First 120 Sight Words With Sentences
We want our kids to become fluent readers. We start with blending, CVC words, and other phonic principals or rules. There is one more important skill that we cannot miss is reading with sight words. Sight words for kindergartens are very important.
Did you observe while reading/writing any English passage words like – is, the, and, he, she, it, was, to …. appear in almost every sentence. These words are called sight words or high frequency words. We should encourage kids to learn these words by sight. While reading kids should recognize sight words instantly instead of sounding them.
Few Sight words like it, him, not, can are easier to sound out as they follow phonic rules. Most of the sight words do not follow phonic rules. Thus they cannot be sounded out because they don’t sound like they are spelled. Sight words like you, was, are – have different sounds which does not fit well with phonic rules. And if read with phonics they might sound yao, wass, air.
Sight words account up to 75% of the words used in beginning children’s books.
She is going to Zoo.
In the above sentence, the words like she, is, to – are sight words. So don’t use phonic sounds or phonic rules. Just recognise them by sight (pronunciation) and read. Do not decode them. Rest of the words in the sentence can be read using phonics.
This way you will take less time to read and you become a fluent reader. Similar is the case with kids.
Kids are taught common sight words from kindergarten. As we all know there will more of reading /writing from grade 1. There are like 100 sight words that kids should learn by grade 1. This will help them to boost their confidence just because they know most of the 2 letter 3letter or 4 letter words that they see in a sentence. They just need to decode the other bigger words using phonic rules.
Download first 120 sight words and worksheets for sight words for free that you can teach in kindergarten.
Now that we understood what are sight words let’s see some of benefits of Sight words:
Beginner reader will save time:
In the beginning when kids start reading they will try to decode each and every word in the sentence. This will usually take more time. By Knowing sight words kids can read faster, can be fluent.
Promotes Confidence:
Imagine you already know about 50 – 60% words in a passage. How confident you will feel about reading? Similarly for beginner readers knowing sight words boosts their confidence.
Helps in understanding the context:
While reading if we try and decode each and every word in a sentence, we will focus on reading only word by word without understanding what that meant. Instead if they are familiar with sight words they can focus on other words in the sentence. This will help them to understand the sentence they are reading.
Every grade have different sight word level. Sight words that your kid has learned in kindergarten will help in grade 1 and he can learn few more in grade 1 which will help him in further reading. Every year kids at school are expected to recognize more and more words by sight. Sight words help children in building fluency and foundation for reading comprehension.
