Sight words

Did you know that more than half of the text in English children’s books is made up of only 220 words?

There is even a special word for them – sight words. These “pop-stars” are often times pronounced irregularly. For instance, the word have has nothing in common with cave, save, wave or gave.

Best way to befriend them – is to simply memorize them. This useful baggage will give young readers confidence, speed and more enthusiasm for conquering new words.

There are several sight words lists: Fry and Dolch, just to name a few.

Dolch words are divided by age and are introduced as follows:

• Pre-primer (40 слов): a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you
• Primer (52 слова): all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will, with, yes
• 1st Grade (41 слово): after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, giving, had, has, her, him, his, how, just, know, let, live, may, of, old, once, open, over, put, round, some, stop, take, thank, them, then, think, walk, were, when
• 2nd Grade (46 слов): always, around, because, been, before, best, both, buy, call, cold, does, don’t, fast, first, five, found, gave, goes, green, its, made, many, off, or, pull, read, right, sing, sit, sleep, tell, their, these, those, upon, us, use, very, wash, which, why, wish, work, would, write, your
• 3rd Grade (41 слово): about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm

95 nouns to add to the main list:

• apple, baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, bread, brother, cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, Christmas, coat, corn, cow, day, dog, doll, door, duck, egg, eye, farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower, game, garden, girl, good-bye, grass, ground, hand, head, hill, home, horse, house, kitty, leg, letter, man, men, milk, money, morning, mother, name, nest, night, paper, party, picture, pig, rabbit, rain, ring, robin, Santa Claus, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun, table, thing, time, top, toy, tree, watch, water, way, wind, window, wood

We are often asked regarding ways to facilitate memorizing. Any conscious contact with the word will help. Encourage your child to find the studied word in your newspaper, write it on the snow, or lay it out on your plate with your food (mind: this is not considered playing with food, it is hands-on learning).

Take it gradually, quality over quantity matters in this! 50 well recognized words are a lot more valuable than 300 slightly introduced words.

Visit the sight words website: sightwords.com. It is devoted to the method of getting acquainted with the main words. You can find lesson plans, games, card and FAQ.

Our students in Uschool copy the words, search for them in wordsearches, find them amongst similar looking words, and practice using them in sentences.

Uschool’s choice amongst Ipad applications – Maelstrom Interactive series. These programs are both functional and appealing to kids, while not being too overloaded with visual and audio effects.

First, you can start with 2-3 letter Kindergarten Sight Words, move on to the Intermediate Sight Words (you can meet such words as time, help, other) or go over to the Advanced Sight Words (children, together, until).

All programs have free trials with 10 introductory words.