Pair Stare Games for Sight Words, Mathematics, and Visual Discrimination

Pair Stare Games: Fun with Sight Words  (and more!)

A game where kids and adults are on a level playing field: meet Pair Stare! Pair stare is not only a game where kids can practice their sight words (and other skills), but they can use visual discrimination skills to find where the pair is on two cards. Choose any two cards and find the one and only match on both of those cards. Watch a quick video to see a few ways to play:

Why is this game so much fun? No matter how often you play, the game is always slightly different. You can try playing with the cards below. Pick two cards and then look at them until you find the match. It's harder than it seems! Sometimes you think there must not be a match...but I promise you there is. A few things that can help you out:

• the word will always be the same color and font
• the word will NOT always be the same size
• if you can't find the word, try searching by color or by number of letters in the word. Try it out below! Pick ANY two cards below and then find the match.

After you have found the match, record it and move on to a new set of cards.

There are decks for varying degrees of sight word difficulty, each with a slightly different color scheme or font, and all coded lightly at the bottom corner of each card. That means that you can use the same game but alternate decks as your students become more confident in their site words.

Pair Stare Isn't Just for New Readers

In addition to the fraction and math games (addition and subtraction), I have created a slightly different pair stare vocabulary game for upper elementary and even middle school students. The word isn't the same on both cards, but rather you need to find a synonym. Luckily all the matching synonyms are still color-coded. Can you find any below? Find sizzling/sweltering, walk/meander, or miniscule/small!

Good news. You can try out a basic set for free here:

or you can find all my pair stare games at Teachers pay Teachers.


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There is now an editable version of this game! Grab the editable spelling and vocabulary word game here. Add any spelling list, vocabulary list, or themed list to create your own deck of cards: