Sight Word Shakers

We are just getting into full swing with our literacy again after taking some time off after Idris being born. This week Eve is working on 'what, where, why, when, who' and I selected some sight words for Faith that are popping up in her reading books - 'I, the, and, he, said, my'. The girls love having them in these jars - they pick them up all the time and give them a shake. I think I'm going to change the slips of card for bottle caps with the words written on with permanent marker though. This is because the cards clump together a little as the rice is heavier than they are.

Pipe Cleaner Sight Words!

These are pictures of this week's multi-sensory way to learn sight words. The new words introduced this week have been 'how' and 'can' as we are following the order in '100 sight word mini books'. Eve really enjoyed choosing pipe cleaners and it made her really think about the letter shapes as she now had to make them out of bendy wire instead of writing them. The idea came from 'Success with Sight Words' From top to bottom we have 'how', 'you', 'with' and two thirds of 'can'! We played with them for a while and played around with mnemonic ways to help Eve remember 'how'. She had chosen tiger striped pipe cleaners to make it from so I asked her what she'd say if a tiger bit her..... "ow" she said straight away and then when I asked what it began with she said 'h' 'ow'..... 'how'. It was much more fun to remember them this way and she had a big smile all the way through!

We fetched them out the next day to play with and Eve very easily remembered the words, including 'how' after a small prompt about tiger bites! It was fascinating to watch her arrange the letters into the correct order.... spelling them as well as recognising them! Such a result compared to six weeks ago!

I am linking this to 'word play', visit 1+1+1=1 to see more word play ideas!

Paint Bag Sight Words

This is a great and simple way to practice sight words (or letters of the alphabet if you are at an earlier stage). I squeezed a little yellow paint into a ziploc bag and made sure all of the air was out before sealing it carefully and spreading out the paint. We used this by me writing words on for eve to tell me what they were. There was an unexpected twist as Eve began learning how to spell the words also. I hadn't planned on asking her to learn their spellings, just to recognise them for reading purposes. It does however make sense to know how to write them as well seeing how often they will crop up in her writing. I had the idea from the book 'Success With sight Words' by Sara Throop - I wrote about the book here.

Multisensory Sight Words

A week or so ago I posted about making up a sight words barn game to help Eve to learn sight words in a fun way. Well by Thursday I could tell that it was losing it's appeal for her and she was showing signs of frustration about learning them again. Luckily I had ordered Success with Sight Words by Sara Throop. It has loads of fun, easy to set up, multi sensory games and ideas for learning sight words. I was excited even reading through the book as I saw a new way to put fun into something that Eve finds tedious and frustrating, anything to lighten the experience for both of us is great in my book!!

Today we made sight word biscuits! I chose to just review the words that Eve has already mastered. Whilst I rolled out the batch of dough, Eve pulled out magnetic letters to spell the sight words, some remembered and some prompted by me. I was impressed that she could spell them as so far we have concentrated on reading and recognising them and not looked at the spelling aspect. Eve then pressed the letters into the biscuit rounds and they were baked. To get a biscuit to eat, Eve had to tell me what the word said! Without even realising it Eve had read and spelled the sight words three times - once with the magnetic letters, once as she pressed them into the dough and then as we pulled them out of the oven. Brilliant! Faith also joined in with this but stamped letters that she knew into smaller biscuit rounds and she had two to eat after telling me the letters!

we are also working through '100 Sight Word Mini Books' by Lisa and Jay Cestnik which has as you may have guessed, has 100 mini books to be photocopied and folded then completed. Eve was very taken with Faith's alphabet mini books and providing some for Eve too has proved a big hit! They include a short poem with spaces to complete the sight word and a tiny word search on the back to find the word as many times as you can. The other useful aspect to the book is that it outlines a pathway through the sight words as later mini books build on the sight words that have come before it. I had been trawling through Eve's reading books to list what words she needed to know but as I am at present giving her the freedom to choose them herself this plan isn't working anymore. Plus I love a bit of organisation and a plan so this suits me too!!

I have plenty more fun ideas up my sleeve and will post as we try them out!! Hope I'm not boring you all silly with this sight word craze but it's where we are at right now and I try to follow the girl's needs!