Sight Word Activities for Introducing Words 1. Experts often call these words “heart words” to call out for kids that they should learn the unexpected word parts “by heart.” (If all this is unfamiliar to you, it can feel overwhelming, but you’ve got this! Check out teaching guru Jillian Starr’s explanation for more help.)Ĭheck out these low-prep and engaging sight word activities for both teaching and practicing words.
Even irregularly spelled words have decodable parts, e.g., kids can use the sounds of “s” and “d” to help with “said,” even if the “ai” is unexpected. Many common words are easy to tackle using beginning phonics skills (like “at,” “can,” “him,” etc.), so staying true to a strong phonics curriculum is one way to support kids’ sight word learning. The science of reading tells us that linking sounds and letters is the most effective way for kids’ brains to learn any word. It’s a myth that blindly memorizing every letter in a sight word is the only way to learn it. Sight words are any words readers recognize automatically “by sight”-for fluent readers, that’s almost all words! High-frequency words, the most commonly occurring words in written English like those on the Dolch list, are often thought of as the most crucial sight words. Teachers are always on the hunt for great sight word activities.
