Introducing Sight Words

This is our first week teaching a sight word and we are starting with the word "I".  We first introduce the word by singing our sight word song and then students get to wear their Sight Word Necklace home.  This communicates to the parents what our sight word is and it serves as a flashcard to practice spelling the word at home.  Then, we build sentences in the pocket chart and we do our Sight Word Writing Worksheet.  We do this worksheet guided using the overhead.  When we are done with the front side we then turn it over and practice writing sentences using the word.  (For example:  I run.  I jump.  I skip.)  The students are practicing to spell the sight word correctly but we use phonetic spelling for all of the other words in the sentence.  Toward the end of the week we make our Sight Word Book.  We do this using the overhead as well.  Students practice writing the word of the week on each page.  When we are done with the writing we read the book together as a class and then students buddy read it.  The text is predictable and students have a book they can read to take home and keep in their library. 

We also work on our sight word during small group instruction.  When students are in guided reading groups they are practicing to read a book that has our word of the week in it.  To make this easy for us, we have organized all of our guided reading books by sight words.  Within each sight word we have different level books to accomodate all of our groups.  This week our groups are reading Swing and I Want Ice Cream by Joy Cowley.  After we read these books we write sentences in our journals that start with 'I".  We continue this routine throughout the school year introducing one new word per week.  With all of these fun activities students are successful at mastering their sight words.