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. 

It's been a while....

It's been quite a bit since I last posted....busy busy busy as I know you all are. With trying to finish our last few fun things at school before the holidays, having the SHORTEST break ever and finishing up stuff for Christmas, it's been pretty hectic around here.

Here is a pic or two of some things we did before school got out....and it's well..only a couple..sorry! I just realized that I didn't take as many as I thought I did...ahhh darn.

We had fun with the Grinch....of course I didn't take any more pics than this...

The Grinch stole Christmas.

 (love how she looked around the room to find the word Christmas)

The Grinch stole Christmas. He was not happy. His heart grew two sizes. 

He got stuck in the chimney. He stole all of their presents. 

The Grinch got stuck in the chimney. He took all of the presents. He took all of the food.

Then instead of making a list of things we know about Christmas. We made a book.

 We discussed parts of a book, what does a book need, and how we will make one.

 So the first day we discussed a title and the kiddos decided since it's about everything we see, hear, smell, etc. during Christmas then it should appropriately be titled All About Christmas. 

Each page had one word with an illustration to go with it.

           

Here is my friend working on his picture for the word presents.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. My goal for the new year is to take more pics of what we do in class.....I just forget b/c we get so busy.

I have been working on a few new things. 

I use newsletters in my classroom to let the parents know what is going on. And I like to change them up quite a bit. So I created a set of newsletter templates for the entire year for you. The set includes two formats for each month and they are both editable.

One set has updates, upcoming events, star student, homework, and classroom needs. The other set is blank so that you can add your own headings as you need.

Each set includes graphics that are NOT editable to go along with each month. 

Click on the picture to take you my TPT store. 

Another activity that I just uploaded is a sight word game. 

Click on the picture to take you to my store. 

This game includes:

 2 game boards (one blank, one with varying activities on each spot)

100 sight words (pre-primer and primer list)

 freeze cards

2 dice (one with numbers/one with move ahead, back, etc.) 

a sheet for students to record the words they read, tally how many, write the number, and write any words that they may have had trouble with. 

More to come soon....Happy New Year!!

Just a quick post..and a little something for you

It's getting late..not feeling well..and I'm falling asleep as I'm typing but I wanted to post a little something I put together a couple of days ago. It's a Pumpkin-Build a Sight Word activity.

The words are located on the leaf of the pumpkin and students cut out the letters and rebuild the word on the pumpkin. I've only included 3 & 4 letter sight words from the pre-primer dolch list.

The first two people to leave a comment with your email address will receive this. Enjoy.

You can find this over at my TPT store. Click here to go there.