First Grade Sight Words
Sight words are words that are not always spelled the way they sound (making it difficult to “sound them out”). They also tend appear more frequently in our reading than other words. They are often referred to as “Glue Words” because they hold a sentence together or “Word Wall Words” because we keep them up on a word wall in our classroom for easy reference if we forget how to spell them. Recognition of these words in particular is crucial not only for good fluency but for accurate comprehension. Throughout the year your child will move through four stages of reading with these words:
Early Emergent Emergent Early Fluent Fluent
We practice these words as a class, in reading groups and individually on a daily basis. Students are assessed on them regularly as well. Ways you can help your child recognize these words are:
- Highlight them in newspapers, magazines or old books
- Point them out on signs
- Create flashcards practice them daily keeping track of how many were recognized immediately.
- Sort them according to beginning letter sounds, number of letters, etc.
- Use different colors to highlight consonants and vowels
When they are able to recognize these words, we will focus on spelling them correctly. When he or she is writing, have him/her use this list to spell these words correctly. You can also do fun activities such as write them:
- in shaving cream
- with sidewalk chalk
- with alphabet cereal
- with letters cut out from old magazines
- with paint and a paint brush/finger paints
- with pasta noodles
- on sandpaper
- on flashcards