Letters and Sight Words

Today I assessed students on their sight words. You should see a note in your child's backpack pertaining to this. So far, I have introduced 25 words from the paper books that go home each week. Students should point to words as they read, both in the paper books, and the books you choose to read at home. The sight words introduced so far are: a, an, and, are, big, do, down, go, has, have, he here, I, is, in, it, no, see, she, small, the, this, up, we, who. These are words students should know, or should be getting to know. They will be expected to know at least 26 words by the 2nd trimester report card. I'd hope they know at least 15 words by now so they are on track for that future goal.

Kindergarteners were expected to know all their upper- and lowercase letters by the time of October's conferences. I recently reassessed those students who had not met this benchmark. You'll see the results on the back of the note sent home today. If your child does not know all of his/her letters, please continue to work on them at home. Not knowing the letters makes learning sounds and sight words, as well as writing in journals, a struggle.

Besides reading, other ways to practice sight words and letters are with flashcards or a game (Bingo, Memory, Go Fish.) Some children are tactile learners; perhaps make the words (or letters) out of puffy paint, foam, or sand paper and have your child trace them with his/ her finger.