I love serendipity. I love serendipity even more when it happens after an indulgent brunch that includes carbs, dairy and mimosas — three things I don’t normally consume.
A friend and I recently had an amazing brunch right around the corner from a Target. I needed to buy a few things for a mommy craft meet up I was attending later that day. I had in mind what I wanted to do and needed to pick up a few supplies. I found this cool Sight Words Parking Lot project on Pinterest ages ago and decided it was time to make it a reality.
I was looking for some card stock at Target. I knew I wanted a thicker paper than what appeared to be used in the original, and I was also trying to figure out a way to swap words over time but keep the base parking lot drawing. Alas, Target let me down that day… or so I thought. There was no white card stock, but there was foam board and I just picked it up because I didn’t have time to be picky. I also bought some colorful new Sharpies because… New.Sharpies!!!
As we walked back to my car, I was telling my friend how I’d wanted to save the base parking lot drawing and just swap the words out so I wouldn’t have to make a new parking lot every time we wanted to learn more words.
My friend turned to me with a funny look on her face, “Isn’t there an eraser picture on that board you bought?” We flipped the board over and she pointed it out, “Yeah, right there. This is a dry erase board, [dummy].” Okay, I added the “dummy” in there because she was too polite to say it out loud. Woot! Problem solved! Base parking lot drawing in permanent Sharpie, sight words in dry erase marker. Done deal.
This project took me about an hour and a half to complete start to finish. If you aren’t as OCD as I am about having perfectly uniform lines , you could probably cut that time in half at least.
This is another really easy project, and it has a big pay off. The kid actually recognizes these words now! (The miracle of a developing brain right before my very eyes.) This can be as easy or complex as you like — you can see that I added some parking lot images to try to spiff it up. Auto themed stickers would be cool too, I think.
Sight Words Parking Lot Supplies
Dry Erase Foam Board
Sharpies, Markers
Dry Erase Markers
Instructions: Use a book edge or a ruler to create your parking lot spaces with the permanent markers. Add sight words in parking spaces in dry erase markers.