5 Easy Ways to Practice Sight Words

Are you looking for some EASY and ENGAGING ways for your students to practice SIGHT WORDS? Keep reading. I've got some great ways to help your students learn their words and have fun while they are learning.

Sight Words/High-Frequency Words What's the difference?

Many people believe these are synonymous.  Although many of the high-frequency words are sight words, there is a difference.  Sight words are words that can typically be recognized in about 3 seconds and can be read without having to use decoding skills. High-frequency words are words that are commonly found in the English language.  Approximately 50% off or written material is made up of 100 of these most frequently used words.

What List Should I teach?

There are two popular word lists to choose from The Dolch on the Frye.  Each of these lists has both sight words and High-Frequency words.  The order of these words is what makes these two lists different.  Your reading series or school district may also have its own list. Another newer approach is teaching the words using a Sound Wall.   This is something I am trying out this year.  Sound Walls not only help students to learn high-frequency words but also support them in reading unfamiliar words.

How Do I Teach Sight Words?

There are so many ways to teach sight words.  What works for one student may not work for another. This is why it is so important to have multiple ways to practice these words. Every child learns differently some are visual learners some are auditory learners, some need hands-on and some are kinesthetic.  We can't always provide these 5 modalities to every lesson we teach, but we can when it comes to sight words.

1. Visual
2. Hand-on
3. Writing
4. Music
5. Movement

Visual

• Flashcards 
• Memory games
• Powerpoints
• Hide and Seek Games (Fun Pocket Chart Games)
• Sight Word Readers See below for a free sample from my bundle
• Technolgy-Boom Cards

For my flashcards, I use a Rainbow color system.  It works well and motivates my kids to learn. You can read more about it here. This is the resource that I use.

Hand-On

• Magnetic letters
• Letter Beads
• Play-doh Sight Words
• Build It with brick blocks
• Sight Word Art Projects
• Poke-It Pin Poke Activities

Writing

Writing is such an easy wh=ay for students to practice sight words. In my class, we use dry erase boards and rainbow writing quite often to practice.  Rainbow writing, if you aren't familiar with the term, is when the students pick a color and write over the word, then chooses another color and write over it, then repeats the process again.  I typically ask them to do it 3 to 5 times.  Some teachers ask them to do this process in ROYGBIV order.

Many of my center activities will include sight word building and writing.  Often I will place sight word cards in a sensory bin for students.  Students will need to search through the bin, find the word, and then write it on their paper. Here are two examples.

 

Music

Music is such a great way to learn.  How often do silly commercials get stuck in our head?  why not use singing to help sight words get stuck in the heads of our students. There are many sight word songs on Youtube just do a quick search and you will find songs by Jack Hartman and of course, Heidi Butkus has an entire website as well.

Movement

Do you have wiggly kids?  Get them up and moving.  I like to use my Sight word Sit Spots for indoor movement and learning the sight words.  Play some music walk about.  When the music stops, call out a word to see who is standing on it, or ask a student to read the word they are standing on. My kids love playing this game.  We alsoplay it with the alphabet set too.

Now if you would like to try out one of my Sight Word Readers all you need to do is click the image below and subscribe to my email list. I will send it to you once you confirm. your email.  It's that simple.