Sight Word Ideas and a little freebie

Sight words can be something of a challenge to teach and challenging for some students to learn, while others catch on really quick. In my classroom I do a variety of activities to teach sight words. We play games, watch Heidi Song videos, read the word wall daily, and practice during morning work, among other things. 

This picture shows number practice but we also write our words in shaving cream. Great way to clean the tables as well! The kiddos love it. 

I was given the Heidi Song videos last school year for Christmas (gotta love asking for stuff for your classroom for a gift!!) so I only used them for the last half of the year. But those students loved them. so I was anxious to try them for a whole school year this year.
With my current students, I've been able to use them since August and this group really enjoys them as well. I really see growth in my ESL students who struggle with the language. 

But I still have some students who just can't seem to remember their sight words when they see them in print, such as a book, or on the popcorn wall. So that's when we play a lot of games and other activities during our literacy station time.

One activity I've been using for a couple of years now is with shower curtains. I apologize for not having a picture, I really had no idea that this post would need it. I'll try to remember to take a picture tomorrow and post it up. I buy really cheap shower curtain liners and cut them up and depending on the size will depend on how many "game boards" I get out of each. The cheap white shower liners from the dollar store are the best. I think I cut it into 4 equal squares, so 4 games in one.

I will write numbers, sight words, letters, etc. on the shower curtains and let the students use bean bags to toss on them. Sometimes I hang the liner up on our pocket chart stand and use really cool fly swatters to "swat" the words.

I can't list everything we do to practice sight words, but these are a few. 


 What are some things that you do to practice sight words? 


In working with sight words, I've been trying to come up with something for my students who are struggling. Something that they could work on independently but that will reinforce their words or a particular word that maybe they are struggling with. I also wanted something that I could send home for extra practice that they would be able to do independently if someone was not there to help them.

So I created this little packet of 50 sight words to practice (including number words and color words).

This is going to be great for my little kiddos who are struggling with some of their words. We practiced the word are yesterday and the word go is for homework tomorrow night. (I am not a fan of homework---but that's a whole 'nother post).

And because you have read this entire long post---at least I hope you have---here is a little freebie for you. My awesome teacher friend next to me asked me to create a little something for her kiddos to use to practice real and nonsense words. She calls them trash or treasure words. So I thought I'd pass it along to you.

It includes this little recording sheet

and two sheets of real and nonsense words. Click on the picture to take you to Google Docs.