Not everybody has abundance of fall leaves that descend into their backyard the way we do here in South Carolina and some people long to have autumn leaves. I remember several years agp reading about a lady who wanted fall leaves sent to her so her children could learn and explore with them. When I came across a package for crepe paper colored leaves at the dollar store, I remembered reading her plea. The leaves I found weren’t real leaves, but they are leaves that can be used for learning activities or exploring. These leaves will last way past this fall. The 1st grade sight word game I created called Building Leaf Words will too
Here is How I Put Together This First Grade Sight Word Activity
I went through a list of 1st grade sight words to see what letters seemed to appear in the largest number of them. I ended up with the following letters:
- a
- e
- h
- i
- k
- l
- m
- n
- o
- p
- r
- s
- t
- u
- w
- y
Each of the letter above was written with a black marker on one of the leaves. I tried to created pretty big letters. There was a wire that went down the center of each of the leaves. It was a little hard to write over, but I tried my best to make it look smooth.
Then I strung a line of twine up on the deck for my son to hang to letters on to form words. The twine could easily have been hung between two chairs indoors. Actually you wouldn’t have to hang twine at all, you could arrange the leaf letters on a table to form 1st grade sight words. The letters I used had a wire down the center ( I mentioned that earlier didn’t I. ) We formed into a hook on each of the letters to make them easier to hang.
1st Grade Sight Words Game One
The letters were spread out on a piece of poster board and we talked about the words that we could make with them. We didn’t have any word list to go by. We just built words and hung them on the twine line. This version of the game using 1st grade sight words was a little tricky.
1st Grade Sight Words Game Two
A list of some of the First Grade Sight Words for Kids (Click on the link to the left to download a free copy of the list.) that can be built using the leaf letters can be place out with the leaves. We tried to build as many of the words as we could then we tried to come up with more words of our own.
Affiliate link is shared below for your convenience
If you would like to try making leaf letters, I found the same Crepe Paper Fall Leaves I used on Amazon.com.
For more sight words activities, please check out my Learning to Read board on Pinterest.
Follow JDaniel4’s Mom’s board Learning to Read on Pinterest.
Lisa @ Two Bears Farm says
These are really cute. My twins would enjoy it.
Theres Just One Mommy says
Such a fun idea! I’ve been hunting fun word games for the kids — we may need to use this one!
Deirdre says
I am so glad you like it.
Sue Lively says
You did a lot of research for this post Deirdre! Your instructions are really clear and I love the fall twist on this activity. I’m going to be featuring this in an Early Writing Tips roundup from the Love to Learn Linky this week at One Time Through. Thanks for sharing! Best, Sue
Victoria says
Such a great idea!! Pinned 🙂
Ashley says
What a fun way to practice spelling all sorts of words!
Emma says
What a fun way to learn in the fall! We always have tons of leaves, but they fall apart so easy that I still would prefer this DIY method!
Deirdre says
These tissue paper leaves have lasted for a long time.