How to teach sight words?

[ladybird11]

Any teachers or experienced Mumma's out there who can help me with this one please?

DD just started reception and today she came home with 5 sight words she needs to learn (I don't know by when ).

They are : in am the he said

Any tips where I start with this? So far I've written them up on the kitchen white board where I know I'll be able to draw her attention to them randomly and as often as needed. She knows the letters and sounds they make, its just stringing them together....?

[Phteven]

Play games - make 2 of each and play like you would play fish or memory.
Flash cards.
Get her to test you. So she points to the card and you say the word and she tells you if you ate wrong or right (you don't need to get them all right).
Do you have letter magnets for your fridge? They are useful for learning words and spelling.

[AliBaby]

Agree with Zazou's tips for using them.

Also they are not just for learning to read but also learning to write them so try writing the on a blackboard if you have one or just using texts and paper. If your DS likes computers Or if you have in iPad then get him to type them and then read them.

[Astrolady]

we make up sentences. Sometimes they can get really silly.

He said am in the

The more sight words you get better because then you can go between different lists as they have to remember them all once they know them.

Also lots of repetition. I have also had the boys write them out and say them as they write them.

[ladybird11]

So its not as much going through the sounds?

Its more "here, this word is _____________" sorta thing?

[Phteven]

Yep. That's why they call them sight words.
Sounding out is an important strategy in learning to read but proper reading isn't sounding out. We see words and recognise them because of the shape. That is the aim of sight words.

Usually teachers start with the golden words which are the 12 most common words that make up almost a quarter of the words on a page. After that they move on to the next most popular words until they have the top 100 down.

The golden words are

a, and, be, I, in, is, it, of, that, the, to, was

[AliBaby]

Definitely not based on phonetics/sounds. That is why they are called sight words. They are common words that they need to know how to write/ read sentences, that do not always make the sound the letter makes. I.e. the, friend, saw, etc.

you can use sounds as well to help learn them but they need to become automatic IYKWIM.

[Trillian]

Ladybird, they are called 'sight' words because they can only be learned by sight - they cannot be sounded out. So they need to be taught by rote learning with loads of repetition. And please don't try to sound them out when helping them learn if they look like they are struggling because it just will not work and will only serve to confuse them more (I'm saying this as a teacher, not as a parent ) The others have some good suggestions. Make it fun and maybe even a little competitive by playing games etc.

[Catastrophic]

I put mine up on the fridge. And If DD wants to go in the fridge she has to tell me one of the sight words (or we sound them out together)

[misty]

It about getting them to 'recognise' the word. So they see it and their brain automatically tells them what it is. So repetition, repetition, repetition.

[Catastrophic]

Your definitely not a dumb arse! Learning it yourself and then teaching is two different fields!

[wysiwyg]

Nope I wouldn't have known either would have had to Google or something - the school gives no guidance at all to the parents?

[Trillian]

Our school runs an information session for all new/first time parents to explain to them what they teach the kids and why, maybe your school will do something similar shortly? Don't feel bad for asking

[Jaycee]

I was coming in to ask the same question so don't feel bad!!

Some good advice that we can try

[HotI]

i have never heard of the term 'sight words', so thank you from me for asking the question.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

With Liebling, the "tricky words" he had to learn I put into a story. Then Liebs read it to me. About his interests.

So if your child liked Dr Who, you could call your story "Where is Dr Who?"

Each page could be a picture of the Doctor poking his head out of a known place, followed by text. Such as:

He said "I am in the cup"
He said "I am in the cage"
He said "I am in the grass"

And so on and on and on. The changing word is the one that you have a picture for, so your child isn't "reading" that word, and you ask "where's the doctor?" every page. We sometimes do this as powerpoint shows, with text as the title then a picture beneath.

Once you've done that, then have flashcards or something to jumble up words that she's confident with - have a game to see who gets the most right. (And let her win the first one, at least.)

[misty]

We don't do sight words here.
My daughter has dyslexia, so every time she looks at the words they look different, there is no recognizing them, so sight word just further baffle and frustrate her. Instead we focus on those words she can break down and learn phenoically, as we usually have more luck with those for the most part. We still expose her to sight words and let her try, but we don't focus on them and just move on if she doesn't get it.

Guess I'm probably going to have to get on the sight word bandwagon with my DS starting school this year though. It's going to be interesting adapting two different styles of learning.

[ladybird11]

So tonight I was reading DD a book and every time one of the 5 weekly allocated sight words appeared I paused, pointed to the word and she filled in the gap.

Sometimes it'd be 'in the' other times it may have just been 'the' by itself etc.

Is that ok? I was thinking repetition x a million may help?