I’ve mentioned this before and I will definitely mention it again, I LOVE to teach sight words! We practice, practice, practice, any chance we get! It is so exciting to witness my students turn into readers, and they get SO excited when they see a word they know! We stick pretty closely to our Houghton Mifflin curriculum of focusing on one sight word per week, which I find really helps my students be successful. We do informally teach other sight words that aren’t in our curriculum, but that our students see frequently {like “look” and “can”}. All of our words go up on our word wall after we teach them, and then it’s reinforcement time! I’m going to walk you through a little snippet of our week and then share some great sight word center ideas!
On Monday, we introduce our new word. We talk about the “tricky” part of the word, and what we need to remember. In “see”, we have to remember the extra “e”.
{click to download Word of the Week template}
I found this chant on Pinterest at the beginning of the year and we’ve been using it when we introduce our new sight words. The kids have been loving it!
Then we practice writing our word, filling in the missing letters and using it in a sentence.
I also stick these in write and wipe pockets and put them in our sight word centers. This way my kiddos can keep practicing throughout the week.
On Tuesday, we practice using the word in a scrambled sentence.
{I updated these to include the sight word on each page because I was getting confused and couldn’t keep them all straight!}
The students cut the words apart and put them in the correct order using the
capital letter and periods as clues. Once it’s in the correct order,
they read the sentence.
capital letter and periods as clues. Once it’s in the correct order,
they read the sentence.
Then they make a silly sentence by scrambling the words again. They read
their silly sentence and point to each word as they read it. This is a
great way to practice reading the actual words and not relying on the
clues from the sentence to help decode, plus they think it’s hilarious!
their silly sentence and point to each word as they read it. This is a
great way to practice reading the actual words and not relying on the
clues from the sentence to help decode, plus they think it’s hilarious!
Then they unscramble the sentence again, this time gluing it on the bottom of the page in order.
Finally, they write the sentence on the line and draw a picture to match.
So much learning in one little sheet!
On Wednesday, we practice reading, finding, writing and stamping our sight word.
Sometimes we use little bingo daubers to cover the words 🙂
On Thursdays we use the word in a journal write. We orally share our sentences, then we go back to our seats and the kids use their best guess spelling to complete their journals. Sometimes we have a sentence starter and sometimes we respond to a prompt.
Once we learn three new words, we practice them using our Spin & Write sheets. You just need a paperclip and pencil to make a spinner. I also saw these really great spinners online, I think I might just break down and buy them already!
We also love to use stamps in my room, so we practice stamping and writing our sight words too.
Later on in the year, I place our Super Sight Word spellers in the writing center, and my students practice writing the sight words in lots of fun ways!
These activities are in my *newly updated* sight word writing practice packs! You can purchase each pack separately, or save 20% by purchasing the bundle.
Now onto my favorite part, sight word centers!!!
Mary from Sharing Kindergarten just came out with a bunch of new sight word centers! They are seriously amazing! Some of my favorites are the watercolor words and the word puzzles.
I also love these little booklets from Lori at Teaching with Love and Laughter!
And of course, you all know I’m obsessed with Maria’s interactive sight word readers!
Kristin {the Teeny Tiny Teacher ;)} has the greatest little sight word practice! You have to go to her page and read about it because she’s just hilarious like that!
Tara from Little Minds at Work puts magnetic letters into little tupperware dishes and has her students unscramble them. Then they write the word. I absolutely love this!
And I also love how Karen from Mrs. Jones’ Kindergarten uses magnetic letters! She has these fun little work mats that I adore!
You can also check out my Sight Word Practice Pinterest Board for more ideas, I’m always adding great pins I find!
Have some great ideas?? Leave the links in the comments so I can pin them to my board!
I love all the sight word practice ideas and it makes me long to be a kindergarten teacher again. I miss it! I am a kindergarten Title I teacher, and the kiddos I work with struggle to remember sight words. I have students who don't know any of them and they've learned up to 14 in their classrooms. The trickiest ones are this, what, where, with, are. I have them write the words on gel bags, sing songs, read sight word books and phrases, but they can't remember those words. Do you have any ideas how I can get these words to stick in their brains?
Can I ask where you got those amazing stamps from? I've been looking for a while for larger ones like that
I found them at Michaels in their stamp aisle! They're about an inch wide and they come with both upper and lower case letters!
My friend Mary shared this really great site called Snap Words. Check out her post here: http://www.sharingkindergarten.com/2014/01/snap-words-cards-and-apps.html
I was just reading along, loving the peek at your Sight Word In a Week post, loving the watercolor share from Mary, and then BAM! You gave me a shout out!!!!!!!
You just made my whole day!
Thank you!
Now I want to revamp how I do my sight word practice and/or teach Kinder. Either one.
I love how you teach sight words! I was just thinking about how many of my kids need tons more sight word practice so that they can focus on decoding more difficult spelling patterns when they read. Thank you for the ideas!!
We now have SIX new high frequency words a week with the Journeys program. It's crazy! I will definitely be taking a look at your ideas for practice!
Thanks for sharing how you introduce your word for each week. I use your site word pack each week. The stamping part is a favorite in our room. I even found some new resources.
✿Tiffani Time 4 Kindergarten
I am assuming that is a store in the states…I shall have to continue my quest online, but thank-you so much for giving me a place to start!
You are awesome 😉
And I'm pretty sure I need those little pockets! So cute! And useful!
Sara
Miss Elementary
Another idea for the watercolor words is to have the students write the words with a white crayon then paint over it with watercolor. They love to watch the words "magically" appear.
We introduce three new words a week, so the kiddos can use as much practice as possible! I love all of your ideas! We are starting our new sight word hats this week and I can't wait!
http://sellingthesizzle42.blogspot.com/
Kacie
Teaching sight words is one of my most favorite things to teach too! Thanks for showcasing so many great ideas!
Lori
Teaching With Love and Laughter
luvyorkies@gmail.com
We struggle with some of our littles learning sight words as well. How many sight words are Kg students required to learn where you teach? In our county we have to teach them 100 words by the end of the year. We have explicitly taught 60 already and are working on the next set of 10 to reach 70. I still have kids who know SEVEN. Yes, only SEVEN out of 70. I am ALWAYS looking for fun and long-lasting ways to teach sight words. Some of our students will be repeating Kg if we can't find a way to help these sight words stick. They must be AT LEAST a DRA 4 by year's end to be promoted. Tall order, especially in a Title 1 school where many don't attend preschool prior to coming to K. Thanks for sharing what works for you.
I just love the excitement in a kids voice and face when they recognize a word in their books. Love all these ideas.
Mels
Ms. K/1 ELL
Where did you get the center sign holder? They are so cute!
I found the frames at Michaels craft store!
Sight word knowledge is really holding back some of the kiddies in my class so I've been busy looking for some fun ways to get learning. Thanks so much for sharing!
I love your blog! Your ideas and materials are AMAZING….I have purchased quite a few! I was wondering how early in the year you begin small group reading and what you do with brand new kinders?!
I pull kids for small groups starting the second week of school, but that's not when we start reading groups. It's more of getting them used to a routine and working on centers without me there to help. We start actually reading groups about two months into the school year. At the beginning we do a lot of small group games to practice letter recognition, listening for sounds, one to one correspondence, etc. Just make it easy and fun!