How do you teach your students to write sight words? I usually spend the first half of the Kindergarten school year concentrating on the reading of sight words. Of course, I expose the children to strategies for spelling 'tricky' words... but it is not until the remaining half of the year that I teach explicitly, how to spell sight words.
I have tried many different activities - especially multi-sensory fun things like finger painting, writing in sand, rainbow writing and making words with blocks and magnetic letters. We do all of these activities from the beginning of the year with cvc words and other phonetically regular words.
When it is time for sight words, you can't go much further than the old Look, Cover, Write, Check method - and as my blog post title suggests, I am often fumbling around trying to remember what it is called. At least I always remember that there is both the acts of covering up and trying to remember the letters... in order.
Because, lets face it.. when you peel all the fancy, pansy, fun and fantastic games and activities away, in the end, it is the visual memory of the word we are trying to get children to create. I love trying to keep my sight word activities fancy and fun at the beginning of the week, but by Friday, we are looking at a black word on a white page, with no much else! That IS where we are headed after all isn't is?!
So, I am often found, rummaging around in my perfectly ordered, filled to capacity filing cabinets, looking for that master of the 'Look,Check,Write,Look,Thingy' that I used last year... and then end up giving the children scraps of paper and get them to 'cover' with their hand...
So, in a flurry of enthusiasm, I put together a little packet of 'Read Cover Write' worksheets that feature 100 of the most commonly used sight words. There are 5 words on each page.
You start by copying 2 pages, back to back. The worksheet, and a 'peek-preventer' page that goes on the back (this way, you can't see the words through the page) - there are little smiley faces, and words that say 'no peeking'. This page is optional, but it works great and I highly recommend it.
Then fold over the edge along the dotted 'fold' line....see the 'no peeking' pattern on the back :)
Fold back and cut along the dotted lines to create flaps....
Fold all the flaps over to conceal the words...(after reading them of course)...
Open one word at a time, read it again, cover it up, then WRITE it - using your wonderful visual memory!
To make this a longer and more challenging activity, you can copy some additional writing pages to make a little pad to staple on the worksheet.
Staple the pad over the lines on the worksheet, and ask your students to write their list of words 3 or 4 times for practise. The staples go down the bottom of the page.
Too easy - now you can be all set for teaching the spelling of sight words! We have included a bonus blank page so that you can use the same format for any list of words you would like your students to learn!