In simple words, sight words are commonly-used words that kids are encouraged to memorize by sight. Kids can recognize those words instantly in a text without taking much time to speak them out. For your kid, learning sight words is very crucial because it is used at the beginning of your kids’ printed material. For each grade level, there are different sight words. So, kids should remember the sight words they will learn at the Kindergarten level, as they will be expected to recognize those words when kids learn new words in first grade, and so forth. For kids, learning and reading can be a tricky business as it includes multiple strategies and skills that need to be put together to become fluent readers. So, sight words are considered as the first helping stage in a young child’s life.
When kids start their schooling, they are expected to quickly recognize the common sight words. Some common sight words that appear frequently are words like the, which at a certain point kids no longer need to sound out these words. Kids can recognize these words by sight. Mastering a sight word means kids can recognize those words automatically. As many kids will learn sight words they will become faster and fluent readers. Some schools address these sight words as high-frequency words because they appear so frequently. Some other terms used for sight words are popcorn words, star words, core words, etc.
As kids are promoted to higher classes they are expected to know more and more sight words. While making them teach sight words, teachers use lists coded with colour to show which sight words can be spelled out. The green colour is used for words that follow spelling rules and the red colour is used for tricky words. Most of the schools have their individual rules about which sight words kids should learn in each grade level. Schools also take the responsibility to make kids understand what are sight words and why they should master these words.
In this article, we have discussed a few benefits of learning sight words for kids.
Benefits of Learning Sight Words
- Learning Sight Words Boost Students Confidence – We all know that the first 100 sight words represent over 50% of English text. So, mastering these first 100 words will help kids to identify at least half of a sentence. When your kid starts reading a book they can recognize the sight words they already know. It will help them to be more confident to read the book rather than feeling discouraged.
- Promotes Reading Comprehension – For the very first time, when your kid will open her book, instead of focusing on decoding the meaning of the words, they can shift their attention to focus on those words they are not familiar with. Kids will know most of the words included in the textbook so focusing on the other unknown words will strengthen their understanding of the text.
- Sight words provide clues – Kids who are well-versed with the sight words will be able to interpret the context of the sentence or paragraph by studying the sight words. If the text is accompanied by any picture then your kid will be able to understand what the story is all about and get to know a few new words.
Make your kids learn sight words by playing activities like games, hands-on manipulatives, centres which will help them master skills without having knowledge that they are learning. Parents and teachers should make sure that sight word learning becomes a regular practise.
Sight Word Games
In the process of kids learning sight words plays an important role. Kids can master sight words by playing the below-mentioned games.
- Flashcards: You can prepare or print flashcards with a list of sight words, or you can buy a set of flashcards available for a different age group.
- Bingo: Make your own bingo sight word cards and play with them. By playing, kids will become familiar with the words and give them reward when they correctly recognize them.
- Hangman: Sight words hangman is an easy game to enjoy with one or more students.
