Part of your day in Kindergarten or First Grade should include some kind of daily sight word routine. It doesn't have to be long, or be a whole written out lesson, just something simple and easy to fit in at any point of your day.
When creating our daily schedule, I made sure there was at least 10 minutes for a sight word lesson/activity, PLUS a sight word center during rotations. Every. Single. Day. Hereβs what that the daily sight word routine looked like in my classroom:
My Daily Sight Word Routine:
1. Play a sight word song
There are TONS on YouTube! I encourage my students to sing along, dance, spell the words in the air, etc. These songs are sure to get caught in their head! Music really helps them learn sight words quickly!
Here's a few of my favorite ones:
2. Sight Word Flash Practice
Yup, I do sight word flashcards. DAILY. Donβt throw things at me and say flashcards are boring. This daily repetition is KEY to helping my students learn their sight words. I just hold them up, flip through them, and my whole class says each one. I mix the cards up and add new words every week. Sometimes, we only do half the stack, and other times we do the entire stack (which gets up to 100 words by May!)
3. Introduce sight word of the day
We mainly practice ONE sight word per day and do a little extra activity with it. I show everyone the word of the day, then we say the word, spell it, write it in the air, clap the syllables, etc. Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee is a cute way to practice it daily.
Focusing on one sight word a day and adding in that repetition helps my students learn up to 100 words. We add the word to our sight word pile and practice it every day until the end of the year.
Other ideas to add in some extra daily practice
β’You can have them look for the word all day, encouraging them to find it in the βwildβ aka the classroom. Anytime a student finds the word, we do a quick YAY! as a class and I'll give them a sticker or stamp for finding the word.
β’I put a mini chalkboard by the door with the word and we say it every time we leave the classroom. You can also put the sight word on the door, attach it to your lanyard, on the bathroom door, wherever your students will see it more!
β’Write the sight word on index cards and cut up by letter. Mix it up and put it in a pocket chart. Have students make the word by spelling it correctly. This was my go-to last-minute center activity because it takes about 5 minutes to prep!
β’Use the word in a sentence with a partner. You can do “Turn and Talk” where students turn to a friend and practice using it in a sentence. They can play “teacher” where one student shows the word and the other has to say it. Add in some whiteboards and practice spelling the words together.
β’Have students sit in a circle and practice spelling the word by going around and having each student say one letter at a time.
A sight word routine that is easy and effective
Thatβs it! I constantly refer back to the sight word of the day all day long, whether we are reading a story with the word in it, see it in the hallway, or do a sight word worksheet with the word.
As long as you are consistent and stick to your daily sight word routine, your students will improve their sight word recognition as the year goes on.
Looking for more sight word activities? Check out this post with 10 simple sight word activities!
