here is the link to my website posting...hope you don't mind i directed them here to get the directions :)

    http://www.theholtclan.com/?p=7454

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    Replies
    1. Wonderful - I hope your kiddos enjoy it! Thanks for linking back to us - we appreciate that! :) Be sure to come back and let us know what your students thought of it.

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  25. Using this idea for my music carnival. Putting facts about composers in the bottles. Thanks!

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    1. What a fun idea! The kids are sure to enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by and sharing with me.

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  26. This is such a playful way to include wordwork in your practice. I pit the same word on both sides of stiff paper then laminate. That way when the student shakes the bottle she/he will always see a word and not the back side of the paper.

    Liz;)

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  27. We put two dice in the bottle. Kids roll the bottle and use the two numbers for addition ; also good for writing number practice.

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