Simply Sight Words!

I know that I am like most of you and have been teaching sight words since the very beginning of the school year, but I thought I would show you some of the things I have been doing in my classroom to help my kinders learn the sight words. I always love getting new ideas to add to my toolbox so here is a peek in my classroom and the things I use. 

I have shared with you before that I have created sight word units to go along with the units in the 2011 HM Journeys reading series. This is where we get the sight words our kinders are responsible for learning. There are 40 words total in the reading series but I also add more words by teaching them in addition to these since I think they are extremely important to my kinders (ex. - can, love, went, want). My kinders love doing the activities in these units and I love the activities too. My favorites are the pages where they have to fill in the missing sight word from the sentence and trace the other words. Then I have my kinders practice reading the sentences to themselves and they have to read them to me or my TA before they can put their work up. This gives them extra practice reading the sight word in the correct context.

These units are available as a bundle in my TpT store for $15.00. I am working on creating the unit 1, but once I do it will be added to the bundle for those who have purchased for free. 

Kindergarten Journeys 2011 Edition Sight Words Units Bundle

Recently with my high flying kinders, I started having them play the Sight Word Seashell Game from Lakeshore in a small group during Daily 5. This game covers the first 100 sight words which makes it more of a challenge for them. This game is played by drawing out a shell and reading the sight word on it. If they read the word correctly, they get to keep it, but if they don't know the word it goes in a discard pile. If they draw a crab, they have put all their cards back in the box. I was lucky enough to receive this game through a Donors Choose grant.

For my struggling kinders, I have the Fishing for Sight Words game from Lakeshore. This game is better for my struggling kinders because it only focuses on the first 25 sight words. It is fun so they enjoy playing it too. Each child takes a turn with the fishing pole. When they "catch" a fish, they have to read the word. If they read it correctly, they get to keep it; if not, they throw it back in the pond. This is another game that I received through a Donors Choose grant. My TA played this game with a couple of my kinders during Daily 5.

I use flashcards that I have made to practice the sight words quickly every day with my kinders. I made these on circle shapes because research shows that your eyes are drawn to what is in the middle of a circle. I use these as flashcards as well as to make a word worm and review with my kinders. I have created these for the Journeys sight words as well as the pre-primer, primer, and 1st grade Dolch words. They are also available in my TpT store.

These are my kinders playing the Word Worm game with the Journeys 2011 sight words.

These are not all the ways I practice with my kinders, but I hope this gives you some new ideas for practicing sight words with your kiddos. If you have any other new ideas, I would love to hear them!