Christmas Sight Word Battleship for Kindergarten

Let's get into the Christmas spirit with a free printable sight word battleship game for kindergarten. This Christmas sight word battleship game is easy to use with beginning readers.

It's time to keep the focus on learning but sprinkling in the Christmas fun!

If you know me, I like to work smart. That means we incorporate what we learn about into the normal routine. It maximizes time and the fun level.

For instance,

• I liked to combine our read alouds of the Gingerbread Man with writing in the Gingerbread Adventures.
• We would play simple games like Composing Tens and Ones Christmas Race Game in our math groups for warm up.
• We used our interactive writing time into making a class version of the 12 Days of Christmas.

Maximize what you're doing but bring in the Christmas themed fun.

This free Christmas sight word game for kindergarten will help you accomplish that.

It works great for literacy centers, guided reading group warm up activities or that odd chunk of time you have before your class is scheduled to go to the library...

Here's how you can make it and teach your class to play.

How to make it

This sight word battleship game is editable. That means you get to put in the sight words you want to use for your class.

There are spaces for up to 30 sight words.

If your kinders are anything like mine were - many were close to knowing their core 24 sight words (plus some color words) by December. So to have 30 to choose from is plenty.

Ultimately, you can create different playing boards for different levels of students - if you want. I've made 4 different playing boards. There is a Santa, Mrs. Claus, an elf and a Christmas tree.

For students with fewer sight words in their reading repertoire, simply repeat words they are familiar with a few times in the game squares.

Prepare the game

1. To prep this game, you will need to download this copy and open it in either Microsoft PowerPoint or upload it to Google Slides. You agree to these terms of use by doing so. [downloading help]
2. Click in each text box and type in the sight word you want.
3. Print 2 of each game board for a pair of students to use.
4. Plan what type of game pieces you'll use. I recommend 4 per student.

Now, here's where you can get creative or use what you have.

Pick your festive game pieces

This partner game is called "Present Drop" and the idea is that Santa's sleigh has dropped presents and you (as Santa's helpers) have to help the presents get returned to the sleigh.

To go along with that theme, I decided to check out what the Dollar Tree had in store this Christmas that could make for fun game pieces.

The aim is to find small manipulatives that fit inside the squares but don't cover the sight words.

I saw cute erasers that would work. This pack would work for 3 students to each get 4 pieces.

You could use jingle bells. These are wonderfully small and this would be enough for 12 students to each get 4 playing pieces.

Or Christmas colored pom poms would work well too. This would be enough for a class of 20 students.

I tried these star-shaped Christmas ornaments and they were fun but probably just a tad bit too big.

Ultimately you can just use what you have in your classroom.

Cotton balls? They become snowballs.

Red and green counters or linking cubes? You've got presents for this present drop game.

I chose to use linking cubes since I had them on hand and liked them best!

And I even added a piece of tape on top of a cube to draw on a bow to make it look more like a present just for fun.

That's super easy to do. And in my book, easy is key.

How to play sight word battleship

Since in this "Present Drop" sight word battleship game the idea is to help return the dropped presents to Santa's sleigh - your students will be racing against each other to pick up their partner's dropped presents by reading sight words and guessing the location of the presents without seeing their partner's game board.

Here's how to play this game:

• Students sit back to back with their own game board in front of them.
• Students place 4 pieces on their own game board. They are "dropped" off of Santa's sleigh. Oh no!
• They keep their boards hidden/secret from each other. They only know the sight word spots where their own presents have been dropped.
• Students take turns calling out a sight word from the game board to each other, hoping to call out the spot of a misplaced present.
• If a student reads a sight word spot that is occupied by a dropped present, the partner hands over the present to the reader. If a student reads a sight word of an unoccupied word spot, then the partner simply announces, "Miss!"
• The goal for students is to get all 4 (or how many ever "presents" you decide) partner playing pieces first. Essentially, picking up all the presents before the other player.

It may benefit you to use 2 different color playing pieces. So, if one student has red presents (or linking cubes) the other partner has green. This way it's easy for them to track visually while playing and clean up is simplified.

Let's wrap it up

I hope you and your kindergarten brood absolutely love this Christmas sight word battleship game and get a chance to play it a few times.

If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.

You'll want this free sight word activity too that kinders LOVE - so be sure to snag this free Christmas Pokey Pinning Activity for Sight Words.

Need something for math? Check out this free Christmas Teen Numbers I Have Who Has Card Game for a fun group game.

More Christmas in Kindergarten

• Easy Christmas Gift Wrap for Kindergartners
• 7 Christmas Books for Kindergarten You Don't Want to Skip
• 13 Quick Christmas Videos for Kindergarten
• 5 Sweet Christmas Gifts Kindergarteners Can Make