Learning to recognize sight words (also known as high-frequency words) is one of several components of teaching a child to read (learn about the rest of them here). When a child automatically recognizes a sight word, he/she can read more fluently without having to sound out that particular word. Sight words, however, should not be the main focus of reading instruction. A balanced approach towards literacy includes several other components, including phonemic awareness and phonics, with comprehension as the ultimate goal.
Big Brother is 5 and is continuing to learn sight words, which has definitely helped his reading fluency. I am not a fan of using flashcards, so I try to think of ways to make rote memorization more fun and interactive whenever possible. Everything is more fun with dice, right?!?! :)
Here’s what you’ll need: Each of the following documents printed out, a writing utensil, and a die.
:: top 100 sight words (4 lists)
Print out the two documents above and have your die ready!
There are 4 printable pages that include the top 100 sight words (25 per page). Use only 1 page at a time, so as not to overwhelm your child.
Invite your child to roll the die and then find a word with the corresponding number of letters on the “Top 100 Sight Words” page. Then ask your child to write that word in the appropriate column on the “Roll a Sight Word” page.
Have your child cross off the words he/she has used.
(Little Brother supervising to make sure everything was A-OKAY)
This game was a wild success with Big Brother. He recognized many of the words and learned several new ones…all while having fun!
Want to know more about teaching your child to read? Grab a copy of my eBook I Can Teach My Child to Read! for more suggestions.
Thank you for these great templates, I’ll try them out this morning with my 5 years old.
I only wish you had a link right on the templates, so that I would find them more easily when I want to reprint them ;o)
Hi Jenae, I’ve been reading your blog from the beginning and our oldest boys are only a few weeks apart in age. I tried this activity with my son this morning and after two words he was done because the writing was too hard for him. I know boys develop fine motor skills slower, and I don’t want to force him, but what suggestions do you have to help make writing fun? He’s doing great with the reading part, but getting him to write is like pulling teeth! Thanks!
I would say don’t push if he isn’t interested right now. My son didn’t finish the entire 25 words…he got to about 15-16 and then he was done (and that was perfectly fine with me). To help your son’s interest in writing, I would suggest taking him to pick out some fun writing utensils (the Mr. Sketch brand of markers SMELL–my first graders always loved using those). I would also just work on encouraging him to draw pictures for the time being (and not push letter-writing if he gets frustrated). The more comfortable he gets with using a pen/pencil/marker, the less frustrated he will be when it comes to writing letters.
In the meantime, have him use playdough to make the various letters or use build-a-letter activities that demonstrate how a letter is made without actually having to write it. Hope this helps! :)
Thanks!
This is great! I have challenged myself to teach my kids 25 sight words this week (huge challenge) and I’ve made it fun for them. I taped off squares in the living room & had them hop to the word I called out, I printed it out and had them put star stickers on the word and after just 1 day, they could easily recall 11 of the words. I will work on these words until they can easily recall them all. This will be a great game to include. I also plan on having a “fill-in the missing letter” game.
Love this Jenae!! Pinning for later for V :)
When I try to access the printables I get a blank page…
They are there…you might just have to wait for the page to load. Also, make sure you have Adobe Reader installed on your computer.
Thanks so much for sharing this great idea. I’m going to try it with my boys.
Great idea, my son will love this. Thank you for sharing!
So nice to read your lovely comments and praise. Thank-you.
Thank you! I used this with my child who has been diagnosed with ADHD and it kept his interest. I wrote about Roll a Sight Word on my blog because it worked so well. Make anything a game for my son and it works!
Thanks for sharing this great activity! During my son’s first go at it, it seemed he was rolling a lot of sixes, so I made a change which he seemed to really enjoy. When he rolled a 6, it was his pick. He could choose a word to spell, either on or off the list; his usual choice being along the lines of “lego, batman, etc…”, but he was spelling on his own! And that makes this Momma pretty excited : )
Thanks again!
This is such a great game! My first through third grade special education students loved it!
So glad your students are enjoying it! Thanks for leaving such a kind comment! :)
I have my son who is 8 yrs old turn 9 in June 2015. He is in 2nd grade. He still struggle. I have been divorce two years ago and I feel that is affecting his concentration. What else do you suggest as a mother to help him in reading besides reading to him? He is saying that he can’t read like other kids. If he doesn’t progress he will be retain in 3rd grade if he doesn’t pass aims test. Please advice. Thank you.
My eBook might be helpful: http://www.icanteachmychildtoread.com
Praying for you and your son right now, Connie!