Silly Sally Sight Word Sensory Activity

We love the book Silly Sally by Audrey Wood! The repetition and rhyme bring giggles to all the children I have read this book to over the years, especially my toddler and preschooler. I developed a unit of study for this book to help children learn sight words. Here is one easy sensory activity using the book Silly Sally to practice learning sight words for pre-K through first grade children. I’ll add our other favorite activities soon. 💛

Materials for the Sight Word Sensory Activity

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• Silly Sally by Audrey Wood (Buy)
• Sensory bin or IKEA FLISAT table and bin
• Yellow split peas or rice
• Yellow package filler
• Magnetic bingo chips (letters written on with permanent marker) (Buy)
• Bauspiel Lucent Cubes (we bought ours from @happymonkeymiami– not an affiliate link, we just love this product)
• Tool bin- Magnetic wands, scoops, cups, and sifters (Buy)
• Sight word cards
• Pop It silicone mat (Buy)

Here is a free handout I designed to help me pre-assess my children to plan my lesson on three dolch words at a time for the following activity. It is a two page PDF that gives children a visual of all the sight words from Silly Sally by Audrey Wood. I also use the second page as a game, I’ll write that post next.

I may earn from qualifying purchases through affiliate links on this page as an Amazon Associate, but really I love these products and use them with my kids.

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Set- Up for this Sight Word Activity with Silly Sally

1. Make magnetic letters for the words you want to focus on for this play activity. For example, I made five chips for each letters in order to build the words she, went, to multiple times.
   • I wrote on bingo chips using a permanent marker. To remove the letters later, grab an expo marker and scribble over the permanent marker. Then wipe with a napkin or towel. 💛
2. Fill the bottom of the sensory bin with magnetic letters.
3. Next, cover the letters with yellow split peas or any yellow filler.
4. Add yellow package filler to the bottom of the bin.
5. Add a tool bin on the other side of the table for room to play.
6. Place cubes around the entire container in a zig zag pattern to form Silly Sally’s path to town.

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Play Ideas for Silly Sally Sight Word Activity

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Read Silly Sally by Audrey Wood and then hunt for magnetic letters in the bin to build sight words from the book as you pause to point out words. We also use pointers, highlighter tape, and wiki sticks for this activity. The kids loved to identify our focus words using different materials each time we read the book.

Use a Pop It fidget toy to organize formed sight words. Each bubble perfectly fits the magnetic bingo chips. I loved the CVC activity that I saw on Instagram from @snippetsbysarah. She has children push down a bubble on the mat as they sound out each sound in a word. I had my daughter try that before adding the chip letters over the pressed bubbles. Her website sarahsnippets.com has a wealth of information about helping children read.

For other resources for Silly Sally– like coloring pages visit AudreyWood.com. I love using Audrey Wood’s books for my read- aloud books and then plan activities for after reading. We used the coloring sheets from her website to make a sight word game I’ll post here soon.

Here are some of my kids favorite activities we have created so far using Audrey Wood books as our read-aloud book; Best Activities and Lessons for Preschool Children using Books Written by Audrey Wood.

When my kids are done having fun with the above ways of playing, then I put together a game for then using the lucent cubes to cover with dolch words.

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Sight Word Sensory Game After Reading Silly Sally

Before turning inquiry play into a game we remade the pathway with the yellow cubes.

Then, taking turns my kids looked in the book Silly Sally for sight words and then using the letter chips to form words on top of the cubes.

For example, my daughter found down, get, who, she, did, up, and he. This was after practicing the book multiple times. At first I would recommend focusing on playing the game with finding the same three words from the book over again. For example, she, went, and to.

We also used our handmade flashcards to find our next words. They perfectly fit into the edge of the IKEA FLISAT table. That way the kids had a visual next to the bin for easy review.

The kids and I continued building words on the cubes until all the cubes were filled with sight words.

Then we reviewed the words using the magnetic wand and swiping it over the letters as we said the words again together.

Let your child gobble up all the phrases on Silly Sally’s path when the play is over or start again with different words.

We had fun for days with these materials.

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Favorite Amazon Products We Use With These Activities

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Thank you for visiting Live Learn Literacy

I hope this post helped give you ideas of how to make learning sight words fun for your little learners. I’ll have more activities we love to do with this book soon.