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Kindergarten sight words


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http://thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html

 

This page has a chart of sight words are normally taught in schools--alphabetically and split across grade levels.

 

It also shows how to easily teach the majority of sight words phonetically. I definitely would not use the chart in your link. Quite a few are simple short vowel words that are easy to sound out. Like others said OPGTR does teach a few sight words as they are needed. Very few.

Edited by Lovedtodeath
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Most of those look phonetic. I would teach phonics with a reading program like OPGTTR. I'm sure you will get lots of "more experienced" answers though;)

 

 

We do- we are using Phonics Pathways and Explode the code. I just started re-reading TWTM though and its talking about sight words and I have not even touched that subject with either ds's.

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http://thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/sightwords.html

 

This page has a chart of sight words are normally taught in schools--alphabetically and split across grade levels.

 

It also shows how to easily teach the majority of sight words phonetically. I definitely would not use the chart in your link. Quite a few are simple short vowel words that are easy to sound out. Like others said OPGTR does teach a few sight words as they are needed. Very few. HTH

 

 

So would you guys recommend getting OPGTR for the sight words? I can check that out from the library as needed.

 

When teaching dd to read I just used Abeka (I was inexperienced then) and it was all laid out. Now with ds I have not even started sight words LOL... Ok time to dig into sight words

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I would just trust what your chosen phonics program does and not worry about adding an additional sight word list. OPGTR teaches a few sight words as they are needed. Very, very few. I am thinking less than 20 total in the whole book, which goes up to 4th grade reading level.

 

I didn't know if you saw my post because I was still editing. :) I am glad you are feeling better about it.

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I would just trust what your chosen phonics program does and not worry about adding an additional sight word list. OPGTR teaches a few sight words as they are needed. Very, very few. I am thinking less than 20 total in the whole book, which goes up to 4th grade reading level.

 

I didn't know if you saw my post because I was still editing. :) I am glad you are feeling better about it.

 

 

So then I should get off this mini panic and just teach any unknown words as ds's are reading books? Why am I panicking about this all the sudden? This isn't my first time teaching a dc to read :confused:

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We do- we are using Phonics Pathways and Explode the code. I just started re-reading TWTM though and its talking about sight words and I have not even touched that subject with either ds's.

 

If you are using Phonics Pathways don't worry about the sight words. You will cover them phonetically. If you really want to drill your children, make flash cards after you cover the words in PP.

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So then I should get off this mini panic and just teach any unknown words as ds's are reading books? Why am I panicking about this all the sudden? This isn't my first time teaching a dc to read :confused:

 

If your son knows his phonics, he'll be able to sound out those "sight words", and the more he reads them, the more he'll remember them without sounding them out.

 

So yes, it's ok to stop the mini panic. :D

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Just wanted to add that I used PP to teach my ds to read. We went through the entire book, and never drilled sight words. He reads excellently now, so no panic necessary. If it makes you feel better you can always make a wall chart with frequently used words, and add them when you learn them. Personally I think just doing frequent reading cements the words.

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Although I believe there is definitely no reason for even a mini-panic, I'll be the voice of, umm, deviation. I do teach sight words along with a phonics program. I taught kindergarten and 1st grade for years and I personally feel, after seeing so many children, that there is just a wide range of what works. I believe it is very important for children to learn the phonics rules for reading and spelling mastery (we currently use AAS) but I also think sight words are important for increasing a child's reading fluidity. This is especially true for children whose comprehension level far exceeds their reading level which may lead to feelings of discouragement. ("Why do I have to read these baby books?")

 

I have an older copy of, "The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists" that I have found invaluable. One section is devoted to an ordered listing of the 1000 most common words in written English. This is similar to the Dolch lists.

 

I use games to teach the sight words as much as possible. For example, for my son I currently have rock shapes cut from construction paper with the words written on them and laminated. Then I build pathways and play different games where he jumps from word to word - perhaps he has to find and jump to a word I say in order to collect block pieces to complete a tower, or perhaps just read them in order to cross the ocean (playroom carpet) and reach the ship (craft table) before the alligator (little sister) gets him. He now has enough of a word bank that we can line pathways throughout the downstairs living space and we use dice to play a life size version of Candyland or similar (that blasted troll always sends me back to the beginning).

 

A good place to start might be Peggy Kaye's, "Games for Reading" book. There are many games adaptable for both phonics words and sight words and I have seen this at even small town libraries.

 

Have fun!

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This is especially true for children whose comprehension level far exceeds their reading level which may lead to feelings of discouragement. ("Why do I have to read these baby books?")

That is why I use a phonics program that gets the child familiar with many phonograms and rules very quickly. :D It is called "vertical phonics". Then after only one year of phonics instruction they are typically years ahead.

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It's actually better not to teach them as wholes, use the link Lovedtodeath provided and teach them phonetically if you must, but don't teach them as whole, teach them phonetically. Use a good phonics program and the "sight words" get taught when their sound/spelling pattern comes up.

 

I've tutored with phonics for 17 years and given out hundreds of reading grade level tests. Schools that use sight words have about a 30% failure rate. Schools that teach 100% whole language, sight words for everything, have a 60 to 70% failure rate. In my years of giving out reading grade level tests, I have not yet found a single failure from a program that teaches phonetically and only teaches a few sight words as they come about (something like PP or OPG, also, the program they use in a Catholic school in Little Rock, I never figured out what it was, but I saw homework with good phonics and no sight words and never had a failure from it--I thought one girl was, but later found out she transferred in to the school from a school that taught sight words.) When we lived in Virginia, most of the district taught sight words and had about a 30% failure rate. The school in our neighborhood taught with phonics without sight words and also taught spelling phonetically, also rare in public schools. I thought they also only had 1 failure--again, I later found that the student had transferred in from another state where he was taught sight words. (This school has housing prices $100K more than already exorbitant rates in the area.) So, teach with phonics and no sight words, it's worth $100K in educational value!

Edited by ElizabethB
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So then I should get off this mini panic and just teach any unknown words as ds's are reading books? Why am I panicking about this all the sudden? This isn't my first time teaching a dc to read :confused:

 

This method worked fine for me. I just helped my daughter read words she couldn't figure out when they came up in actual books. Eventually, she remembered them.

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I'm also a kindergarten teacher. The term sight word refers to teaching words to be recognized without sounding them out. When you do teach words phonetically and the child can read them without needing to sound them out that is reading with automaticity not reading it as a sight word. The sight word approach is outside of phonics. If you show a child the word have and he says here, you have mislead him away from phonics no matter how much phonics you are doing in addition to sight words.

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  • 1 year later...
So then I should get off this mini panic and just teach any unknown words as ds's are reading books? Why am I panicking about this all the sudden? This isn't my first time teaching a dc to read :confused:

 

This is what we did and I would do a quick explanation of whichever more advanced phonics rule fit the word in question. The bonus was that he would fly through the more advanced phonics concept when we came to it.

 

We use a combo of HOP and PP. HOP uses some sight words, but I've taught them all phonetically. I think that teaching those words phonetically has helped his outside reading much, much more than if I had taught him to simply memorize it.

 

We still haven't officially reached "igh" in our phonics, but he knows how to read knight, light, bright, sighing, insight, etc.

 

I'd just keep doing what you're doing.

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There are a lot of neat ideas about teaching sight words on pinterest. My ds loved the sight word parking lot. Using one of the word lists, draw a parking lot on a piece of posterboard. In each "parking space" write a sight word. As you call out the word, your dc parks a toy car in that space!

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