10 Points a Day: Practicing Sight Words at Home

Shhh! Parents, this is a post for you. Teachers might find some of these techniques useful, too, but these ideas are really for the parents out there.

Sight words are the words that you don't have to think about or sound out when you're reading. In fact, many of them can't be sounded out easily, but they're also so common that not knowing them can prevent quick understanding when reading. E.W. Dolch pulled his list of sight words from children's books, identifying the 220 most common words. Memorizing words from that list is commonly used as a way to help early readers learn to read.

Sight words aren't the only thing that early readers need to understand in order to develop as readers (Consider phonemic awareness, concepts about print, and purpose for reading, for example). That said, as the parent of a kindergartener, I know that sight words are something that are incredibly helpful to practice, and 10-15 minutes a day is about the extent of time we have in my house.

In our house, we play a game to get to 10 points a day. My son responds really well to points, but he doesn't get anything beyond the points. Someday, that might change, and I'll figure out another way to keep him interested, but for now, the game is all about getting to 10 points.

Before you start, you'll want to:

• Make flashcards from a list of sight words. You can either get a list from your child's teacher or you can get a list online. Here's one list. Here's another. You don't need to make 220 flashcards to start. You'll want enough words to challenge your child but not so many that you overwhelm him/her. 
• Run through the words to see which words your child already knows. Put a checkmark in the right-hand corner of the flashcard for those words, which are now the 'friendly words.' 

The game (Give points wherever it makes sense. Also, remember to speak with the tone of a game-show host because it's hilarious):

1. Run through the friendly words once. That lets me know which words are still friendly. Sometimes, my son forgets a word that he knew the day before. That's fine. I just remind him of the word and he usually gets it right for the rest of the time we're playing. If he doesn't, I know to move the word out of the friendly words pile. 
2. Spend a few moments with 1-2 new words. I say a new word and then have my son say the word back to me. Then, I have him say the letters while tapping on them. 
3. Find the word in a pile. I give my son a stack of 4 friendly words and 1 new word. He sifts through the words and hands the word back to me. 
4. Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding! I shuffle 1 new word with 4 friendly words. I hold up each card in turn, and when I get to the new word, my son shouts out, "Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!" 
5. Which one? For this game. I put 2 new words and 1 friendly word on the table. I say the word my son has to find, and then my son points to and says the word. 
6. Make a sentence. I give my son four words (3 friendly and 1 new) that could make a sentence. He puts them down and reads them. If they don't make a sentence, he reshuffles them and re-reads, repeating until they make a sentence. He thinks making non-sentences is hilarious. (If he's having a hard time making a sentence and starts to get frustrated, I give massive hints. Making a sentence can be HARD, and the point is to avoid frustration) 
7. Run through the friendly words one more time. This time, I include the new words. The next day, when we start with our friendly word run-through, if he remembers the new words, I put a check-mark on the right-hand corner of the new word because it's now a friendly word.

So, why do I choose these sorts of games? For one thing, they make practice fun, so my son wants to keep going. Also, by varying the ways I ask him to recall new words, he gets better at identifying sight words in different situations. I also make sure to start with games that are easier for him; finding a word in a pile, ding-ding-ding-ding-ding, and which one? are easier for him than reading a complete sentence or remembering sight words out of context. Finally, most of the games involve him manipulating the cards rather than me holding up flashcards while he sits still. Like so many kindergarteners, my son is not interested in sitting still.

If you have any ways to play with sight-words, I'd love to hear about them in the comments!
Dolch, E.W. (1936). A basic sight vocabulary. The Elementary School Journal, 36(6), 456-460.