I had a problem. In fact, I had 5 problems.

I had a MAJOR problem with sight words. Don’t get me wrong. My kids learned their sight words. I planned center activities. We sang and danced to sight word songs. Still something was off. I felt like I was always scrambling to pull the resources I needed to pull for small groups to differentiate. Even though I had ideas for small group activities, I felt like I was doing the same things over and over. It was easier and I didn’t have a moment to pull the resources I needed.

I needed a fix. I needed something to help me get organized. I needed differentiated assessments. I needed something easy to grab and go.

Insert…

The Sight Word Kit

In this kit is everything that you will need to make teaching sight words fun and engaging. And it sure is going to make my life a whole LOT easier. In my kindergarten classroom, we learn 100 sight words. Our school considers them to be proficient in their sight words when they have mastered 85 words. Many of my kids will learn way over 100 words.

Before you say…”What if I have my own list that I have to use?”

Let me stop you right there and tell you all of this is editable. You can easily adapt this to fit your list and your classroom needs.

In this kit, I tried to answer all of my problems I had teaching sight words. Let me give you the run down.

Problem #1

I scrambled to find the flash cards I needed for each group.

Solution

I divided my words in to sets of 10. I gave each set a color. I made cards that I could easily attach to an IKEA picture frame. I am placing the frame at my guided reading table. I can easily flip to each group’s color and differentiate.

Problem #2

I scrambled to keep word lists ready to send home to parents. I had a hard time remembering what list each child was using at the time.

Solution

This requires a little bit of pre-school year prep. However, I think this will be beneficial and keep you from running to the copier at the last minute. Each list of 10 has a separate color. I used the ten color pack of Astrobrights copy paper. Once you set up your words for the year, use the color guide provided on the master list and copy the parent pages. I store my pre-copied parent pages in a hanging file folder. This folder hangs behind my student folders where I file their daily papers. When I need to send a list home, I can easily grab their color. Giving students colors for their sight word lists makes it easy for them to remember their color in case you forget or can’t grab your guided reading notes immediately.

Problem #3

I had a problem keeping materials ready to play games in small groups. I would play the same games over and over. I needed variety.

Solution

When I start my small group time with my students, I like to start with a warm-up activitiy with sight words. I use flash cards to quickly review sight words. I say the word and then have them repeat the word. I also like to have a quick activity that concentrates on one or two words. I do not like for this warm-up activity to last more than 5 minutes. So, I needed something quick and easy. This is where The Sight Word Kit comes in handy. I have placed all the items I need to play sight word games inside the kit. I have pre-printed and laminated play-doh cards, game cards, and work mats for each word on my list. They are kept inside the kit, along with manipulates I need for the games. I keep the game pieces inside pencil pouches. Keeping everything inside this kit makes it easy for me to grab the kit and meet with a group at my table or the carpet.

 

At the bottom of this post, I have provided a shopping list for items that you might consider placing inside The Sight Word Kit. You can find this tub at Walmart and Michael’s stores.

Problem #4

My kids didn’t have easy access to sight words for their own personal use.

Solution

Don’t get me wrong. I had my sight words posted all around the room. Sight words were on the word wall. Sight words were hanging on my door frame for practice. Sight words were in the writing center. However, I wanted my students to have their own personal access to their sight words. Now I have each of their sight words on binder rings ready to keep in their book box. I keep extra copies in The Sight Word Kit. When a child is ready for the next color, it is easy for me to grab them. They can use the personal sight word rings to find sight words in books or for review. I allow my kids to grab the sight word ring out whenever they need it. They go grab it out of their book box when they are in a writing or word work center.

 

Problem #5

Assessments. Need I say more? This was really the biggest issue for me. Every pre-made assessment I found on the internet meant that I had to use someone else’s pre-made list. Often times these assessments only had the teacher recording page. That meant I had to make my own student pages. What a thorn in the side! ARG!

Solution

Once I type my words into the master list provided in The Sight Word Kit, it auto-populates assessments for 10 words, 20 words, 50 words, and 100 words. That means that I have ready made assessments with teacher recording pages AND student pages. I printed all of my assessments and placed them into my teacher guide. I printed all of the student pages and placed them into an assessments book. Each assessment is labeled in the bottom right corner with the corresponding list. I had them bound at Staples for $4 each. That was the best $8 I have spent in a long time. Now when it comes time to assess students, I will just need to take my bound teacher guide to the copier and copy the teacher recording sheets I need. The Kit comes with recording sheets that combines all of the assessments that make it easy to put in a student portfolio or a student file.

 

Phew! I know that solving these problems are going to make my life so much easier this school year. I wanted to make your life a bit easier as well.

I have also included:

• An easy schedule to follow
• 4 steps to teaching sight words
• 40 different whole group and small group games/activities for sight words
• Easy printables to use in centers

Grab The Sight Word Kit here!

Setting up your Sight Word Kit?

Here is a shopping list:

• Play-Doh
• Yarn to manipulate letters for building sight words
• Play foam for building letters on work mats
• Binder Rings for sight word rings and IKEA frame
• IKEA Tolsby Frame
• Bamboo Skewers for spelling sight words in Play-Doh
• AlphaMagnets for building sight words on magnetic boards
• Magnetic White Boards
• Pipe Cleaners and Letter Beads for building sight words.
• River Rocks 
• Connect 4 Game
• Hangman Game

Please do not feel like you need to put ALL of these things in your Kit. Place the things you think you will grab most often in small group. I have listed several other items and ideas in the Teacher Guide. The games listed are meant to give you easy ideas to implement for sight word instruction. You can easily pop them into your lesson plans.

Have fun with sight words this year! I hope this helps to solve your sight word problems. As always…if you have ANY questions, please feel free to email me at info@bonniekathryn.com