Sight Word and Word Family Activities – Fun Ideas for Beginners

This week, Filip and I kicked off our very first week of Sight Word and Word Family Activities for Beginners! We focused on the sight words a, and, I, and see along with the -at word family.

I’ll be honest—I debated whether to start sight words before school. I didn’t want to encourage rote memorization and risk Filip guessing instead of sounding out words. But he was eager to do more “school work,” so I decided to take a balanced approach. Whenever possible, we sounded out decodable words together and only memorized the tricky ones.

This way, Filip could build a small bank of high-frequency words while still practising phonics skills to decode CVC words. It turned out to be a great way to make learning fun while supporting early reading success.

👉 Throughout this post, click any photo to grab the freebie, or use the hyperlinked text to see the full resource!

Why Sight Word and Word Family Activities Work So Well

Teaching sight words and word families together is an effective way to build a strong reading foundation. The Science of Reading (SoR) recommends systematic phonics instruction combined with strategic sight word teaching.

Word families help children spot spelling patterns and practise blending sounds to read CVC words like cat, bat, and mat. Meanwhile, sight words introduce the most common high-frequency words that often can’t be fully decoded.

By combining both, children can:

• Strengthen phonemic awareness and phonics knowledge.
• Develop orthographic mapping skills for high-frequency words.
• Build fluency and confidence in connected text.

Week 1 Focus Words

• Sight Words: a, and, I, see
• Word Family: -at

See Sight Words and Word Families Week 2 here. 

View Sight Words and Word Families Week 3 here. 

Explore Sight Words and Word Families Week 4 here. 

What We Did This Week

Sight Word Word Find Activity

One of Filip’s favourite activities was the Sight Word Word Find. It’s perfect for beginning readers because it focuses only on word recognition without writing. Filip loved grabbing a bingo dauber and dotting all the correct words.

➡️ This activity helps children visually recognise sight words while also building fine motor strength using a dauber or marker.

Q-Tip Sight Word Painting

Another activity Filip loved was the Q-Tip painting. It’s hands-on and perfect for early learners who are not yet writing confidently.

➡️ This task supports fine motor development, letter formation skills, and early spelling awareness while keeping learning playful.

Cut and Paste Sight Word Work

We also tried a cut and paste word work activity. Filip enjoyed it, but he needed some help circling the correct spelling. We crossed out the incorrect words together to reinforce what “correct spelling” means.

➡️ This activity builds understanding of correct letter order, a vital step in spelling and reading fluently.

Creating a Sight Word Project Book

Each day, we hung our work to dry. At the end of the week, I glued everything into a project book. This helped us keep all of Filip’s progress together in one place—plus, it’s a great keepsake!

Hands-On Sight Word Building

Since Filip is a very kinesthetic learner, we did some hands-on word building. Threading beads onto pipe cleaners to form sight words was a big hit!

➡️ This activity strengthens the pincer grasp, reinforces correct spelling, and makes learning highly engaging.

Sight Word Cube Building

On another day, we built words using cubes. Filip wasn’t sure what to do at first, so I wrote the letters on the cubes on the piece of paper. Once he saw the letters, he understood right away and enjoyed building the words himself.

➡️ Manipulating cubes gives children a tangible way to explore spelling patterns and letter-sound correspondence.

Fluency Flip Books

We also read from Sight Word Fluency Flip Books most days. These are fantastic if you want to save paper—just flip to the page you need!

➡️ Flip books build fluency with repeated exposure to sight words and CVC words without overwhelming new readers.

Sight Word Fluency Reading Strips

Filip and I also read fluency strips daily. First, I had him identify and dab the focus sight word. Then, he read each sentence out loud.

➡️ These pages are great because they combine sight words with decodable CVC words, so children can sound out unknown words instead of guessing.

Word Family Activities – The -at Family

-at Word Family Building Mat

Filip’s favourite activity was the -at word family building mat. We used rubber stamps to build each word while he sounded it out.

➡️ This activity reinforces blending and segmenting while also strengthening letter-sound knowledge.

-at Word Family Picture Scramble

We also completed a picture scramble activity. I simplified it by having Filip glue the strips onto paper instead of using the booklet format.

➡️ Scramble activities support word recognition, sequencing, and writing confidence.

-at Word Family Reader with Comprehension Page

Finally, we read an -at word family reader together. Filip wrote the beginning sound for each word on the last page. Afterward, we completed the comprehension page together.

➡️ Decodable readers give children success with sounding out words while also building understanding through simple comprehension tasks.

Wrapping Up Week 1

That’s everything we did for our first week of Sight Word and Word Family Activities for Beginners. Filip loved it, and I could see his confidence grow as he practised recognising sight words and sounding out CVC words.

The activities featured above are available as free printables. Click the photos in this post to download them! If you’d like the full resource set, you can also purchase it from my Kinder-Resources store or Teachers Pay Teachers.

To view the resources in this post and other great priced and free resources, click on either of the images below. The links will take you to my Kinder-Resources store, where you can purchase the resources directly.

Happy Teaching 🙂