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Swat Reading Games – Identifying Letters & Sight Words

Swat reading games are simple and require very little materials. All you need are these free printables and fly swatters.

It’s amazing how giving a student a fly swatter can make them so much more interested in reading and math. Below I have provided the materials directions for the various Swat reading games.

Swat Game Tips

  • Laminate these from the beginning so that they can be played over and over again.
  • Make multiple copies of each game so you can divide the class into smaller groups to play.
  • Ziploc bags are great for storing the flies.
  • The flies can be used for various games. Purchase multiple fly swatters so that you can have multiple groups playing at the same time.
  • This is a great activity to send home for a parent volunteer to help with. Send home the file (through e-mail or a flash drive) and your sight word list and ask the parent to type in your words. Have other parent volunteers make copies, cut, and laminate your flies.
  • Depending on your group sizes, you may find you require additional flies to play the games.

What’s Included in the Free Swat Game Printables?

  • Lower case letter cards
  • Upper case letter cards
  • Preprimer sight words
  • Primer sight words
  • First grade sight words
  • Second grade sight words
  • Third grade sight words
  • Direction cards
  • Blank flies version 1
  • Blank flies version 2

Can I use this Game for Other Subjects?

For sure! You can use this game to go with a number of subjects. Just print a set of the blank cards and fill them in how you’d like. Here are some examples:

  • Number recognition
  • Addition + Subtraction facts (swatting the correct answer)
  • Multiplication facts
  • Vocabulary words (give the definition, swat the correct word)
  • Music note recognition

How to Play the 2 Swat Games Versions

Letter or Sight Word Recognition Game #1

Materials Required:

  • Fly swatters (1 per group, the dollar store is great for these!)
  • A printed copy of 1 set of flies per group of students

Directions:

  1. Have students find an area in the room where they can spread out on the floor.
  2. Face flies upside down on the floor (you shouldn’t see the flies).
  3. Students take turns swatting a fly.
  4. If they can identify the letter or word, they get to keep it.
  5. If the student cannot identify the letter or word they return the fly upside down to the pile.
  6. Students repeat until there are no flies left.
  7. The student with the most flies at the end of the game wins.

Letter or Sight Word Recognition Game #2

Materials Required:

  • Fly swatters (1 per group, the dollar store is great for these!)
  • A printed copy of desired sight word flies per group of students
  • Multiple children (and having an adult as ref is suggested)

Directions:

  1. Have students find an area in the room where they can spread out on the floor.
  2. Face flies up so that you can see the fly and words. 
  3. There should be a word giver and 2 or more “swatters”
  4. The word giver calls out a word
  5. The swatters race to spot the word
  6. Whichever child swats the word first, gets to keep it.
  7. The word giver keeps giving out words until all of the words are gone. 
  8. The student with the most flies at the end of the game wins.

Swat Card Printable Files

Click to download the free Swat Files

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