Sight Words
Popcorn words or Sight words must be recognised and said as soon as they are seen. All words in the list must be said like popcorn in order to move on to the next coloured list. To make sure children are successful they should spend some time practicing the words on his/her word list on a daily basis (this should form part of your homework routine). Once children have had the opportunity to study new sight words, games are a fun, hands on way to help strengthen their retention. It's important to know that a lot of sight words cannot be sounded out and just need to be learnt. By learning these words, children are free to focus on using reading strategies for unknown words.
There are a few very important things to consider when practicing these words at home:
1. When tested at school, children are usually given five seconds to say the word in order to be successful – remember that these are not words to be sounded out each time they are seen.
2. If there are only a few unknown words on their current list (and your child is waiting to be retested at school), please feel free to practice the unknown words in the next list – they are encouraged to do this at school as well.
3. Remember to ask the words from the list out of order so that they are not just remembering the list order.
Fun hands-on ideas for home:
Make sight words sparkle by having your child write sight words onto paper using a glue stick and sprinkle glitter onto their writing. Watch their words magically appear.
Word detective - After reading a book with your child, count up the times a sight word (i.e. the) can be found in the story.
Tic - Tac - Toe - You will need to create a set of word cards and have your child make their own 'hand pointer'. Lay all of your word cards face down on the floor. Move your pointer and say the chant: 'Tic-tac-toe here we go, where we stop we do not know'. Have an adult or big brother/sister read the word with their child or sibling. You can also make two sets of word cards and play games such as concentration/memory, fish, snap, etc.
Magnetic Fun! Make sight words out of magnetic letters and place them on the fridge. Encourage your child to say them when he/she passes the fridge.
Useful websites:
ictgames
Starfall
Dolch Words
Click on the links below to access printable Sight Words
Gold Words
Red Words
Blue Words
Green Words
Orange Words
Indigo Words
Violet Words
Pink Words
Purple Words
Aqua Words
Lime Words
Lemon Words
to edit.
There are a few very important things to consider when practicing these words at home:
1. When tested at school, children are usually given five seconds to say the word in order to be successful – remember that these are not words to be sounded out each time they are seen.
2. If there are only a few unknown words on their current list (and your child is waiting to be retested at school), please feel free to practice the unknown words in the next list – they are encouraged to do this at school as well.
3. Remember to ask the words from the list out of order so that they are not just remembering the list order.
Fun hands-on ideas for home:
Make sight words sparkle by having your child write sight words onto paper using a glue stick and sprinkle glitter onto their writing. Watch their words magically appear.
Word detective - After reading a book with your child, count up the times a sight word (i.e. the) can be found in the story.
Tic - Tac - Toe - You will need to create a set of word cards and have your child make their own 'hand pointer'. Lay all of your word cards face down on the floor. Move your pointer and say the chant: 'Tic-tac-toe here we go, where we stop we do not know'. Have an adult or big brother/sister read the word with their child or sibling. You can also make two sets of word cards and play games such as concentration/memory, fish, snap, etc.
Magnetic Fun! Make sight words out of magnetic letters and place them on the fridge. Encourage your child to say them when he/she passes the fridge.
Useful websites:
ictgames
Starfall
Dolch Words
Click on the links below to access printable Sight Words
Gold Words
Red Words
Blue Words
Green Words
Orange Words
Indigo Words
Violet Words
Pink Words
Purple Words
Aqua Words
Lime Words
Lemon Words
to edit.