Fun in First

A Teaching Blog by Jodi Southard

Sight Words

Sight Word Notebook

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There is nothing more tricky than sight words for many kids.  While some students pick them up quickly, others need tons of repetition and practice.  I am constantly trying to add sight word work into my day to help those students that need the additional practice.

I love using this Sight Word Notebook with my class.  My students really enjoy these activities, and the variety of skills gives them the repetitive practice that they need.

These Sight Word Notebooks are available with the 220 Dolch words or the first 300 Fry words. Students love the variety of activities that allows them to master their sight words.

These Sight Word Notebooks are available with the 220 Dolch Sight Words or the first 300 Fry Sight Words.

The Dolch Sight Word Notebook includes 44 lessons (5 sight words per lesson) and the Fry packet includes 60 lessons (5 sight words per lesson.)

Each lesson includes the following activities:

  • Read, trace, and write the sight words.
  • Color the Sight Words
  • Roll and Write the Sight Words
  • Use the sight words in a sentence
  • (One of the 3 activities) Color-by-Code, Mystery Code, or Sight Word Search

I have also included a clickable Table of Contents that allows you to easily find a particular sight word that you may be looking for.

These are great to use in a whole group at the beginning of the year or as a small group or individual work as the school years progresses.  You could also print and bind these for each of your students to work through, or put them into a “Sight Word Folder” to keep track of their progress.

These Sight Word Notebooks are available with the 220 Dolch words or the first 300 Fry words. Students love the variety of activities that allows them to master their sight words.

My students’ favorite part of the Sight Word Notebook is the last activity on each page.  Whether it’s the Color-by-Code, the Mystery Code Words, or the Word Search, they love completing this last part.

What are teachers saying about the Sight Word Notebook?

“As with ALL of your resources, this is top-notch! Sight words are SO important, and this helps to make them fun and interesting! Thank you!” -Christine B.

“I am so happy that the focus is on more than one sight word at a time. This is well done and does not look babyish for older learners still working on sight words.” -Carol B.

Check out these Sight Word Notebook by clicking on the links below.

Dolch Sight Word Notebook

Fry Sight Word Notebook

I hope this helps your students master their sight words this school year.  Remember to follow @funinfirstblog on Instagram for more great ideas for your classroom.  Feel free to pin this image for future reference.

These Sight Word Notebooks are available with the 220 Dolch words or the first 300 Fry words. Students love the variety of activities that allows them to master their sight words.

 

Sight Word Fluency in 5 Easy Steps

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Every teacher knows the importance of learning sight words, but so many times, sight words are taught in isolation.  In order to really improve sight word fluency, we need to teach sight words in context.  Students should be able to easily recognize sight words in the text while they are reading.  Sight word fluency allows students to increase their reading comprehension because their focus is off of trying to decode unknown words and can shift to comprehending what they are reading.

Did you know that the first 300 Fry Sight Words make up approximately 65% of all written material?  When students are not fluent with their sight words, this greatly impacts their reading abilities.  There are so many wonderful ways to practice sight words, but I am constantly trying to think of new and exciting ways to keep my students engaged while practicing sight word fluency.  A while back, I created my 5-Step Fluency passages.  They quickly became a favorite in my classroom, so I wanted to create a way to combine this with sight word fluency.  With that, 5-Step Sight Word Fluency was born.

This 5-Step approach to sight word fluency makes learning sight words fun. It is an engaging and effective way to practice sight words in context, which is proven to be more effective than teaching in isolation. This 5-Step Sight Word packet includes 47 fluency passages using the first 300 Fry Sight Words. Students will follow a 5-Step approach to practice.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about using these in my classroom.  It is such a fun and engaging way to work on sight word fluency.  Each passage follows a 5-Step approach.

1. Read the sight words from the Sight Word box on the top of the page.
2. Read the passage.
3. Highlight or circle the sight words in the passage.
4. Reread the passage in a silly voice.
5. Reread the passage in a regular voice.

The students LOVE rereading the passage in silly voices.  It is definitely a favorite among my 1st graders.

This 5-Step approach to sight word fluency makes learning sight words fun. It is an engaging and effective way to practice sight words in context, which is proven to be more effective than teaching in isolation. This 5-Step Sight Word packet includes 47 fluency passages using the first 300 Fry Sight Words. Students will follow a 5-Step approach to practice.

I have created two sets of 5-Step Sight Word Fluency.  I have a set for the first 300 Fry Sight Words.  This Fry 5-Step Sight Word set includes 47 passages using the first 300 Fry Sight Words.  The second set includes 37 passages using the 220 Dolch Sight Words.  This are great for whole group, small group, or individual sight word fluency practice.

If you need an engaging and effective way to practice sight words in context. check out 5-Step Sight Word Fluency.

I also have a BUNDLE that includes BOTH sets of passages.

 

This 5-Step approach to sight word fluency makes learning sight words fun. It is an engaging and effective way to practice sight words in context, which is proven to be more effective than teaching in isolation. This 5-Step Sight Word packet includes 47 fluency passages using the first 300 Fry Sight Words. Students will follow a 5-Step approach to practice.

All About Sight Words

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Every primary teacher knows how important sight words are to beginning readers.  When many of these words show up in our reading material, all phonics instruction and rules get thrown out the window.  I mean, seriously, who decided that have should be spelled with an e?   Why is it not spelled hav?  So, how do we practice sight words in our classroom?

Sight WordsFirst off, I assess what the students know.  Thankfully, I have a parent volunteer that has been pulling students out to assess their sight words.  This is such a huge help, and it saves me so much time.

Have a way of tracking sight word progress.

I give each child a Sight Word Bookmark with words for them to practice.  These are great because the students can practice them anytime they have an extra couple of minutes.  I went ahead and started each of my students on the first two lists (copied front and back).  This way, as they learn their lists, I can place a sticker on the bookmark, present them with their next color, and send that bookmark home. You can find my Sight Word Bookmarks HERE.

Sight Word BookmarksThey love working their way through the different colors of bookmarks.

Sight Word BookmarksSight Word Bookmarks

Hands on practice with sight words is key.

The students love it, and taking a kinesthetic approach to sight words is going to fit a lot of students’ learning style.  Build words with blocks or Legos.  Have them make words with letter blocks.  If you’re brave, you can have students write sight words in sand, salt, sugar, flour, or shaving cream.

Sight Words IdeasSight Words Ideas

Use games to practice sight words.

I absolutely love using games in the classroom.  The students love them, and they learn so much.  I use my No Prep Sight Word Games to practice.

Sight Word GamesThese are great for work stations, small group instruction, parent volunteers, or just partner the entire class up and play.  You can find my Sight Word Games HERE.

Sight Word GamesSight Word GamesSight Word Games

Practice sight words in small group, whole group, individually, and work stations.

Sight Word Sentence Trees are a great way for beginning readers to practice sight words and fluency.  You can find my Sight Word Sentence Trees HERE.

Sight Word Sentence TreesDid you know that the first 300 Fry Sight Words make up approximately 65% of all written material?  Do I expect my students to sit down and memorize 300 sight words?  Absolutely not.  In reality, many of the sight words on the list can be stretched out phonetically, which greatly reduces the amount of sight words that have to be memorized.

There are so many great ways to practice sight words.  Check out the Sight Word section in my store HERE to find games, poems, and more.

 What are your favorites ways to practice sight words?

These activities and games make learning sight words so much easier!

The Importance of Sight Words

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I highly doubt I have to convince you that teaching sight words is extremely important. 
Did you know that the first 300 Fry Sight Words make up approximately 65% of all written material?  Do I expect my students to sit down and memorize 300 sight words?  Absolutely not.  In reality, many of the sight words on the list can be stretched out phonetically, which greatly reduces the amount of sight words that have to be memorized. 
A couple weeks ago, I posted about the Sight Word Bookmarks that I use.  I received a lot of requests for this, and I finally got around to putting it all together for you.
I start off by assessing my students on their sight words to see which ones they know.  Then, each student receives a bookmark with the list that they need to work on.  I print these 2-sided on bright colored paper, and then I laminate them for durability.  The students can keep these in their pencil box, a book they are reading, or on their desks.  They can be pulled out at any time to practice.
I put these together into a file that includes all 220 Dolch sight words and the first 500 Fry sight words.  The file also includes word lists, recording sheets, and certificates.  You can click on the picture below to check it out.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Bookmarks-Dolch-Fry-2146221
Practicing sight words can be kind of boring, so I LOVE to use my No Prep Sight Word Games with my students.

Anything that makes learning sight words fun, is a win for me!
What is your favorite way to practice sight words?


Sight Word Games

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Learning sight words is such an important skill for beginning readers.  Goodness gracious though!  Who came up with some of the spellings of our common sight words?  Why does it have to be so confusing?  We teach these phonics rules, and then throw more than a hundred words at our students that don’t follow those rules.  It definitely makes teaching sight words challenging, but it doesn’t have to be boring.
I wanted to find a way to make learning sight words a little more exciting, so I created some No Prep Sight Word Games for us to use.
The first thing I did was to assess my students on their sight word knowledge.  I really like the Dolch Sight Word lists from A is for Apple, B is for Blog.  This gives me an idea of which sight words my students still need to master. 
Then, I can differentiate my games, and have my students play with the words that they still need.
I have included 10 different No Prep sight word games using the 220 Dolch Sight Words.
 Most of the games are available in both color and black and white.  This gives you the option of printing in color, and laminating to use over and over again, or just printing in black and white for your students.
I will be using some of these games in a whole group setting, but most of them will be perfect for small groups and a sight word center.
You can check these out by clicking on the picture below and heading over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Games-No-Prep-2062385


Sight Word Poems {The Bundle}

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I’ve had a ton of requests to bundle my Sight Word Poems.
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Poems-The-Bundle-of-300-Poems-1292688
 
If you have not already purchased these sets separately, you can now purchase the entire bundle of all three sets at a discounted price.  This set includes the first 300 sight words! {Click on the picture above.}
If you need the individual sets, you can click on the pictures below.http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Poems-First-100-Sight-Words-1091219
 
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Poems-Second-100-Sight-Words-1129296
 
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Poems-Third-100-Sight-Words-1284391
 
 These are simple, easy to read poems that are perfect for Poetry Notebooks.