New! Dig Into Early Reading with Machie Mole's Sight Words!
Written by: SimplyFun Team
Attention parents and educators! Are you teaching children sight words this school year? Then let's dig into a matching adventure with SimplyFun's latest early reading and memory game, Machie Mole's Sight Words! It's back-to-school time, so help students thrive in early reading by making it hands-on, visual, playful, and collaborative! This tile-matching game can be easily adapted for classrooms as a fun activity that helps children aged 4 and up learn common 3-6 letter words and how to recognize and pronounce them with ease.
Ready to unearth fun phonetics and build memory skills with Machie the Mole? In this blog, we uncover all the exciting features of this game, how to adapt it to a child's reading needs, and share behind-the-scenes about the origins of the game. Ready to dig into early reading and prep for back-to-school success? Game on!
Help Machie the Mole Find Fun Sight Words!
What do you get when you mix sight words with a tile memory game? Machie Mole's Sight Words! Use your memory to help Machie find sight words, unearth matches and collect shiny coins for each pair you reveal! Machie Mole's Sight Words is a multi-sensory game that engages learning through sight (seeing words), kinesthetics (flipping tiles), auditory (reading the words aloud), and memory (remembering where matching opportunities are hiding). By combining memory, spatial reasoning, and sight words, this tile game goes beyond reading while stimulating early childhood development with every flip, match, and shiny coin earned
How to Play Machie Mole's Sight Words
- Flip a card, say the sight word aloud, and add the shovel to the tile. Now use your guessing skills to find the word match in the grid. Flip over your next tile and say that word aloud.
- Make a match? Earn a coin and keep digging for more matches.
-No match? Place the shovel on the newest tile and flip to cover the other tiles. Now it's the next player's turn.
*Fun Extra: Spot Machie the Mole and find his twin for an additional coin! The player with the most coins at the end of the game, wins!
What's in the Box
- 232 Cards
- 4 sets of Machie Mole cards (4 cards in each set)
- 9 sets of word cards (24 cards in each set)
- 30 Gold Coins
- 1 Shovel Pawn
How to Set-Up Gameplay
- There are nine sets of word cards in the box. Choose one set of word cards to play with, leaving the others in the box.
- Take one of the four sets of Machie Mole cards out of the box.
- Shuffle the word cards and Machie Mole cards together, and then lay them face down in a grid of five cards across and five cards down. Keep the remaining three cards hidden and out of play since these will not be used in this game.
- Take the coins out of the box and set them aside where everyone can reach.
- The last player who dug a hole is the starting player.
- Take the shovel pawn and give it to the starting player.
How to Adapt the Game for Classrooms?
There are 9 tile sets in varying difficulty (3-6 letter tiles) in Machie Mole's Sight Words. When playing with 2-5 players, only one set of tiles are used. Teachers can adapt the game for their classroom size by dividing students into groups for each of the 9 sets. Only one shovel is included in the game (which marks the active sight word), but teachers can get creative and use objects found in the classroom as an alternative.
Why Children May Struggle with Sight Words
According to the Iris Center, on average, 25% of American students in early grades require additional help with learning to read. “Typically ranging between 20% -30% of schoolchildren in the early grades struggle with reading.” – Iris Center, Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College.
Sight words, also referred to as ‘high-frequency words,’ are the foundation of the English language. Words like "the," "said," "they," and "she" help children form sentences and communicate efficiently, serving as a stepping stone to developing reading, spelling, communication, and writing skills. Here are a few of the many reasons why children may struggle to learn sight words and how Machie Mole's Sight Words can help!
Sight Words Don't Always Sound as They Look!
Words like 'said' don't always look as they sound, so children may struggle to recall how they are used in sentences or how to sound them out. In Machie Mole's Sight Words, children begin to familiarize themselves with sight words through repetitive play and by sounding out words they identify. Finding a match and earning a coin also provides a fun alternative to learning early reading while staving off boredom (often associated with sight word worksheets) and encouraging engaged, active listening.
Sight Words Require Memory Skills
Sight words rely on the ability to remember them and how they are used. Children with learning challenges, such as dyslexia, may find it difficult to remember basic words solely through sight. Machie Mole's Sight Words stimulates working memory as players actively try to remember matching words on the grid. Also, through the power of repetition, students begin familiarizing themselves with sight words with every tile they flip and word they say aloud.
Inconsistent Practice
Like all essential elements of language development, learning to read, spell, or write requires practice, practice, practice! That is how Machie Mole's Sight Word can help. By creating an exciting game children want to play on repeat, they are solidifying their relationship with these early words with every tile they play!
Similar Sight Words Can Stump Early Learners
The spelling of similar words like "their" and "there" can be confusing to a child who is learning sight words. Those subtle differences in spelling make it challenging to distinguish how each word is applied in the English language. Machie Mole's Sight Words creates the perfect opportunity for a child and educator or parent to discuss how these similar sounding words are applied in different contexts. And with the power of practice through play, what was once confusing becomes easier to understand and build upon as children advance their reading skills.
Lack of interest
Let's face it, sight word worksheets aren't always the most exciting way for children to learn the foundations of reading and spelling. As a result, they may fail to engage their active listening skills during a classroom lesson on the subject and begin falling behind.
The overarching solution to these challenges is making sight words a fun and stress-free learning activity that encourages the desire for children to play and play again! Machie Mole's Sight Words does just that!
Behind-the-Scenes with Machie Mole's Sight Words
A lesser-known fact about Machie Mole's Sight Words is that it is an update to a classic preschool matching tile game we have in our line called, Aargh! Our Product Development Director, Tiffany O'Brian, and Game Designer, Laine Garrett gave us some fun insight on how this refresh came to be!
From Aargh! to Machie Mole's Sight Words
Tiffany: We always loved Aargh as a game but saw an opportunity to add another layer of academic content. We have been looking for a way to help kids learn sight words, and we're hoping this take on a classic will be just what is needed. Although I know we'll always carry a special place in our hearts for Squawk, Aargh's Sneaky Pirate!
Fun with early cover art
Laine: These are our sketches of the layout we went with, and an alternative we didn't. With every game we do several sketches for the box and try to pick the best! I liked how the "where, where, here" sketch was telling a bit of story and hint of gameplay, but having so many words on the cover makes it hard for the eyes to flow or focus on something. We picked the one we did because it had the best hierarchy of visuals and was more engaging with Machie's pose hinting at movement.
On play-testing the new prototype:
Tiffany: Playtesting this game was very fun. It was a real treat to watch kids of different ages and places in their reading levels play and interact with the tiles. We found that the kids that had a little more experience with sight words were happy to help the younger kids. We also discovered that the memory aspect, paired with repetition, reading allowed each word and the delight of discovering a Machie Mole, made for an equal playing field for all players.
Some insight on Machie Mole:
Tiffany: Machie Mole's Sight Words has a lot of content. We wanted to give kids a way to learn and progress as they played, while still being able to keep working on words that they might not completely get yet. Having multiple decks of tiles allows for that flexibility and keeps the game fresh for replay ability.
One of my favorite parts of this game is the challenge and engagement we also saw enfolding when adults played. While we designed the game to assist early readers, the game play itself, combined with the memory skills that are required, make this game fun long after you have mastered reading.
Help early readers crush sight words this school year while strengthening their early cognitive development with Machie Mole's Sight Words! By adding this adorable tile game to their curriculum, they'll dig up early reading skills and learn key sight words while they giggle, interact and play!
Click the link to shop Machie Mole's Sight Words
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