Sight Word Activities for Beginning Readers

Let's face it... sight words are tricky! Kids struggle learning them and we struggle finding fun and creative ways to get our students to learn them. It doesn't matter what grade I teach, first, second, or even fourth grade....I always have students who are struggling with their sight words.

Every school year I have a group of students who know their sight words like the back of their hands. But the majority of my students struggle with them. Maybe they can read some of them, but they can't always spell them. Some are even still trying to sound them out, which we know is not possible for many reasons. They have to know them by sight, with automaticity, in order to become strong readers. 

I like to start my school year, reviewing sight words the students should know from first grade. This is a quick assessment for me. It is just one tool I use to help me gauge where my students' skill levels are when they come to me. After I test them, I give them flash cards with the words they need to still learn. I love these flash cards because they have the word written in letter boxes for the students to visually see how the word is written.  This strategy helps many of my struggling learners. 

Learning and reviewing sight words can be so dull and boring. I want my students engaged! I have created several ways of doing this. One way is to focus on a small number of words at a time. Four or five words seems to be the magic number for most of my kiddos. 

This activity helps the students recognize sight words in different fonts, sizes and shapes. Once they identify the words, the students graph how many times they saw each word. 

I also like my students to see the sight words in text. I created fluency and cloze reading passages for this reason. Students need to see the words in context, not just in isolation in order to remember, retain, and use the words correctly. 

Are you ready to use some of these activities in your classroom? Try them out for yourself. This {FREEBIE} BONUS pack of activities is just for you. 

{DON'T FORGET IT! PIN IT!}