BeBe starts Kindergarten this month, and she will officially learn to read this year! To become an independent reader, she will need to learn some common words.

Those words include:

  • Sight Words – these words have irregular spelling and are difficult to sound out. They occur often in reading material, for example, the word “on.”
  • High-Frequency Words – these words overlap with sight word lists because they frequently appear in reading material. However, these words can be sounded out, for example, the word “are.”
  • Word Families – these are rhyming words kids can learn to sound out, for example, “bat,” “cat,” “sat,” and “mat.”

Here are our 10 favorite activities for learning common words:

1) Read chapter books – We started with Charlotte’s Web and she loved the talking animals. Because chapter books have fewer illustrations, she focused more on the text. Without me prompting, she started identifying high-frequency words like, “at” and “up.” She also recognized the word pig, because it is repeated throughout the text. From there we talked about the word family ending with the letters “ig.” We made a list: “pig,” wig,” and “twig.”

2) Practice writing – Sometimes she makes up stories and we write them together. We also had fun writing in playdough with a chopstick.

Play-Dough-Sight-Word-Writing

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3) Read Bob Books – These books are designed to help kids learn to sound out words and learn word families.

4) Spell words on an easel with a magnet board – This is great for word families. We have an easel that has a magnet side and I stick the letters “ug” on the board. Then she has fun putting different letters on the front to make a word “bug,” “rug,” and “tug.”

easel

5) Word Family Spinners and Flip Books – You can make one together or buy one. Using one of these has helped her understand the spelling of words and how rhyming works.

spin a word

6) Flash Cards (Mix Up) – We take a few cards from the deck, mix them up, and place them on the table. Then we see what funny sentences we can make with the words we picked.

7) Label the house – We walked around the house and put up little signs for “door,” “bed,” “out,” and “in.”

8) Card Games – Go Fish and Bingo can be adapted for learning sight words. This is a great one to pull out on a rainy day, or when the kiddos are getting wild and I need to bring the energy level down.

9) Word Search – Activity books have these included, and sometimes I just make one on the back of a kids’ menu at a restaurant. Usually, we learn a few words at a time.

10) Sight Word Apps – Our favorite sight word app is Endless Reader. However, there are plenty of free sight words apps available too.

What activities helped your little one learn how to read?