A trick to get students to learn phonics & high frequency sight words:

The game Steal It!

sight word game Steal It! example

This fun game inspires kids to read more words than they would with routine activities because they want to win the game. Not only that, but because the words they're reading focus on 2 essential early reading skills 1) phonics knowledge AND 2) high frequency sight words, this reading practice is super efficient!

Sneaky teacher.  😉

Steal It! is a great activity to follow Sort It….Just send students off to centers to play the Steal It! game independently after working on the target sound during Guided Reading. Keep them engaged AND learning essential knowledge. Sweet!

Sort It phonics page

While one group may be learning the /oa/ sound this week, another group may be learning the /ay/ sound. It's still easy for the teacher to just present one center, though–the Steal It! center. The former group plays with the /oa/ sound Steal It! deck while the later group plays with the /ay/ sound deck. Learn more about how to differentiate for guided reading groups this way here.

Would you like to try Steal It! with your kids?

Here's where to snag a free version of Steal It! targeting the /oa/ sound.

Want all 5 decks of Steal It for 5 of the major Advanced Phonics spellings?

If you have never seen our workshop, 3 Activities a Day to Keep Reading Difficulties Away, then you're invited to register for the workshop. At the end of the workshop you'll be offered a chance to join the Reading Simplified Academy. If you join during the promotion, you will receive several bonuses and one of them is all 5 decks of Steal It!

Sign up here for the workshop–3 Activities a Day to Keep Reading Difficulties Away.

3 activities workshop invitation

Please let us know if you've tried Steal It and what you've found!

I'd love to hear your comments (see below).