kindergarten sight word help

Lexi & Orion's Mommy

i was wondering if any of you might have some ideas for my friend. She  has a 5/6 year old little boy who loves to dance. He is excelling everywhere in school aside from learning his Sight words.

Anyone got an cool ideas to incorporate dance and sight word learning?

Wahoo

Maybe making up a song to dance to with each new set?

Honestly, sight words are not that big a deal.  All kids learn to read!  DS didn't want to learn sight words (he actually did not have problems with the words, but in being "tested" by the TA) and the teacher said it was ok.  I think he got through three sets in a year.

neverblushed

I think learning sight words by looking at them on a flashcard is really hard.  It basically requires kids to memorize them by shape and letter combination.  

When I was teaching my kids to read, one thing I did was read easy books aloud.  I would read really slowly, pointing to each word as I read it.  When I reached a sight word I would pause with my finger under it and allow my kid to fill in the word.  We would talk about strategies for guessing the word.  That way they have the context of the sentence AND the appearance of the word to help.  To me, this just seems to be a much more natural way to learn sight words than just using flashcards, which was the recommended method by both my kids' kindergarten teachers.

If your friend's son is into dance, maybe he can do something like the Freeze Dance, only when he stops, his mom calls out a sight word and holds up the card.  He has to make his body into the shape of the word or the first letter.  

Probably, though, he'll reach a point where it "clicks" for him and the sight words become no problem.   

4Speedy

I would print one sight word per page and lay them out on the floor.  Then play a game where he has to dance over and stand on the sheet of paper with the word someone calls out.

KdgTeacher

Put music on and he has to dance around the house/room to find sight words.  When he finds it call it out and run it over to the stero/CD player etc.

Not music related, but he could also go on a word hunt.  Pull old magazines/newspapers and let him search for his sight words.  He can either circle them, point to them, or cut them out and glue them onto another sheet of paper.

Angela814

We were told the best way to learn sight words is to have DC help point them out in books as you're reading.

CubbyMama

In the Ideas on Teaching blog in my sig, there's a section on sight words with links to lots of ideas that are more interactive/physical than flash cards.  There are also links to printable "emergent readers" with simple sentences that use sight words.  He can "read" them by pointing to each word and memorizing at first, but by doing that, he'll start to recognize those words for real.  GL!

MyaMaternity

Sight words are not hard, just a lot of repetition.  Keep working at it and it will come.  The earlier you start with reading the better.

sueforizzle

I used colorful flash cards and took the time to make the words bold and pretty so they were of interest to my Daughter when she was 5. It helps if you say each letter and then sound it out and say the word, once you have completed the word list go over them again and have him/her say them. Come test time not only will she/he know how what the word is, but know the sounds of each letter, making it easier to sound it out. My daughter knew how to spell the sight words, and what they meant and how to properly use them in a sentence by month 3 of kindergarten no thanks to the teacher. lol. I don't understand the memorizing words technique  they use now. Also rewards are of great motivation! lol

jeffscutewife

There is a set of books that my daughter's K teacher recommended. They are called "Bob" books and there's one in particular that is for sight words. You can order them on Amazon, but, I'm sure they are available other places.

xnbride

I think learning site words is learning the phonetic (sp) sound of each letter. So that the child can put together the sounds to form the words. First, if he doesn't know his alphabet and the sound that each letter makes then that would be my first priority then worry about site words next.

Well my son is not a big dancer but he loves games and competition so we do super soak the alphabet/site words (use a water gun to spray the letters/words on the wall), site word bingo (there are tons of templates online that you can print), flash cards actually work well with my son (I got some at the dollar tree), hop scotch letters/words (instead of numbers),  letter/word relay (use your flash cards and lay them out and ask for a specific word and have DS find it and run as fast as he can to put it in your bowl/hat etc).