2P Class News
Helping your child with reading.
Sight Words and High Frequency Words
Sight words are those words which must be recognised on sight, as they cannot be sounded out. High frequency words are those which occur most often in the texts we read.
Dolch’s sight words make up 50 to 75% of the words in any children’s text; therefore, knowing these words instantly gives young readers a huge advantage when attempting to read new stories.
I will provide a list of the words your child should be focusing on each week, as part of their spelling homework. Listed below is a number of fun, practical activities to help support your child as they learn these important words.
Activities
Memory Match
Using two sets of your child's sight words, play a fun game of memory.
- Mix up the cards.
- Lay them in rows, face down.
- Turn over any two cards.
- If the two cards match, keep them.
- If they don't match, turn them back over.
- Remember what was on each card and where it was.
- Watch and remember during the other player's turn.
- The game is over when all the cards have been matched.
- The player with the most matches wins.
Remember to encourage your child to say the word as they turn each card.
Sight Word Tic Tac Toe/ Noughts and Crosses
- Prior to playing tic-tac-toe, review each sight word.
- The game is played just like tic-tac-toe but the child must say the sight word prior to selecting a box.
- The youngest player goes first and selects a box using the sight word they are practising.
- Alternate selecting boxes until a player gets three in a row (wins the game) or the grid is completely filled in but no one won the game.
Sight Word Spotlight
- Have your child record their sight words on a paper plate, or on a large card and Blutack to the wall.
- Read a book together.
- As your child spots their sight word in the book ask them to shine their spotlight (torch) on that word.
Sight Word Hopscotch
What You Need:
Chalk
a small rock
Instructions
1. Using chalk make a hopscotch board.
2. In each square write target sight words.
3. Your child should throw the rock onto the hopscotch board. Whichever word the rock lands in is the word to be read.
4. Repeat until all words have been read at least once.