My third child is learning to read… and while that in NO way makes me an expert in “literacy education”, I have noticed a few things about my kids as they’ve figured out words.

1) Phonics is great.   They need to be able to sound out a word and to differentiate between the words onto and into – sounding out the first letter provides a really helpful “clue”.

2) Sight words are great.   When (or rather) if your child get’s stuck with the same words, over and over again, and they just aren’t getting into a rhythm reading, try to beef up on their sight words.   It is a lot easier for kids to read a sentence when they only have to sound out a couple of the words, instead of the entire thing!

sight word flash card reading game

3) Reading is a “click-they-get-it” type of gig.   It’s a bit like riding a bike.   For awhile the words will be disjointed… and then they just “get it”.   C – A – T is no longer three separate letters and is suddenly a magical thing – a word!

While this activity has helped our kids, if your child isn’t there yet, let it go for another week.   Who knows, next time you review it with them they just might get it!!

sight word flash card reading game

Sight Word Play

Create word cards for your kids using the most common words.
Collect small toys from around the house to use as learning props.

We compiled our list of words from the Dolch List.

 

You can make your own cards or print them off of our friend, Kelli’s site – she has done all the work for you!  She has Dolch sight words list one,  Dolch sight words list two  and Dolch sight words list three.  She will be publishing printable cards for all 220 words over the next few weeks.

We used the same list with earlier activities:   Sight Word Ball, Spelling Blocks and Reading Bingo.

sight word flash card reading gameLearning to Read

We read the sentences together and put toys into the “blanks” to make the sentences work.   After they read the sentence a couple of times, mix up the words and create a new sentence.   The more your children interact with the same words the sooner they will memorize that word.

How did you help your child learn to read sight words?  We would love additional tips and tricks!

Want More Learning Fun? We Have Plenty of Activities to Help:



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3 Comments

  1. Thank you so much! My kindergartner is struggling with sight words but he is a hands on/ visual learner and I think this will help things click for him!

  2. Love the use of the objects – most kids are visual learners. We used to have a word of the day in our house. I make it out of magnetic letters on our whiteboard then add a simple sentence underneath to help make sense of the word. It also helped with their spelling later to know which witch or to/two/too to use.

    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/249668373061956924/