Make a Sight Word Book

What You Need:

• Construction paper
• Crayons or markers
• Glue
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Photographs or family and friends
• Glitter glue (for a glamorous edition!)
• Sight word list (see below)

What You Do:

1. In this activity, you'll help your child create a book by asking questions, and then using the answers to create what teachers call "sentence frames." A sentence frame is just a sentence with a missing part— a fill-in-the-blank. For this book, you'll create a sentence frame for each page and then help your child fill in the blank with a word from the sight word list.
2. When they're coming up with sight words for students, most teachers use a combination of something called the Dolch list (a list of 220 high-frequency words, prepared by E.W. Dolch in 1936) and Fry Instant Words, a more recently created list by E.B. Fry. Some of the words kindergarten teachers use include:

3. For this activity, you'll create a book with ten pages. On each page you'll write a sentence frame centered around one of the words on this list, leaving a blank for your child to fill in the sight word. But since your child is the author of this book (not you!) they''ll actually be creating the material for your text, by way of the questions you ask. For example, if you wanted to use the sight word "I" you might ask your child, "Tell me three things you're good at." And if they said they are good at soccer, singing, and riding a bike, you would take your first page of construction paper and write something like, "_____ am good at soccer, singing, and riding a bike." Then you'd help your child fill in the blank with the sight word "I".
4. Repeat this process for each of the ten pages, using a sight word from the list as inspiration, and then creating a sentence for your child to complete. Give your child a colorful marker to use for the sight word (a different color than the one you use to write the rest of the text) to help make it stand out when you read together later.
5. After you've finished the text and your child has filled in the blanks, it's time for the illustrations! Give your child the markers, glitter, and photos, and put them to work creating the pictures for the book. Don't forget to make a cover, with the author's name prominently displayed. When it's all finished, bind it with staples or with punched holes and string.
6. Stuck on the types of questions to ask, and the type of text to use in the book? Here are ten examples of possible questions, sample kid answers, and the resulting sentence frame.

When the book is complete, look at it together, pointing to each word as you read. Eventually, your child can take over the job of tracking the words, as he learns to read the book himself. Be sure to keep it simple and don’t over complicate the sentence frames. The repetition of seeing the sight words in print is what will make it stick. And once he's mastered the sight words, reading other words won't be far behind!