Sight Words

Hi. My son, who is also 5, had sight words. What we did was first put them on flashcards and then for every one he got right he would get 1 M & M or Skittle or watever. It seemed to motivate him pretty well. We tried to do this every night. Sometimes we would have him "race" with daddy to see who could get the most right. He always won :) Good Luck!
E.

Hi M.,
I am a kindergarten teacher but am taking this year off because I am due to have baby #2 in 4 weeks. :-)
Here are a couple of ideas to help with sight words...

I would always start with a small group of words until those are mastered and then add new ones to the group. Depending on your daughter and her teacher...aim for just a couple of words a week.

1. Bingo - you can make bingo cards with the sight words and play a game together.
2. BANG! - Make multiple copies of a group of sight words and cut them up. Put them into a can or bowl. Make a few other cards that say BANG! on them and put them into the bowl as well. Have your daughter pick a card...if she can read it, she gets to keep it. If she can't read it, she has to put it back in the bowl. Play until your daughter collects a predetermined amount of cards. She can play with her friends too.
3. Painting - Go outside with a cup of water and some sight word cards and have your child practice writing/painting them on the driveway or sidewalk. The kids loved to do this on a warm day. NO MESS involved!!! Sidewalk chalk is also great.
4. At the homework table, choose 3 cards. Lay the cards out next to each other, left to right. Read them to her. Read them together and then read them again. Mix them up and see if she can read them to you. IF not, read them together again. Make sure to mix up the cards so that she is not just remembering the sequence. Place the cards top to bottom and do the same thing.
5. As you are reading together, find words that she knows!
6. On letters, magazines or newspapers have her circle words sight words. Do you see the word 'and'?

I hope that this helps... ask your daughters' teacher for more ideas too.

~K.

Aloha,
there are 'picture word bingo' games and other flash card type word games. you can also make your own flash cards.... glue pictures from magazines onto index cards, then write the corresponding word on the back. Also, when you play these games... one techniques is: have your child pick a picture, then have her FIND the corresponding word that goes with it... when she does this, have her look at the first letter in the word as a 'cue' to finding the correct word for the picture. For example: a picture of a cat...then tell her "what does cat start with?" Then she would have to find a word that starts with "C." Then when she finds the correct pairing... have her explain WHY the two go together... for example: "this is word for cat.. and this is the picture of cat." Then have her s-p-e-l-l it out... AND sound out each letter phonetically.Also have pictures that start with the same letter, for example: "cat" "chair" and "celery"...each starts with the letter "C" , BUT each sound different. SOund it out with her, and spell it. Through auditory AND visual repetition... ie: practice.... they will thus "sight read." To add more variety and challenges as they master it, just as more words and pictures. You can also buy these 'word games' at child education stores, or on Amazon.com.... there is also a good DVD series out there called "Word Factory" by Leapfrog. It is excellent.... I also used this with my girl from when she was 2 years old, and she enjoyed it AND learned letters and reading from it. This is the link for it: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102-###-###-####-###... you can also find the word bingo games as well. Here is the link:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/105-###-###-####-###...
Of course, they will also teach sight reading in Kindergarten.
Good luck and hope these were helpful,
~Susan
www.cafepress.com/littlegoogoo

Make "Matching Game" cards on index cards and have her tell you what the word is as you go. You can do both with the word or one with a picture, one with the word. Like "C-A-T" on one and a pic of it on the "Match". Kids love to find pairs! even my 2 year old will "Play Matching" (His words) with all the family's names.

Hope it helps~ J.

With my kids we used index cards as well. For regular reading I found we could use flash cards, books, etc. But sight words in particular have a lot of words that are hard to put a picture to, like "I", "said", "has". For those I put three on index cards and taped them to his door. Whenever I had time (or with homework each night) I asked him to ID the words (they need to be able to do it instantly, no pause or sounding out, before thier teacher will credit them with "sight reading") and I added a sticker to the index card each time he was successful. At 5 stickers I added another sight word and a special treat- I used rewards like gummy snacks or an extra 10 minutes of his video game.

Hi M., My daughter (5yrs) Does an online reading program at headsprouts.com. We love it! It is fun and teaches sight words, letter sounds, blends, etc. There are 2 different programs - basic and advanced. It is a little pricy, but well worth it. I think I did like 5 payments of $26 or someting (total for both programs). It teaches so much that I would never have the patience or know - how to teach. I highly recommended.

Like another mom said, the best thing you can do is label, label label!! My 3 y/o has already learned a few sight words just from the things we have labeled around the house (like his rubbermaid drawers etc) If you don't want little index cards everywhere you can do it just in his room or the bathroom he uses on the clock, toilet, bath, closet, door etc. This will help tremendously and attach something "real world" to the word which is soooo important.

My daughter read Dick and Jane books, which are filled with sight words.

A very easy way to teach sight words is to point them out while reading your child a book (something, I'm sure you do every day already!) You could make a magic wand for her to use to find the word "the", "to", "I", etc. Focus on just one or two per book at first. You could even make her responsible for reading those words during the story. Whatever you do, make it fun!

No advice, really. Rachel is picking up sight words (just turned 5). We don't do any practicing. We just have a ton of books around and read to her every night. I think she will pick them up at her own pace.

Check out the bookstore - there are ample selections to choose from. A fun idea would be to take pictures of the items and then put the word on the photo - and past them around the house, or her room. She will quickly learn that CAT is the cute fuzzy cat in the picture (as an example). Have fun!
K.
http://Kellyis.stayinhomeandlovinit.com
Healthy Home, Healthy Family, Healthy Income

Hi...My son is also 5 and starting kindergarden next week. We do sight words on flash cards. We do them in the bath tub, at bed time and also on car rides. After he gets to know them pretty good, I have him read those certain words when I read to him at night. For example if the book says "Bear went to the store", I have him read "to" and "the". It seemed to really help him and he now knows 15 sight words. Hopefully it will give him a little head start for school.
Good Luck!
J.

If you have the space, make a word wall. Cover the wall with bright paper and cut the words out on different colored paper. Cut them so that the shape of the letters shows. Add one each week or every three days or so. Have her trace the word with her finger, write it in a thin layer of rice on a cookie tray, say it out loud when she passes the word wall, tickle you or get a sticker or something fun every time she hears you use the word or hears it in conversation or finds it books, signs, etc. Trying to appeal to all the ways people learn (visual, auditory, tactile) is a good way to approach new content.

Good luck!

hello, the way I am helping my 5 yr. old is by placing them on a sheet 5 at a time and give them a sentence where she can regonize the word and have her repeat the words until one of the five click she will get them one at a time..hope it helps...
Angie

One thing we did is we labeled items around the house with word cards. "chair" "bed", etc. We went over them as we went through the day and worked on sounding out the words as well -- so it builds skills with phonics. If you don't mind the effect on your decor, then it is a great fun way to teach sight-reading.

Hello M.!
My daughter just started kindergarden yesterday. What I did was get plain index cards and made flash cards with the sight words. We have them taped up on a wall so she can see them all the time and we can take then down in small groups, like 5 words, to learn. I have had them up for two weeks and she already so far she knows 20 of the top fifty. Good luck.

D.
Mother of 2 girls 5 and 1