The Flyswatter Game: Virtual Version

The adaptation for using this activity online was provided by Miriam Bosveld.

Purpose:  This virtual activity helps learners to practice recognizing sight words and develop their skimming skills.

Preparation Time:  10 minutes

Materials Needed:  PowerPoint or Google slide

Procedure:

1. Select 12-20 words from a story or choose words for the learner/s to review.
2. On a PowerPoint or Google slide, create a grid. Mark the columns with letters (A, B, C, D) and the rows with numbers (1, 2, 3, 4). Fill in the grid with the selected words. For lower level learners, use fewer words. For higher level learners, use more words.
3. Share the slide on your online teaching platform. Tell the learner/s that you will say a word, and that they must find it on the grid and tell you the letter of the column and the number of the row where the word is located.
4. Say a word, and model how to give the word’s location (e.g. The word is bill. Bill. I see bill is C3.) Model one or two more words.
5. If you are working with one learner, ask them to locate a word. If you are working with several learners, call on a specific learner and ask them to locate the word. Prompt as needed if the learner struggles to locate the word (e.g. What letter does the word start with? What words do you see in column B?)
6. Repeat step five until all of the words have been located.

Technology suggestion: If you are using the Zoom platform, you can do the same activity using the annotation tool. Leave off the column letters and the row numbers, and have the learner/s use the annotation tool to circle or underline the target word.