Tea4Teacher.

Sight words are a massive part of giving kids confidence when starting reading. I’m loving hearing my little man screech with excitement when he spots a sight word in a bedtime reading book, or even more cool, when he spots a word while we drive around town on signs and shopfronts. Loving this stage! I can see the cogs turning in his little mind. He’s finally got the hang of using his alphabet knowledge to sound out letters, and most of the time he can work out a 3 or 4 letter word. Sometimes he spells out all the letters for me, “Hey Mum, B.A.K.E.R.Y. what’s that spell?” What an Einstein!! hehe. Yeah, yeah. I’m his mum, I can say that 🙂

So I’ve been on the lookout for fun sight word activities that don’t feel like flashcards work to help him cement his learning – although that IS a big thing we do – have a ring of flashcards that gets added to as he learns the words… AND he does love having his sight words display on the wall in his room – I’m using paint chips to write the words nice and big and silly-puttying them in wobbly rows – he’s asking why I don’t have ALL his words up there (73 at the moment!!) and I’m like erm, need to make another trip to the hardware and grab another handful of paint chips!!

So. Sight Word TREASURE HUNTS is a big favourite – I hide the cards around the place and he has to find them – he’s pretty good at this now so I like to give him a time limit these days to add some pressure haha 🙂 And then he comes back with his wad of cards and I get him to read them all to me. He likes the Dinosaur game but there’s also Mermaids, Fairytales and Under the Sea.

**EDIT 10.11.20 – I have now made these editable so you can add in your own set of sight words!! So much more user-friendly for wherever your child is at 🙂

I’v also been busy making Sight Word BOOM GAMES in all different themes – he doesn’t often like doing the same games over and over so I have to mix it up for him! He’s liking the Space and Under the Sea Sight words! I have Dolch List 1 & 2 games up so far – working on more lists soon!

And the newest one I’ve made up is Sight Word STORY STONES! He’s only just starting writing yet so I don’t use the worksheets much, just get him to mix the stones up, pull a few out at random and have fun making up silly sentences or telling me something about the words he’s got. Sometimes we even simplify it by just having him read it and then list off other words (the sillier the better) that either start with the same letter, or rhyme with the word, depending on what he’s pulled out. He likes playing with the stones and I have them available from List 1 to List 9 in two big packs 🙂

I’m working on a Sight Word Bingo Game but it’s not ready yet… soon!

Anyway, that’s where we’re at! Hope you have fun supporting your little one with their sight words! I’m loving seeing this learning take off – kids are so amazing!