Learning to Read Using Sight Words

By Kidglue Team on October 23rd, 2008

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Most kids begin to learn to read in Kindergarten between the ages of 5 or 6.  Through the years, the art of teaching reading has advanced from simply reading “I See Sam” books over and over to more targeted approaches.  One of the main strategies in teaching reading involves memorizing “sight words”.

“Sight words” are the most commonly used words in the English language, and while there are only about 200 of them, they make up 50 to 70 percent of any given text.  They are pronouns, conjunctions, adverbs, adjectives and prepositions that cannot be learned through the use of pictures.

Learning sight words involves a small metal ring and index cards, the goal is for a child to immediately recognize the word, without having to sound it out.  Focusing on 1 or 2 words at a time, the teacher or parent writes a sight word on an index card.  The next few days is dedicated to having the child learn that word.  The child may write it on a paper 20 times, spell it out with spaghetti noodles, squirt the word in whipped cream, make it with bubbles in the bath and generally look for it anywhere and everywhere for a few days.  Once the child can look at the word, and immediately recognize it, the word gets hole punched and put on their ring.  Children love the thrill of watching their ring fill up with all of the words they’ve learned.  It’s a fun, quick and easy way to learn to read.  For a list of sight words, visit Quiz Tree.