Well, hey there I want to start out today With
the scripture I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me Philippians 413 That was my
scripture yesterday morning and it just let me
know that no matter what's going on in my life
or in your life You can do all things through
Christ He will strengthen you. Well, listen,
hey friends and welcome to the education connection
podcast I'm Robin Wilson and I'm here to help
teachers, parents, homeschooler, parents make
learning fun, engaging and effective. Whether
in the classroom, teaching at home or tutoring,
I've got practical strategies and resources to
support you. But before we jump into today's
episode, I am so excited to share with you, I
recently teamed up with the education Podcast
Network. This means you'll soon hear a brand
new bumper featuring the network the next time
you tune in. I'm so thrilled to be a part of
this amazing group of educators and content creators
and I can't wait for what's ahead. So the Education
Podcast Network is a group of educators who also
have podcasts and they love to share. the things
they know and they love to share with other educators
the things that their guests know to the world
and just share that experience with everyone
involved and so I have been I have been invited
and I teamed up with them and I'm so excited
to be with them. So I just wanted to explain
that a little bit. Now let's dive into today's
topic. So this is a series that I'm doing about
getting ready for the next year and getting ready
for kindergarten or getting ready for first grade
or getting ready for second grade. There's always
a little bit of. I don't know if panic is the
right word but if you have a little one going
you're just wanting to make sure that they have
all the things that they need to go into that
new year and it's spring and you might think
it's a little bit early but this just gives you
a little head heads up and a little head time
to get going to have them ready because I don't
know about you but summer starts in June. You're
swimming, you're going to the park, you're playing
with friends, the kids are going to camp, and
this gives you a bumper, a little head space
to get started to doing these things and then
you can continue them throughout the summer.
So one of the key things you need for kindergarten,
first grade, and second grade is those tricky,
tricky sight words. Some people call them tricky
words. Some people call them sight words. There's
several ways that they are referred to but these
are the words that actually you can't sound out.
You have to just know them. Now some of them
you can sound out sort of like the word come,
c -o -m -e. A lot of times the kids want to add
that E to the end and make it say comb and then
you just correct that to where they learn that
that is come and the same with the word some.
But some of these words can be sounded out but
a lot of these cannot most of them cannot be
sounded out. So if you've ever tried to get a
child to memorize sight words by drilling the
flashcards you know it can get boring. fast and
so that is one way you can do it you can get
the flash cards you can get the little index
cards and put the sight words on there and just
do the flash cards and the kids just need to
learn them but there really is a better way and
it's always if you can make it into a game in
a game that you play kids start having fun and
they don't even know they're learning So learning
sight words doesn't have to be dull. In fact
the more interactive and hands -on the activity
the better kids will remember them. Well before
we go into some of the activities you might think
where can I find the sight words or are you going
to give me the sight words? I actually do have
a list of sight words. I believe it is on my
tbt store, but it's quicker and maybe easier
for you just to do the search You can find free
sight word list online in many places and to
get started This is what you're going to search
for fries sight words and that's spelled fry
apostrophe s sight words or You might also like
to use Dulch and that is spelled D as in dog,
O -L -C -H, Dulch sight words. You can use both
or you can use either either one of them. I've
actually used fries more than I have the Dulch.
They have a lot of the same words. They're just
in different order mixed around a little bit.
The Freisite words go all the way up to a thousand
words and so as the years go I would recommend
100 words per year except for kindergarten. So
in kindergarten focus on the first 25 words.
and then for first grade continue with those
25 and expand up to the first 100 words. When
you get to second grade you'll want to do the
second 100 words and third grade third 100 words
and then hopefully by then they will have enough
of the reading skills and the reading that they
will be doing on their own time and in the class
that they will be able to pick up on the sight
words beyond that. But if not, you can approach
it in that manner. Here are a few of my favorite
sight word activities. So this is so fun. Just
grab you some chalk and take it outside. Write
sight words in a hopscotch pattern and have kids
jump from word to word saying each one loud.
Now I know where I live it's still a little cool
outside and sometimes those temperatures drop
here in Indiana and it's just too cold to go
outside right now. Look in your house for those
tiles or if you have carpet maybe you want to
get some painter's tape that comes up really
easily and put that down in the house and you
can play it inside if you have a place to play
inside. But you're going to write the sight words
in a hopscotch pattern and have kids jump from
word to word saying each one aloud. And no worries
if you're inside just grab your index cards and
write them on there. Just be careful when they
jump on the sight words that they're jumping
on the side of it because you would not want
them to slip and fall hitting that sight word
index card just right could take you down. I
want to say I might know that from experience
actually in the classroom. So the next thing
that you can do is flashlight word hunt. So write
sight words on sticky notes and place them around
a dimly lit room. Give your child a flashlight
and call out a word. They have to shine the light
on the correct word and read it out loud. So
that's a lot of fun. The next one I want to talk
about is Plato sight words so strengthen your
fine motor skills while learning. Kids can shape
Plato into letters to spell sight words and if
that is difficult for them maybe you can shape
them and they can read them but you maybe can
shape them together working together they can
do one letter you can do another and then they
can read the words that you put in Plato. Water
painting this is fun outside again. It needs
to be a little warm but on the sidewalk if you
use Sponges or even paint brushes on this sidewalk
you can paint with water and paint the side work
side sight words in this sidewalk excuse me that's
a tongue twister sight words on the sidewalk
or maybe on the fence or the side of a barn or
something that you have sight word fishing write
the sight words on paper fish or I've actually
just put these on index cards attach paper clips
and let the kids fish for words using a Magnetic
fishing rod they read the word aloud and when
they catch one they get to say the word and maybe
they get to keep that card and If you have two
kiddos playing or you can play along with them
Whoever has the most cards wins whoever catches
the most fish, you know when you go out They're
the winner So the key takeaway is kids learn
best when they're actively involved in the process.
So I didn't write this one out, but I do want
to add this one in because it's one of my very
favorites to use in the classroom. Get your Candy
Land board out. You're going to use those same
sight words that you put on the next cards. You're
going to roll the dice instead of using the Little
color cards. So, you know you normally when you
play candy lane You're going to pick up the color
card and if it says to blue you're going to go
to the one that has to blue You're going instead
you're going to roll the dice. They're going
to draw one of the cards they have to read it
and then they get to go however many number they
rolled. So if they rolled a six they get to go
six but they're gonna pick a card and read the
card. The other thing that I've done is write
the sight words on the back of your Candy Land
cards. The problem with that is though and that's
great if you want to keep that for sight words
only. Is I like to use a candyland board for
numbers? addition recognizing numbers you can
use it for addition you can use it for subtraction
so if you put your sight words on the back of
your Candy Land cards then you won't be able
to use those for anything else and so that's
fine if that's what you want to do but it's really
much easier just to roll your dice and go forward
that many that many that you roll pick a card
and read it and you can actually use that for
any content that you're trying to learn very
fun So we're gonna reinforce those sight words
through games. Oh my goodness. This one's so
fun Have you ever played whack -a -mole like
at the Chuck Cheese or you know at a fair or
something like that you play the whack -a -mole?
well this is kind of like that they're going
to whack the sight word but you use a fly swatter
so it's called swat the sight word write words
on index cards spread them out and let kids swat
the correct word with a fly swatter when you
call it out so that's a lot of fun so you're
just going to call it out and they are going
to swat the word if you don't have a fly swatter
we have played tap the word so they're just going
to tap it with their hand Give a little warning
out though if they tap it too hard their hand
will hurt and I've had that happen with kiddos
they get really excited especially if I'm having
two or three trying to tap the same word at the
same time as a little competition that's always
so fun but boy they get excited and they hit
that table a little bit too hard and it can cause
their little fingers to sting so just give them
a little heads up on that. Sight word bingo.
This is fun use bingo cards with sight words
and play just like traditional bingo So listen
if you don't have a bingo card with sight words
already on it Easy peasy you can make a table
Just draw out your lines with four squares going
across and four squares going down or five squares
across five You know, just draw it with a pencil
and your ruler or your marker in your ruler and
then You can write those words in there and then
what you're gonna do is you want to do Three
or four but do them different if you have different
kiddos playing So if you have two or three kids
playing you want them to be different so that
they don't all get bingo on the same round. Another
fun thing that I learned from one of my teacher
friends is give them the card blank and she called
it wordo so this is really fun so wordo so she
calls out a sight word they have to write it
in one of the boxes and they get to pick any
box they want to write it in and you help them
spell it out or whatever put it on a whiteboard
they're spelling it out until you get like all
of the 16 words written. then when you call it
out no because they're gonna put it anywhere
so they're not gonna write it in the first square
they're not they're gonna they have to they're
gonna pick anywhere on the board to write this
and then when you go to call out the word they
will place whatever you've put you can use at
home you can use macaroni's pennies you can use
beans just whatever you have laying around if
you have toy blocks that would be fun too or
the little circles but you can really use anything
that you have laying around the house. But they
are writing their words everywhere on that paper
so that when you call out a word they're not
going to have the same place. So somebody's going
to get a bingo or a word -o and they won't all
get it at the same time. can still do that even
if you're playing with one child just it's so
fun they just they're learning and they don't
even know it rainbow writing have kids trace
sight words with different colors to create a
rainbow effect saying the word aloud each time
so then you can help them spell it the first
time and then they're going to go over it with
different colors I've seen the rainbow writing
to where they trace around it and color it in
and then trace it bigger and colored in and go
bigger and bigger till it's all rainbow. But
I think if you're wanting to really focus on
how to spell it, the thing you're gonna want
them to do is literally trace over the letters
right on top of it and that way they're getting
that like if they're writing the word the they're
going to be writing t -h -e in red and then they're
going to write t -h -e in blue and then t -h
-e in green so they're going to get more practice
writing the word the rather than coloring around
it and decorating it. Both are fun to do but
one is just a little bit more effective than
the other. Word jump. Spread sight word cards
on the floor and have kids jump to the correct
one when you call it out. Now we actually call
this one stomp. So we call it, I was thinking
jump and stomp and I said stomp. So we call it
stomp. So then you call it a word and they're
going to stomp on the correct word. So that's
a lot of fun too. sentence building with sight
words so give kids index cards with different
words and encourage them to build simple sentences
so they're going to just call out a word and
then you're going to make a sentence with that
word or if you want to try to take the words
and make a sentence and some of them may come
out a little silly and that is what's so funny
and they'll get tickled and all will be giggling
at the end So if you're looking for even more
hands -on sight words, I've got you covered.
I created a sight word scavenger hunt. It's an
all -year bundle packed with 360 pages of engaging
activities designed to make learning sight words
easy and fun. Now normally it's $30, but for
a limited time you can grab it for $15. That's
50 % off. This is 360 pages. for fifteen dollars
so it's like a big workbook i mean you in the
site where it's actually the scavenger hunts
are for all years there's saint patrick's day
there's christmas there's valentine's day so
you could play this game once a month all through
the year and that's just for fifteen dollars
so you can get the bundle in the show notes so
I will include the link there for you and if
you want even more ideas I also wrote a blog
post recently with additional site word activities
that you can try right away so you will find
that latest blog post on site words in the show
notes so I hope today's episode gave you fun
practical ways to make site word learning exciting
the key is to keep it interactive playful and
engaging whether it's hopping painting fishing
or swatting learning through movement and games
helps kids develop fluency without the frustration
and don't forget next time you listen you're
gonna hear my brand new bumper with the education
podcast network i'm so excited to be a part of
this incredible group and i can't wait for all
the amazing all the amazing things ahead so if
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can do all things through Christ who strengthens
you. See you next time!