Sight words are words that are very frequently used in the English language. These words are so common that when they are learned they can help develop strong reading fluency and literacy skills. Learning a sight words list should be fun, interactive and challenging. Simple sight words worksheets don’t do the trick. Research shows that when you are activity involved in your learning, you are MUCH more likely to store the information in your long term memory. Sight word sentences are imperative when learning sight words. A well rounded literacy program would include multiple ways to learning, such as reading games, phonics games, sight word activities, sight word books, sight word games, and the best word worksheets. 

In my classroom & lesson planning: 

To keep my classroom organized, I prepare differentiated lesson plans, in advance, that ensure each child is challenged and I’m not scrambling to find additional resources at the last minute! In Kindergarten, there are children who come into the year with tons of kindergarten sight words and there are many who do not have any sight words yet. Some parents have sight works flash cards at home and play sight words games at home. Some don’t know what a site word is. Both are SO normal! The resource that I created: Sight word activities for Kindergarten, is geared towards filling in all the gaps for these emergent readers! The first 40 Dolch words can be paired with your reading games, phonics games and other sight word activities.

When teaching sight words, I’m a big believer that we need to put these words into context. So this might look like finding them in other places in the classroom, or finding them during a phonics game or guided reading lesson. After we learn a word (or a few) I always like to follow-up with a writing activity that uses these words. It helps to pull the words out of our short-term memory and into long term memory! The more we use site words in context, the more we master our basic sight words! This resource starts off with shorter words and sentences.

Step one: 

The first step is to learn the sight word through sight word flash cards, sight word games, or sight word books, to name a few. You can do this as a whole group instruction or in small groups. Since students are at all different levels, I would try to focus on the sight words that many of the kids don’t know. For example, if most students already know the words “I” & “in” but don’t know “at” yet, I would start at the word “at”. 

Step two: 

Now bring out the appropriate worksheet and have the students read the sentence below the sight word and then write it in the lines provided. There is a little turtle on the left, so they know where and what direction to start at. Students should then start writing on the sight word worksheets. 

Teacher Tip: 

I often ask students to read the words and then count how many words are in the sentence. This is a great strategy to use for early literacy skills and concepts about print as it shows us, the educator, if students are able to recognize that these are words. When children are just starting to learn how to read, they need to learn that every letter has a name, each letter makes a sound and when we put these letters together, they make a word and words have meaning! By asking students how many letters are in this word and how many words are in this sentence, we are able to quickly assesses if they are starting to make the connections between early literacy skills! 

Step Three: 

1. Read the words at the bottom of the page.
2. Cut them out
3. Put them back in order
4. As the sentences get more difficult, there will be more boxes for students to cut & paste into.
5. This is a great activity to work on developing fine motor skills with using scissors! For students who are not yet ready to use scissors, I would pre-cut the words out and have them place them in the right spots.

Step Four: 

The follow up page is composed of more sentences and sight words. The goal on this page is to solidify their knowledge of the kindergarten sight words learned as well as gain a stronger understanding of their concepts about print and thier early literacy skills.

I always read over each word and sentence with my students and we talk about where they should start writing. For some students, it is difficult to remember to make finger spaces. The two strategies I use for this is to either use popsicle sticks to help them remember OR I draw a box on the lines to symbolize that this is where the words go. 

Teacher Tip: 

The sight word activities for Kindergarten are truly geared towards helping early readers and writers develop strong phonemic awareness strategies from the beginning. This resource can be used over a number of weeks and months, until students have gained a strong understanding of the pre k sight words and kindergarten sight words. This activity will also (hopefully) help with building strong phenome skills from the beginning. I love to pair the sight word activities for Kindergarten with reading games, phonics games, sight word games, sight word flashcards, and sight word books!