POP words

I've found myself digging out a lot of resources I used for my 8 year old to use with 3 year old (or start to plan using them). 

When I first started 'teaching' little person, I was overwhelmed with all the information out there. Teaching to read seemed like an impossible task, and I was wary we were never going to get anywhere. The world of phonics was a new thing, I'd never learnt to read like that, and so teaching seemed so tricky. There were too many words that didn't follow the patterns we were learning using phonics, and it was then that I finally understood the concept of some words simply being sight words. Sight words are words that are learnt through sight (as the name implies!), so this meant I needed resources where those words were constantly used and looked at. This is where the next fun game (well 2) come in...

The games

During my late night scrolling, I came across Learning resources, POP games. 
The games are so simple to use, but they made a huge difference on our learning journey. 

The game is easy to play, you place the popcorn flat on table or floor, with the words face down. Each player picks up a piece, reads the word aloud and keeps that piece. I would place the words little person didn't know to one side, so we could practise those further. 

The fun part, if you pick up the piece which reads 'POP' you have to return all your pieces, and the winner is the person with the most pieces. 

I bought Learning resources POP game for sight words and Learning resources POP game for sight words 2.

The second set works on slightly more difficult words, so once little person was confident with the words from set one we moved on to set two. 

Why does this game work?

The game worked for us for a number of reasons, those being:

• little person was playing, he didn't feel any sort of pressure to 'study' and through relaxed play picked up words at a quick pace
• The repetitive manner worked for us, we could play this game everyday and each time he did much better than last
• The competitive side, or the wanting to win, was a huge motivational push for little person. 
• The game itself is so easy to set up, it meant we played it as often as we liked without 'tidying up' stress

More options

We only purchased Learning resources POP for sight words and Learning resources POP for sight words 2, but there are a few more available; there is Learning resources POP for word families, Learning resources POP for blends and Learning resources POP game for POP letters. 

Once I start on our learning journey with younger sibling, I may find that I will be purchasing the other sets too. I had forgotten how much fun these games were, and am excited to start playing these again!