If your child is in Kindergarten then you know the standard 100 sight words all 5 years olds should know by the end of their first scholastic year, (did you notice the sarcasm). Clearly it’s not 1986 anymore because I don’t remember ever having to do this. I remember making kites out of straws and tissue paper, learning my ABC’s, singing and coming home with macaroni necklaces for my mom. Not coming home with a list of words and HOMEWORK.
What is a sight word or tricky word? According to Wikipedia: Link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sight_word
”Sight words, often also called high frequency sight words, are commonly used words that young children are encouraged to memorize as a whole by sight, so that they can automatically recognize these words in print without having to use any strategies to decode.”
But with that said… I’ve had to find ways to capture the attention of a 5 year old boy so that we can attempt to conquer the mountain that is memorizing words. Sitting with him has really not worked because it was boring to him. After battling for 10 minutes and then knowing that by then it was pointless to even attempt to have a study session I went on a hunt for entertaining ways to help him learn his words.
First thing I decided to make the words visible. I used colored markers to write the words on index cards. This way he had a bigger card he could recite from instead of just words on a sheet of paper or on a key ring. Then I took my not so handy craft skills and put a word worm on our hallway wall. Once he knows a word, it would come off the wall and placed on my bedroom door. Randomly I will point to a word so he can say it. That was a good motivation for him. Seeing the words moved from the learning place to the GOAL place.
Board games are a huge hit in our household so I looked into finding educational games. The two games I did purchase have been a huge hit and are super fun to play. They both are bingo type games so having to look at the word, look at the board, look at the word, is essential to winning and learning. Both were found on Amazon, I’ve included the link below. Easily this is over an hour of playing and learning (wink wink ) time.
Zingo:
http://www.amazon.com/Think-Fun-7704-Zingo-Sight/dp/B008RU8GC4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1424995613&sr=8-2&keywords=zingo
Sight Word Bingo:
Are you in Sight Word world? Share your tips and tricks that help your child memorize their first 100 words.
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Thanks for this! I’m about to order one of these games for my son. We are knee deep in sight words!
I’d love to know how they work out for you. In one week my son’s test show he’s up 15 more words. I was beyond excited for him.