

We want to help you set them up with the best tools for success in the easiest, most enjoyable way possible.

We know how invested you are in your child’s future. The good news? Your child can learn and have fun at the same time while playing these games! But one of the most enjoyable parts of being a parent is cutting up with your child and having a little bit of fun. Parents wear many hats - companion, guidance counselor, teacher, and so on - and all of them are crucial. This is where games come into play! 13 Fun Sight Word Games To Help Your Child Learn One of the best ways to help kids get to this stage of word recognition is to continue exposing them to sight words. In essence, many high-frequency words can become sight words once a learner reads them instantly without trying to decode them. Therefore, they often need to be memorized. On the other hand, though sight words may frequently occur in text, what sets them apart is that they do not fit standard phonetic patterns or the applicable phonetic rules are more advanced.

And some of them follow standard phonetic patterns while others don’t. For example, like, the, it, etc., are all high-frequency words. High-frequency words, as the name suggests, are the most commonly found words in our written language. While the terms sight words and high-frequency words are often used interchangeably, there are some key differences. Are Sight Words Just High-Frequency Words? Here is a list of the 45 sight words we include in our Beginning Reader and Growing Reader pathways:Īnd, a, the, on, is, to, I, was, you, your, yes, no, do, they, with, that, are, said, girl, boy, were, this, look, like, want, has, of, what, see, go, play, here, very, good, his, her, there, where, have, walk, talk, know, blue, green, little. For instance, the pre-primer list includes you, said, and where. Some of the 315 words that comprise the two lists are very easy for kids to learn: a, I, it. The words are broken down by levels: pre-primer, primer, first grade, second grade, and third grade. He identified 220 “service words” and 95 nouns. What Words Should You Use For Sight Word Games?ĭecades ago, an educator named Edward Dolch developed a list, used widely by teachers, of the words most frequently used in children’s books. For your child, the games are lots of fun, so they can learn without even realizing it.īut before we get to these fun activities, let’s be clear on the specific sight words your child will need to be familiar with. And these activities are great for both you and your child.įor you, a majority of the activities require minimal supplies and prep time, which is great for a busy parent. We’ve compiled a list of fun activities that you can do with your young reader to help them learn sight words. But early readers who are learning the rules of the English language need a little help. Our reading of these words happens automatically, and that’s what helps us read fluently.

We also don’t consider why was and has or have and gave don’t rhyme. Why, for instance, doesn’t the word was rhyme with has? Why doesn’t have rhyme with gave? The first of each is phonetically irregular, despite the fact that they’re some of the most common words in the English language.Īs adults who learned to read many years ago, we don’t think twice about why we pronounce sight words the way we do. Sight words are dually helpful in this way: they help your child instantly recognize familiar words and help them bypass trying to sound them out because, phonetically, they often don’t make much sense! And once your child learns basic sight words, they won’t need to spend a lot of time trying to decipher these high-frequency words. These words occur so frequently that readers, including very young readers, need to know them instantly. Sight words aren’t easy to sound out or decode, especially for young readers who are just learning the rules to sound out words, so we memorize them (or, in other words, recognize them by sight). Even the simplest texts would become grueling to read.Ĭommon words in the English language (like the) are often grouped together in the early stages of reading - these are what we mean when we speak about sight words. Imagine pausing every time you ran across this word in a book, on a poster, or in a magazine. What’s the most common word in the English language? It’s the.
