Learning Sight Words at Home

The more sight words your child knows, the stronger his or her reading and writing skills will be.  Sight words are words that appear frequently in print.  These same words are among those used most frequently by children in their writing.  When children build their sight word vocabulary, they become better readers and spellers.  Try these easy activities for strenghtening your child's sight word vocabulary.

On the Run

The next time you're going somewhere with your child, play a sight word game.  It's easy - just have your child find as many sight words as he or she can on billboards, signs, and so on.  If you don't have a sight word list with you, invite your child to read the "little" words.  You can play this game in a car, on a walk, even in line at the grocery store!

Spill a Sight Word

Copy sight words onto small cards. (You can cut index cards in quarters or cut sturdy paper into pieces.)  Place the word cards in an empty container, such as a tall plastic tumbler or an empty tennis ball can.  Invite your child to shake the container, spill out the words, and read the ones that fall faceup.  Give each word your child reads a score that is equal to the number of letters in the word.  Record the total, then place the remaining words back in the can and shake and spill again.  Add the total to the first score.  Play until your child has spilled and read all of the words.

I'm Thinking of...

Play a game of "I'm thinking of..."  One player starts by giving a clue about one of the sight words - for example, "I'm thinking of a word that starts like horse and has three letters."  The other player looks at the list and tries to identify the word. (his)

Rainbow Letters

Turn sight words into rainbow!  Ask your child to write a sight word n paper in big letters.  Using different-colored crayons, your child can trace around the word again and again, saying the letters and reading the word each time.

Read My Back

"Write" a sight word on your child's back.  have your child guess the word.  Trade places and let your child trace a word from the list on your back.  Continue taking turns tracing and guessing sight words.

Sing a Song of Sight Words

Practice sight words by singing them to a familiar tune.  If you run out of words before you get to the end of the song, just start at the top of the list again.  Some songs to include are "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", Row, Row, Row Your Boat", and "London Bridge is Falling Down."

I'm Thinking of...

Play this game to reinforce sight words and sounds.  Write the words on index cards.  Turn them face up.  Start the game by saying "I'm thinking of a word that starts with the same sound as (say a word that starts with the same sound as your target word) and has (number of letters.)  For example, I'm thinking of a word that begins like goat and has 5 letters.

Some othe clues:  I'm thinking of a word that rhymes with..., I'm thinking of a word that ends like...

 Shake a Word

Tape the site words into an egg carton.  Place a button into the carton.  Shake the carton and say or spell the word the button lands on.  The score is the number of letters in the word.  You can move that many spaces on the game board or keep a score sheet (math practice.)

Clap a Word

Say the word, and then spell it, clapping once for each letter.