Have you ever heard someone read aloud and it sounds very choppy? When readers pause to sound out each word, they lack fluency. Building fluency is the key to learning to read smoothly, and learning sight words can help. This activity lets you and your child go label crazy! You’ll pick a set of words to work with, and then play a series of games to help your child remember what they look like.
What You Need:
- construction paper
- markers
- tape
What You Do:
Put your kid in the driver’s seat. Ask him to point to a set of ten items around the house that he’d like to learn to “read”. Or, if you’d rather start with a set of suggested sight words, here are a few to consider: dog, bed, eyes, clothes, water, ball, boy, book, food, fire, window, door, tree, desk, table, toys.
Write each word with your child’s help. Talk about the words, by pointing out the letters as you write them. You can also discuss the shape of the words and their letters.
Stick a piece of tape on each of your words and ask your child to help you label the house. Once the words are in place, try these games:
Listen Up!: Say a word and ask your child to hunt for its label. Be sure to emphasize the different sounds that make up the word, to make spotting it easier.
Can You Guess?: This time, instead of just saying a word like “bed” and asking your child to find the corresponding word, give clues to help lead them to the answer. For example, “I’m thinking of a thing you sleep on and it starts with the “buh” sound.”
Rhyme Time: One of the best ways to give kids a boost towards reading is to give them practice rhyming. For this game, instead of saying the word, or giving a clue like the one above, say a word that rhymes with the clue in question. For example for bed, you might say, “This word rhymes with red.” For table you might say, “Try to find me. I rhyme with label!”
Once your child can recognize all then words by sight (without seeing the object attached), add more words to your list. And remember, when it comes to sight words, you can never have too many labels!
By Andrea McConnell
Andie McConnell has taught a wide variety of grades at charter, private and public schools. She holds a Master's in Curriculum and Instruction. And she's the proud mom of a preschooler.
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