No Mess (Hopefully) Hidden Sight Words

(4 Years)

I am so excited to share this!  I found this AWESOME Squish and Seek Sight Words game on Playdough to Plato (thank you again Norin for posting your own spin on the squishy bag from Mama Smiles- the kids loved it!).  This immediately reminded me of Disney World's Winnie the Pooh ride's area that you swipe away the dripping honey to reveal the hidden Pooh characters.

 

We have been working on learning these seven sight words: the, has, his, her, with, and, said (see here for a look back at what we've done).  When I saw this, I knew we would be making one!  I decided to make the Squish and Seek game using the seven words that have learned plus three more (are, of and they).  We used large 12 x 18" sheets of construction paper - although you could always just tape two smaller sheets together.

Since it's St. Paddy's Week, I decided to have the kids mix yellow and blue.  I knew they would love seeing the colors blend together.

Now, here are the things that I wish I knew before working on this with the kids:
1.  Use a gallon freezer ziptop bag that does not have a logo or designs on it.  The designs will get in the way of the game- a word may get hidden under the logo or design.  The freezer bags are thicker, which will help guard against punctures.
2.  Definitely use packing tape to secure the opening of the ziptop bag closed.  Better safe, than cleaning up paint which could possibly go everywhere!
3.  Choose a light color construction paper, we chose purple for one of the stations and it was a little hard to read through the paint.
4.  Choose a light colored paint.  The green was too dark.
5.  I wish I measured the paint for you, but I just squirted yellow paint on one side and blue paint on the other.  It was too much paint though.  If you add too much, it makes it harder for the kids to move the paint away to find the hidden word- which was our case.
6.  Make sure you tape down the bag to the construction paper and then tape the construction paper down to the table.  Or else the bag and paper will be sliding all over.

Here's a short list of modifications that this one bag can be used for - just switch out the paper underneath and it's ready to go!  Talk about fast and convenient.
1.  Shapes or animals for little ones (I would have to paste the animals on the paper, as I have no artistic ability).
2.  Beginning letter sounds (write the word under the mat (ran) and then the letter on the answer key).
3.  CVC words.
4.  Number recognition (write the word under the mat and then the number on the answer key).
5.  Math facts (write two addends under the mat (2+3) and then the answer on the answer key).