It's totally possible that they're developmentally not ready to learn to read!Īnother thing that parents have to consider is that while sight words can be beneficial in building reading fluency and confidence, an over reliance on them can hinder their development of phonetic skills. Please don't pressure little ones to master sight words if they struggle. If she was motivated to complete a handwriting page while being exposed to sight words and spelling, I considered it a win! Honestly, my oldest daughter really liked coloring the pictures in the workbooks, which is why I used them. I used the copy-type worksheets mainly as handwriting practice. How to use the Kindergarten Sight Word Practice Sheets If you only have one child to teach, then a workbook might work for you! The one I linked above was mermaid themed - which my daughter loved coloring. It felt like a waste of money, plus she liked the games with the flash cards much better since we made them fun movement games. I bought sight word workbooks for my oldest daughter, but I totally regretted it when I realized I would have to rebuy something for my younger daughter. Then you have your sight word worksheets on your computer to use and print as needed with other kids! You can find both high-quality paid resources and free printable sight word worksheets to print at home as a PDF file. I like using Teachers Pay Teachers for finding fun sight word activity sheets to download. Sight Word Story Challenge: Give your child a list of sight words and challenge them to write a short story using those words. Have your child read the sentences, underlining the sight words as they go. Sight Word Sentences: Write sentences using sight words. Your child can hop onto the correct word as you call them out. Instead of numbers, write sight words in each square. Sight Word Hopscotch: Draw a hopscotch grid on the sidewalk with chalk. As they find each word, they can cross it off their list. Sight Word Scavenger Hunt: Write sight words on sticky notes and hide them around the house. Then, your child can flip over two cards at a time, trying to find the word matches. Sight Word Matching Game: Create flashcards with sight words. When they get a row, column, or diagonal, they win! As you call out the words, your student can cover them up with a marker. Sight Word Bingo: Create a Bingo board with sight words. Don't push if it's a struggle!ĭifferentiated Sight Word Activities for Kindergarteners Beginner Level You have to take their learning style, age, and reading readiness into account. Some kids like flashcards, while others don't. Heavy sight word practice has never been our main method of instruction. We have also used some sight word worksheets, but mainly for handwriting practice. The curriculum calls them a Leap Word and uses them to reinforce and enhance their systematic phonics instruction. I've taught sight words to my kids with All About Reading. I address this at the very end of the post in my warning on sight words. While it has its benefits, it's equally important to develop foundational decoding skills and phonetic understanding for independent reading and comprehension of unfamiliar words.

However, it's important to note that the sight word approach is no longer considered best practice. Encouraging children to memorize them can boost confidence and fluency, enabling instant recognition and understanding. When it comes to early reading, sight words play a special role. This way, children can quickly recognize and understand these words more easily, which greatly improves fluency. Instead of relying only on phonetics, we learn these words by seeing them often and memorizing them. Sight words are carefully chosen because they don't follow the usual phonetic rules. These are words that appear most often in children's texts. Sight words are chosen based on their frequency of occurrence in the English language. This supports fluency, allowing students to focus on rather than word decoding. The goal is for the word to be identified 'on sight' without phonetic decoding. Sight words, also known as high-frequency words, Dolch sight words, or Fry Sight Words, are commonly used words that early readers are encouraged to recognize instantly. If not, scroll down for fun activities to use with the sight word list included! If you're unfamiliar with teaching kids to read, Here's a quick breakdown of the concepts of Sight Words. I used this sight word list to keep track of she was remembering. They helped boost her confidence when dyslexia was holding her back. My daughter needed them to help with confidence and fluency.

Sight words list for kindergarten