First sight words for preschoolers

Examples of Sight Words for Preschool

Do you want your preschool child to become a fluent reader by just looking at words? Yes, kids can learn to read without reading each letter or phenomes. Instead, children can recognize and memorize some words by sight. These words are called sight words. In this article, you will learn what these are, some examples of sight words for preschool children, and how to teach them to your preschooler.

What are sight words?

When children start learning to read and write, they are taught by reading out each sound. However, not all words follow the six types of syllables or spelling rules. These words are called sight words. 

Sight words are composed of “service” words or adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, and verbs. They are hard to decode using phonetics. So children are taught to recognize the letters and memorize them as a whole word by sight quickly, about three seconds, instead of reading every phoneme.

Sight words account for 75% of children’s reading materials. But don’t confuse these words as high-frequency words, as not all high-frequency words are sight words. 

Knowing more sight words makes children read faster since they are not read but rather memorized. 

Examples of Sight Words for Pre-K

You can find many examples of sight words for preschool children in many sources. However, the most popular sources are the Dolch Sight Words list. This list is named after Dr. Edward William Dolch. He first developed his list of sight words after studying the words that mainly occur in children’s books in the 1930s to 1940s. Below you can find 40 examples of sight words for pre k from Dolch list:

a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you

5 Tricks to Teach Sight Words to Preschoolers

Teaching preschoolers to recognize and memorize a sight word can be challenging at first. After all, they don’t know much about letters and phonetics yet. However, these tricks below make learning sight words easier for preschoolers. 

The word I, which only comes with one letter, is the easiest sight word a preschooler will learn. Build up from this word and then move on to sight words with more letters. It’s easier to teach these sight words because only a few letters will complicate the sound of the words. 

Dr. Edward Dolch came up with the idea of listing down sight words after finding out that the majority of words found in children’s books are repetitive. Using your kid’s favorite children’s book will encourage them to learn. You will expose them to many different sight words they can memorize. Since it is their favorite, they might have remembered the words from this book, even without looking at the letters that make up the words. Therefore, they only need to recognize the words instead of learning the sounds.  

Children learn well when they are having fun. For example, you can teach sight words through a game or attractive visual aids such as our language learning flashcards. Here are some games you can try to make learning sight words fun for preschoolers:

This game is not just great for learning sight words but also for sensory play. To do this game:

1. Spread shaving cream onto a tray. 
2. Write a sight word in the saving cream and teach the preschooler this word. 
3. Let the child erase the word with his hands and then spread more shaving cream and write the same word again until he can recognize the word by a glance.

Another fun activity for learning sight words is Sight Word Bingo. To do this:

1. Prepare bingo cards with sight words introduced to preschoolers and a box with the exact sight words written on paper.  
2. Give each child a bingo card and a pen.
3. Take out one sight word from the box and read it out loud. When the children find the same sight word from their bingo card, have them mark it using their pen. When they have covered sight words in a diagonal, vertical, or horizontal row, they should shout Sight Word Bingo.

Reading and language learning can accelerate when preschoolers have lots of sight words in their arsenal. This can help them focus more on comprehending each word instead of how it sounds. 

References:

Dolch Sight Words List | Sight Words: Teach Your Child to Read

What Are Sight Words? Get the Definition Plus Teaching Resources (weareteachers.com)

A New Model for Teaching High-Frequency Words | Reading Rockets

8 Easy Ways to Teach Sight Words to Preschoolers

Learning sight words is a critical skill for kids to learn how to read!

Teaching children how to learn sight words can be a challenge.

Why?

Because it all comes down to memorization. There is not a way to sound out these words. In case you are unfamiliar, sight words are words like that don’t follow the traditional rules of spelling or can’t be sounded out phonetically. Some examples of sight words are who, does, and come.

To give your preschooler a great jump start to reading, I have come up with 8 EASY ways that you can teach your preschooler sight words!

#1. Start With TWO Letter Sight Words

Does anyone have a toddler that says no to absolutely everything?

You’ll be hearing it all over again when you start teaching sight words because the word “no” is one of the easiest ones to recognize!

When you start out teaching a child sight words, it’s important to start small and build up to longer words. Starting with TWO letter words for them to memorize is going to be a lot easier than FOUR letter words.

Here are some two-letter sight words that you can start with: of, to, is, in, it, he, on, as, at, be, or, by, we, an, do, if, up, so, no, go

Once your little one has mastered the two-letter words, you can move onto three or more letter words!

While some of the words on this list can be sounded out and others can not, I think it’s easier to have your child just memorize the words so they can say it at a glance.

I use the above sight word checklist when I am deciding what new words to teach my daughter!

#2. Choose Sight Words In Your Child’s Favorite Books

I have a quiz for you.

How many sight words can you find in this sentence below from the book, Where the Wild Things Are?

“His mother called him “WILD THING!” and Max said “I’LL EAT YOU UP!” so he was sent to bed without eating anything. ”

• (his, him, wild, and, said, eat, you, up, so, he, was, to)

Sight words are referred to as high-frequency words because some of them are the most common words in the English language! 

When you are reading to a child, and they are starting to learn sight words, make sure to point out the words in their favorite books. They will be more interested in learning the sight words if it’s in a context they enjoy! We have a subscription to Highlights Magazine, and my daughter loves pointing out which words she recognizes.

Your kids will feel so proud when they can read a few words in their favorite stories. It will encourage them to want to learn more!

#3. Practice Daily

Just like teaching your kids the alphabet, numbers, and shapes, it takes repetition for them to understand the material!

At least a few minutes of work on sight words each day will help them immensely when it comes to memorizing sight words.

Here is what works best for my daughter:

I write the sight words that we have previously learned on a small dry erase board, which I limit to about 25 max.

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We take some time and review those words plus add one or two new words depending on how well she does during the review.

Check out this short video of how I review the sight words with my daughter!

To ensure that she remembers the sight words we learned, I make sure to include ones that we learned in the past.

Tip#4: Make Reading Fun!

If I just focused on the above activity over and over again, I think I would struggle badly getting my kids to learn how to read.

It’s essential to come up with EXCITING ways to teach your kids how to read!

Here are FOUR ways to make learning sight words engaging!

Shaving cream is such an amazing sensory activity! Your kids will be so excited to use shaving cream for a learning activity, it won’t even feel like they are learning!

I use men’s foaming shaving cream because I think it works the best! But other types can be used as well.

How to do this activity:

1. Spray foam shaving cream on an art tray.

2. Spread it out so the shaving cream is all over the tray!

3. Write a sight word that you are working on in the shaving cream and ask your child if they know what it is.

4. Repeat this process over and over again! Let your child erase the words so they get a chance to play in the shaving cream!

Activity #2. Do-A-Dot Painting Activity

Do-A-Dot painters are one of my MUST-HAVE supplies to have on hand at your house.

They are so much fun to play with and they are pretty much MESS FREE! Can’t beat that right?

Do-A-Dot markers can be used for so many fun and learning activities. This specific activity was great because it worked recognizing a specific sight word while getting to paint!

GRAB YOUR FREE Pre-K Sight Word Do-A-Dot WORKSHEETS HERE!

(Each grade level coming soon!)

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Want to check out my other MUST-HAVE Supplies? Take a look at my list HERE!

My new thing is trying to turn games into a learning activity!

My kids love to play board games, so why not add a little bit of learning into the mix while getting to play?

How to do this activity:

1. Materials you need- Don’t Break the Ice Game, dot stickers, and a marker.

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2. On white dot stickers, write some sight words that you are working on with your little one. I wrote one that my daughter already knew so she could play the game and be successful!

3. Explain to your kids that they have to tap lightly on the ice with the hammer instead of trying to hit it as hard as they can because a lot falls at once that way. Tell them they can play the regular way after you practice the sight words. 🙂

4. Ask them to find a specific word and tap on it with the hammer or they can tap on a word of their choice and tell you what it says!

5. After they say or find all the words, then you can play the normal way!

My daughter loves to color, so I created this Popsicle themed Color by Sight Word Worksheet for her to do.

Here are some excellent workbooks available on Amazon that have activities ready to go!

• 100 Write and Learn Sight Word Practice Pages

• Wipe Clean: Learning Sight Words

• The Best Sight Word Book Ever!

Don’t want to buy an entire workbook? I am constantly working on new FREE resources to make available for you.

Click here to grab your FREE Popsicle Color by Sight Word WORKSHEET!

Also, take a look at the other FREE RESOURCES that I have while you are there!

#5. Build Sentences with Sight Words

Building sentences using sight words is a GREAT way to show your child how the specific word is used in real life.

You can do this by verbally saying sentences or you can also do it in an interactive way.

We have a bunch of Thomas the Train, train tracks at home, so I thought it would be fun to work on sentence building with sight words with them!

How to do this activity:

1. Materials you need- Thomas the Train tracks, labels, and a marker.

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2. On labels, write some sight words that make sense in a sentence that you kids know or you want them to learn!

3. Spread them all apart so they have to work on building the sentence so it makes sense. They will have to read each word then create the sentence!

#6. Add A New Word Each Day

Once your child can recognize words, you can start introducing at least one new sight word each day. In the beginning, you want to start slow.

Since sight words are based on memorization, that’s why learning one word a day is perfect for this age level.

While you should introduce one new word a day, remember to review past sight words that you practiced with them before. It’s crucial to go over these sight words so they won’t forget them.

Remember they are still preschoolers, repetition is key! 

#7.

You never want to rush the learning process.

Forcing preschoolers to sit and complete work when they are not ready may cause the child to think negatively about learning.

Don’t get frustrated if they don’t catch on right away or if it takes them a few days to master a word. It will happen with time, and they will feel successful if you encourage them!

There are times that my daughter can just not grasp on to a word.

For example, she had trouble memorizing the word “find.” I asked her every day for TWO weeks about this word, and she still wasn’t getting it. I decided I was going to take a break and come back to it later. I introduced the word to her again after about a month, and now she has no problem with it!

As parents, we have to be patient with our children while they are learning.

We are supposed to be their biggest cheerleaders! Tell your child how proud you are when they learn a new word. They will feel your excitement and, in return, be more excited to keep on learning new material!

#8. Join An Online Learning Program

One great website that works on early reading skills is Kickstart Reading.

Kickstart Reading– This is such a fantastic reading program! I also have a promo code that you can use to get some money off of your subscription! You will receive a FOREVER plan for $39.00(normally $57.00). This is a program that focuses solely on reading, which I think is better than anything else out there. Your little ones will learn about phonetics, sight words, vowel sounds, digraphs and MORE!

PROMO CODE: ABCDEE

Here is a short demonstration of just one of the segments included on Kickstart Reading. This is my 5-year-old daughter working on word blends.

Deciding when to start your preschooler’s journey into reading is a fun but challenging adventure!

It’s important to start slow, begin with two letter sight words, and stay positive with them! Try to mix up the activities that you do with them to learn sight words to keep them engaged and excited to learn!

I would love to help you on your journey to teaching your preschooler sight words. Whether you need some creative ideas or you need more helpful suggestions, please leave a comment below.

If you have any great ideas that you would like to share as well on what helped you teach sight words to a preschooler, please share them with us!

Competition program "Love at first sight"

Scenario of a disco dedicated to

St. Valentine's Day.

Conducted by: teacher Grigorieva L.S.

Inspired by a high feeling

Once upon a time,
Someone came up with the day of lovers,

Without knowing at all then,
That this day will become a favorite, A welcome holiday of the year.
That Valentine's Day He will be called with reverence.
Smiles and flowers everywhere, Confessions of love again and again,
So let a miracle happen for everyone -

Let only love rule the world!

Moderator: Good evening!

Presenter: Hello!

Presenter: We dedicate this evening to the eternal theme - love!

Presenter: And we have a wonderful reason for this. It's Valentine's Day!

Host: In America and Europe, this holiday has long been celebrated on February 14th. And the origin of the holiday is associated with a romantic story:

Presenter: In the 3rd century AD, the priest Valentin lived in the Roman city of Ternia. Emperor Claudius commanded the troops of the legionnaires. To preserve the military spirit, Emperor Claudius issued a decree forbidding legionnaires to marry.

Narrator: The young priest Valentine, not afraid of the imperial wrath, continued to secretly marry legionnaires in love.

Presenter: Having learned about "illegal marriages", the emperor ordered the priest to be imprisoned and then executed.

Narrator: In prison, Valentine fell in love with the jailer's blind daughter and healed her. On the night before the execution, he sent the girl a farewell note filled with love and tenderness with the brief phrase "from Valentine." Hence - and postcards "valentines"; and the holiday itself - February 14 - the date of the execution of the priest, who was not forgotten and was chosen as the patron of all lovers.
Presenter: St. Valentine keeps from troubles those who are close friends and loves, helps all those in love.

Host: On this day, girls are allowed to confess their love, and boys receive gifts and, depending on their quality and quantity, learn how they are treated.

Presenter: Of course, love is different: we love our parents, best friend, teacher, pop singer. We fall in love and want to know - what is love? After all, today is Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day. A holiday that is widely celebrated all over the world. Valentine's Day - a joke or a tradition, someone else's custom or a clumsy fiction - what difference does it make if hope smolders in the soul with a timid flame.

Moderator: And I think that on this day you can:

- confess your love,

- find a loved one or beloved,

- save what can still be saved, even if it seems impossible.

And the impossible is wonderful! Lovers work wonders. If they give roses, then a million. If they declare their love, then in meter letters. If they celebrate, they celebrate with the whole planet. And today we - a part of this planet - say: "Welcome!" holiday of lovers.

4 boys and 4 girls are invited.

As you know, in unforeseen situations a man always comes to the aid of a woman. Suppose that our participants have untied their scarf. But this is fixable. We invite our participants to tie a scarf around the neck of their girlfriend with one hand.

Disco………

Presenter: Again 4 boys and 4 girls are invited to the stage.

Everyone knows that Valentine's Day is a day for two, even the birds on this day pair up in the air... We invite the participants to complete the following task. To do this, each pair needs to choose a card with the name of a bird. (Choose).

First. You need to remember how this or that bird screams.

Second. Blindfolded, find your mate by shouting. Who quickly?

Suggested cards with the name of birds:

Rooster: koo-ka-re-ku!

Chicken: co-co-co!

Sparrow: chirp chirp!

Crow: kar-kar!

Goose: ha-ha!

Duck: quack quack!

Disco……..

Moderator: I invite 3 boys and 3 girls.

Compliment Contest

A task for both girls and boys. In turn (first the boys, then the girls) compliment each other, 5 seconds are given for reflection.

Disco……..

How many dances there are in the world!
Only know how to choose them!
There are also new items in mind.
So let's dance!
Host: 5 boys and 5 girls are invited to the dance floor.

Competition "Dance Floor"

Couples dance without leaving the newspaper spread on the floor. At the leader's signal, the newspaper is folded in half, and the dance continues. The music changes all the time. If any of the partners left the newspaper, the couple is eliminated from the competition.

Disco……..

Presenter: We invite music lovers to the stage, preferably boys and girls of senior classes.

Find your soulmate game

Presenter:

Holiday of love! How sublime and wonderful! On this day, no madness is forbidden. You can sing a serenade under the balcony of your beloved, you can slip an envelope with a confession under the door, you can finally stick kissing doves on the same door. And it’s better to confess to a person dear to you - be it a mother, sister, girlfriend, beloved - in your feelings, which I propose to demonstrate to our participants. You need to confess your feelings to each other with the lines of songs performed by our favorite pop stars.

For example:

confession of a young man:

"Girl-girl, black eyes,

I love you, girl, very much."

(Ivanushki International)

Girl's confession:

“I've been waiting for you, I've been waiting for you!

You were my crystal dream.

(Irina Allegrova)

Disco……..

Host.

We can congratulate each other on St. Valentine's Day. On the count of one, two, three, we shout three times, in unison, “Congratulations !!!”

Moderator: 3 boys and 3 girls are invited to this competition.

COMPETITION "Understand me without words"

HOST: Guys, imagine that your girlfriend is on the other side of the street, you saw her and want to invite her somewhere. And since she does not hear you, use non-verbal means of communication - glances, facial expressions and gestures. Girls should understand your invitation in 30s.

(children are alternately offered cards with the task: invite a girl to ride a boat on the river, go to the mountains and go skiing, go figure skating, go to boxing, dance lambada together, etc.)

Moderator: Thank you for the well-demonstrated movements.

Disco……..

Moderator: And another competition. We invite 2 boys and 2 girls to the stage

Competition "In the language of ballet". Here you confessed your love with songs, but you can also convey your thoughts and feelings with movements. We invite the young men to come up with and show, using the expressive means of ballet, the dance composition “Declaration of Love”, which would include not only shifting from foot to foot, but also jumps, dance steps, kneeling, in general, who is capable of what. The more original you do it, the faster you will conquer the lady of the heart.

Holding a contest

Moderator: We hope that with our advice we have helped you find the strength and the opportunity to confess your feelings to your beloved. And now we give everyone in this hall a dance Disco……..

Moderator: Let's play a little again and invite 2 boys and 2 girls.

COMPETITION "Ladies handbag".
And our rules are as follows:
We give each of you a sheet of paper, you sign and write 5 items that you think are in your purse.
The competition is evaluated by the number of correct answers. You have 1 minute to think.
(We give out paper and pencils)

HOST: Well, the guys did their job, please give the sheets to our jury

Disco….

Competition "Six clothespins"

Three clothespins are attached to the clothes of a boy and a girl. Their task is to find and remove them from each other's clothes during a slow blindfold dance. Host: Friends, our whole game was dedicated to the holiday of St. Valentine. Host: So our festive evening ended. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And parting with you, I say: I would like to end our evening with these words:0005

I want to proclaim love as a country,
So that everyone lives there in peace and warmth,
So that its hymn begins with the line:
"Love is above everything on earth!"
May love be the great sky for you,
Living water, daily bread,
Call of spring, warm wind,
All the best, the brightest!

Music. The disco continues!

Learn at a glance: Chelyabinsk children revealed the secret of phenomenal memory | 74.ru

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Sofia Vlasova (first from the left) conquered Maxim Galkin with her phenomenal memory

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Participant of the show “Best of all!” Sofia Vlasova from Chelyabinsk showed new possibilities of memory. In the editorial office of 74.ru, an eight-year-old girl memorized one hundred words with their serial numbers. For the test, we invited schoolchildren of different ages to find out if there are limits to human memory.

Recall that on Channel One Sofia fought with Maxim Galkin in oral dictation. The TV presenter and the child had to take turns saying how one or another compound word is spelled. In the first round with the word "misanthropy" Galkin won. But in the next "Eyyafyatlayokudl" (volcano in Iceland. - Note ed. ) he made three mistakes, unlike the young Chelyabinsk girl, who correctly named the word.

74.ru suggested a more difficult test. The heroine of the show, her peer Elizaveta, 13-year-old twins Ilya and Maria, and seventh-grader Tatyana dared to take part in it. Sophia's mentor, the teacher of the Alternativa Kopeysk school, Lyudmila Aksyonova, also decided to experiment.

Until the game started, the children had a warm-up with the periodic table. They called each other numbers, and the respondent had to say the element and its atomic mass. It’s not for you to learn “At the seaside, a green oak tree” by heart.

We offered the guests to memorize one hundred words and their serial numbers in 20 minutes. But from the bored looks, it became clear that the participants in the experiment took less time to complete the task.

– Sophia, name the word under the number 47.

– Barak, – the schoolgirl answers without hesitation.

- Elizabeth, what was under the number 50?

– I don't remember, – the participant admitted honestly. But I can remember later.

We randomly assigned seven digits to each. The best result was shown by Ilya Samoilov and teacher Lyudmila Aksyonova. The rest made from one to three mistakes.

According to Lyudmila Aksyonova, “spy” techniques help train memory:

– Memory can be developed endlessly. To do this, there are many techniques invented, including for scouts. One of them is the creation of an associative series with numbers and words, which the children demonstrated today. All this allows you to easily and quickly memorize large amounts of information, - says the teacher.

In order to surprise your friends with the knowledge of one hundred decimal places in Pi, it is enough to practice a couple of times a week. The result will appear after a year of constant training.

Memory schools are incredibly popular these days. Lessons are liked by both adults and children, because they do not need to be crammed. All that is required from students is attentiveness and a rich imagination.

The mother of Tatiana Korobkova, a student of the School of Speed ​​Reading and Memory Development, saw progress in her daughter's studies after just a few lessons.

– She began to spend less time on homework, because a lot of things are remembered right away in the lesson. The study of a foreign language has gone better, - the mother of the schoolgirl notes.

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