[abcmom]

I am curious to know how other kindergarten teachers teach sight words? How many words to your students have to know by the end of the year? Do they have to only READ the word or READ and SPELL?


This weekend I was talking to a parent of a kindergarten student at another school, not in our district. She was telling me how her son started with 5 sight words to learn and each week 2 new words are added and 2 words come off, the words are sent home on a "Word Ring". By the end of the year he should be able to read and spell 120+ words. I am assuming this is the Dolch word list. I was feeling like I do not do enough with my kinder kiddos after talking to this parent.

TIA!

[Sbkangas5]

We only teach 18 or so, and honestly I don't think it's enough. But it's rare that I have a child that doesn't know them all by the end! We expect them to read them, and if they use them in their writing assessments we expect them to be spelled correctly by the end of the year.

At my old school they were given 100 sight words, with the hopes that they would know half of them by the end of the year.

I love how I teach sight words. It's hard to explain, but I'll try.

I start with a sentence frame, and have each child dictate a sentence to me. I write each sentence on chart paper and they "help" by spelling the words, reminding me to use spaces, helping me sound out new words, use punctuation, etc. We do this over the course of 2-3 days. Then when all of the sentences are done the kids get to come up and use a pointer to lead the class in reading their sentence. They read it first and then the class choral reads. The last day I cut the sentences up. Each child has to put their sentence back together, glue it down, and illustrate it. We then make these into class books (which are their very favorites to read!).

Doing this not only hits on reading and writing the sight words, but on alphabet and sounds, segmenting, writing conventions, sentence structure, etc. I feel like it is one of the most valuable things we do.

[Linda K]

We have 55 words. They have to read them for the assessment, not write them.

[AisforApps]

We have 50 sight words and only expect them to read them. I developed sight words books that combine two to three new words and incorporate previous sight words. At first I introduce the new words and we practice reading them. Then we go through the book page by page and color the new sight words yellow and read the page three times. The students partner read the books a few times and then it goes home. At home if the child reads to someone they write their name on the back and then return it to school. Some kids bring their book back covered in names!

To review the sight words I put the words on the random chooser tool on the smart board we read them together.

[coppsma]

I start with color words, number words, and basic sight words that kids need from the preprimer dolch list. Right now the whole class can read about 35 words from the lists plus other words such as dad, love, pumpkin... I am hoping that by year end my kiddos will be able to read the whole pre-primer list and 80% of the primer list along with the incidental words we are learning to read. As far as spelling the words, we practice writing the sight words on dry erase boards each day. We call them "words of the day" and I make sure to include 2 words that I know they can spell successfully and some that will challenge them. We also use predictable sentences to reinforce the words we are learning. Honestly, I want them to be able to read the words more than spell them at this age.

[ICrazyTeach]

Priority is on reading the words.
We expect 50 words mastered by everyone, many students master at least 75 and several 100+.
At this point in the year we're introducing 2 new words each week until we get through a list of 25 words for most students. Then we only work on those words until mastered.
Students move on to the next set of 25 as soon as they are mastered. It can get complicated to keep up with who is working on which words, but the kids are motivated because we really celebrate when they reach another goal.

[Dalsmom]

We introduce 4 or 5 a week and expect recognition of 120 by the end of the year.

[harminygrits]

Look into Heidisongs.com I used her Cd's to teach letters-sounds-and the first 20 sightwords to preschoolers last year. I used the songs a lot during transitions and i never had to 'make' anyone participate

[shopalott]

I also use heidisongs dvd's which I find extremely helpful. Most students are proficient by the end of the year with 60 sight words which are from the dolch pre-primer list including color words. I introduce two a week and reinforce them in class created books and during literacy work at stations. I find most students can be successful reading 50-60 words but will always have those that will need extra practice and not meet proficiency. I think most can read 50 words but certainly not be expected to spell all correctly.

[jacque/Wa/K-1]

We assess 100 sight words and most will know those and more. My lowest students will know 20-25ish and a few will be in-between. My district requires they know 42 from our literacy adoption.

We do not test spelling, but many of mine will spell correctly. We practice everyday on whiteboards during our student of the day routine. I talk about who has a pathway in their brain for the words and with each word call on a volunteer to help me write it on my big whiteboard and students double-check their spelling, changing to make it correct.

We play many fun games--several are variations of Bang! Their favorite was Boo! Played with Halloween cut outs that had the words or letters on them and some with the word Boo! Say the word, keep the card, get a boo and you have to put all your cards back. We began playing Gobble! With turkey cut outs with words and about 8 with Gobble! On them...same rules.....they love these, they can help each other, it's very fun.

I also utilize every transition to review letters/sounds, words, rhyming, opposites, math....sometimes just doing flash cards, but letting each child press my Staples "easy" button and then line up. We sing a lot..Who let the letters (words) out? I also use Heidi Songs too showing these at lunch and also the old electric company.

[sicoach]

http://blog.maketaketeach.com/teaching-sight-words/

[MalibuBarbie]

Sounds like you have a great thing going! Can you give a couple examples of sentence frames you've used?

Thanks!
MB

My kindergarten students are required to successfully recognize and spell 25 no excuse words by winter break. Another list of 25 is assigned at the beginning of the spring semester.