Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Sight Words in Kindergarten [and a giveaway!]

How do you teach sight words? What sight words do you use?
I use the sight words from our reading series, Journeys. 
(You can find that list on Ms. Kerri's blog for free HERE)
I introduce the words on Mondays and we add them to an ongoing  list we have on our white board. These words we read daily during our calendar time. We also add the words to our word wall. But, this year, I found an amazing way for children to practice reading AND spelling their sight words. All year, I have been using Maria's Interactive Sight Word Books. Her bundle of books has included all of the Journeys sight words thus far.
When I first introduced these books in August, I had children complete them with me during reading groups. However, they quickly became pros at completing them on their own and now they are in their word work center each week.
First, my students color in the featured sight word on the cover. This really helps them pay attention to the spelling of the sight words. 
Then, the inside of the book contains predictable sentences using the featured sight word, which in this book is 'my'. Students have to cut out the letters provided in the pack, unscramble them, and paste the letters into the boxes on each page. 
When my students are finished making their book they read it over a couple of times. Then, they add it to their book bin.  Each student has their own book bin and they are FULL of Maria's sight word books.
All of my children feel so successful during daily 5. They absolutely love pulling out their book bins and sitting down to practice reading! I will even catch them reading their books to a stuffed animal, which I love to see!!  

Before Winter break I emptied all of the students' book bins, put their books in a zip-lock bag, attached a letter informing parents to continue practicing their sight words at home, and allowed the students to take their books homes. A couple hours after school was over, I received a few emails from parents who also fell in LOVE with these books! I am telling you...they are great! Not only do students feel successful, but they are reading AND spelling their sight words! Ah!!

Well, guess what?? I messaged Maria the other day to thank her for these AMAZING books and she was kind enough to donate one of her bundles for a giveaway!! You have the chance to receive Maria's Bundle of Books (part 1) for FREE!! That is a $50 value! (I am jealous!) All you need to do is enter below and I will choose a winner on Friday! Good luck!
Maria also just released a brand new pack last night, which you have to buy NOW!!! The new bundle is priced at $16 for 32 books--that is only 50 cents a book. And here is the thing--Maria will continuously add to this bundle. As she adds to the bundle, the price increases. BUT if you already purchased the bundle, you can download it again for FREE!!! So basically you will be saving TONS of money by purchasing it now! Yay...you can probably tell how excited I am by reading this haha! I love these books!!

123 comments:

  1. I love to teach sight words using Heidi Songs and other fun sayings we come up with! When the kids are writing, I hear them singing the songs or sayings to themselves. I LOVE it!!!

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  2. I love teaching sight words with fun chants/songs. I've also recently become a fan of the 'one breath boxes' because kids enjoy building their sight word fluency by challenging themselves on new lists. This looks like a great way to help kids master those common words in a meaningful way. Fingers crossed!

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  3. I love using the Have Fun Teaching videos to practice sight words. The kids LOVE to sing along with the songs and it's hilarious to watch! :)

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  4. My kinder-bears love finding new words on our board each week. We talk about our words during our calendar time, by holding up flashcards. We sing the Old MacDonald song with the new sight words added in the verses. They get so excited to see their words highlighted in our Journeys story and seek out their words on all written text, especially in their math books. We do a popcorn board on the outside of our door. They've made it a game to see if they can find the new words hidden in the growing pile of popcorn.

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  5. I am not "officially" a teacher yet...but I start my student teaching in one month!!! I have observed sight words being taught integrated with other subject. I hope that I will learn many different ways to teach sight words in my placement!!

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  6. I love teaching sight words this was too! As well as rainbow coloring the word!!

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  7. Honestly....my favorite way to teach sight words is to leave it up to the parents to help master their sight words. I use our Star Punch Card Unit. The kiddos LOVE it sooo much that they are motivated to move along as fast as they can...which helps bring their reading levels up! We blogged about it on our blog Kindergarten Rocks. Check it out! Ambe

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  8. I use all kinds of different methods to teach sight words, from rainbow writing to roll a word and more. I don't have any sight word books so these would be a great addition! Thanks for the giveaway!

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  9. Flashcards are still an oldie but goodie, and I like using the little mini readers from hubbards cupboard!

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  10. I love teaching sight words with Maria's books!! They are always such a hit with my kids! :)

    Breanne
    breannesimons@gmail.com

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  11. I use poems to teach sightwords, and we send flashcards home. The parents love the ideas that I gave them for students to practice sight words- make words out of spaghetti noodles, flashlight game, hide the sight words.

    Unfortunately, our district has 64 sight words in Kindergarten, and we don't have that much time to practice previously learned sight words besides in centers.

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  12. This looks like a great resource! I hope I win, my kids definitely need reinforcement with sight words.
    croesler1587@yahoo.com

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  13. One cute thing I did to teach sight words: I took a picture of each of my kids holding a blank piece of paper. Then I put all of the pictures into a powerpoint and added in the sight words onto the paper, one word for each student to "hold". The kids LOVE getting to see themselves with their words and it only takes a couple of minutes to go through the presentation each day! :)

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  14. I love teaching my words as Popcorn words and finding where they "pop" up all over the place! We then "butter" our popcorn words with highlighters in our emergent readers!

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  15. I use Maria's readers, too, and I love love love them! I can't wait to buy the new bundle! I hadn't thought of having them color in the sight word on the cover FIRST! Duh! That's so smart! We'll be doing that TOMORROW!
    Lisa
    Always an Adventure in Kindergarten

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  16. Heidi Songs are the best. Tunes are catchy and my kids can spell all the ones we know so far. Val Mtz

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  17. Hi there!
    I use the Heidi Songs DVD's. Love them!
    If I may...How do you like the Journeys series? We adapted it this year, and well....I just don't know...
    Thanks!
    Robyn

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  18. I love to make "Where is _______?" sight word games for my students to play in small groups. We put the sight words in a pocket chart and they hide Brown Bear, Johnny Appleseed, etc behind the cards. They take turns reading the words until they find the hidden card. Whoever finds the card gets to be the next leader. They love these games!! They take them so seriously and they help each other read the words!! Today they got the pointers out and were pointing to them as they read them.
    Thanks for having this giveaway!!! I would love this set so much!!!
    Michelle
    mscotese67@gmail.com

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  19. This looks like a great resource! I am not "officially" a teacher yet. I hope that I will learn many different ways to teach sight words.

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  20. I love, love the idea of individual student book bins. My kiddos struggle with sight words....looking for a new system - this would be perfect along with the implementation of individual book bins. Not only help with recognizing and spelling sight words but with reading fluency! I hope I win!
    Michelle
    cheemom@comcast.net

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  21. I love playing "Cross The River". I write the words on A4 card and laminate. I then spread the words all over the floor and then call single words out to help a child cross the river of words. They have to stand on the word, and the next one I call and so on..They get really good and can can the words out for each other.

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  22. I also love Maria's books! I'd love to win the set! I only have a couple of them at this point. To teach sight words we do many things...roll and write, find in text, write on white boards/chalk boards/shaving cream, make with magnetic letters, etc. It's fun to practice and the books make it even better!

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  23. These look so fantastic! We are studying sight words like crazy and this would be a great addition to our classroom.

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  24. I really like Heidi Songs sight word music that you dance too. It keeps my kidners engaged and active:) I was commented by my assistant principal for using the sight word books. I love them!

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  25. I love these but have only a few. my students love them also.

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  26. Wow! So many great ideas! I feel like I've gotten into a rut recently with sight word activities, so these are super helpful. Thanks! One idea we use is the "buzz game." I put index cards that say "buzz" into our stack of sight words. When I flash the cards and we get to a buzz card, students say buzzzzzzzzz and flap their hands like they are bee wings. It's a simple games that keep students engaged. Lots of fun!

    -Amanda
    Teacher At The Wheel

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  27. Thank you so much for featuring my little Interactive Sight Word Readers in your post! I LOVE your purple book bins! Sometimes while my students are waiting in line I spell words out loud and students have to figure out which sight word I just spelled. It's great when every second of instruction counts!

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  29. The little readers love to learn sight words. Lately we have been writing them using play doh mats, writing in the sand and stamping. They adore using different and fun activities to master their sight words.

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  30. I have loved so far this year making games and coming up with little readers...this would be a great win for a first year teacher...thanks for all the hard and creative work you put together!!!

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  31. I really like mispronouncing the word and making it sound how it looks. The kids get a big kick out of it. We always talk about how grown-ups don't like to say the sounds the right way, so we have to memorize the words instead of sounding them out. It seems to really help to exaggerate the sounds...the kids think it is so funny when the teacher reads "wrong."

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  32. angelica.diaz0703@gmail.com
    I have been really wanting to buy these books for a while now. If I win them that would be sooooo wonderful. My last purchase on TPT was "For the Love of Jon". I couldn't see myself buying these when someone out there really could benefit from my purchase- so as much as I know this would have been a wonderful purchase as well useful resources for my classroom... my heart goes to Jon. If anyone is reading this you should check it out. There is nothing like helping a family in need! Thanks again for being an awesome teacher and sharing your wonderful teaching ideas- I own a few of your files and love them all!!!

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  33. Sight words are so important that I try many different techniques with my kinders. We build the word using letter tiles, write the words with shaving cream, and use Moffatt Girls sight words money and watches. My students really like coloring, cutting, and wearing the sight word watches.

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  34. I use the Bundle of books too to teach sight words and I LOVE Heidi Songs

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  35. I love getting new ideas and activities to help my students. I love, love, love these books!

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  36. I use Heidi's DVD sight word songs. They are a great way to help students remember the spelling of sight words while seeing the words! Love Maria's books, too!!

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  37. I am always looking for new ways to teach my SDC firsties sight words! It is SUCH a struggle for them to learn them and this looks AMAZING!

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  38. My kids love to do pokey pinning with our sight words and rainbow write them. We also act them out by shouting or whispering every other letter and so on:) I teach journeys and this would be perfect!!

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  39. We do silly chants to spell out each sight word of the week. Our class favorite is "bodybuilder" where we spell in an Arnold Schwarzeneggar voice while flexing our muscles and pretending to lift weights for each letter!

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  40. I love using Heidi Songs, chants with movement, and building sight words with unifix cubes. The kids really love all of these activities.

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  41. My students love anything with movement. Jumping, cheering, and building words with our bodies are some of their favorites! :o)

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  43. I like doing active motions while spelling our sight words...anything that gets them moving.

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  44. My kids love our Sight Word write the room activities
    Mandy

    Heart of Kinder




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  45. I like using Heidi Songs to teach sight words

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  46. I use flash cards. We do Reading Rainbows and every 5 words they know a coin is colored in. They are posted so the student can see the progress.
    Eileen Boyle
    Eileen2002@msn.com

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  47. I post them around the house and I stop on those words when we are reading and let my daughter read them.

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  48. I like to use sight word make and take booklets. If only I had time to make more of them.

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  49. Flashcards, read the room, color the word and lots of games.

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  50. I use a variety of resources to teach and practice sight words. Heidi songs to introduce, Emergent readers (like Maria's) for practice and classroom games like BANG and games on spelling city for even more practice.

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  51. I use lots of magnetic letter activities, walk arounds, white board practice, etc to practice sight words. This would be such a great resource to add to our activities!!
    hannah.housmyer@gmail.com

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  52. These would be great. I am building my teaching collection. Thanks.

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  53. I love using Have Fun Teachings sight word songs and they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE write the room activities!

    kellybrown28021@gmail.com

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  54. I added the first bundle of these books to my TPT wishlist just the other day! I can tell these are a hit for students in the classroom. We do lots of flashcards, mix and fix, find in books, rainbow writing, and stairstep writing. But they love to be able to read their own books with words they know!

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  55. I use the orton way to teach those h/f words. But reading is always a good addition.

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  56. I have them printed on popcorn images. The students say'pop' when they see one of our Popcorn words in a message, song, ... In my province, teaching sight words is not part of Kindergarten curriculum, but I feel exposure at this age is essential.

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  57. I love that idea of having books they can interact with and read using the sight words.

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  58. This is just what I am still doing with my low kids!

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  59. You make lots of my favorite center activities and Maria's books look like something I would do with my class, too. Thanks!

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  60. My students like using interactive books they can read.

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  61. I like to cheer our sight words and play lots of games!

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  62. I usually introduce the sight words by focusing on the one we have used for the week in our interactive writing book.

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  63. Flashcards and trace and color the word. I need these Interactive Sight Word Readers. Thanks and take care
    foxysexyroxy10@gmail.com

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  64. I have the new bundle of sight words...I'd LOVE to have her first bundle!

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  65. I have small flash strips with sight words (on rings) that studens keep on thier desk. The go over these words when they are done with thier work.

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  66. I use a number of different ways. Majority of the time I play games with a group of ten words in my small group instruction time. I meet with each group for 30 minutes everyday. The kids love playing "Zap"!

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  67. I start teaching sight words through morning messages and then add Guided Reading groups later. I also add centers with building sight word recognition.

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  68. I would love to win this pack! It has been on my wish list! They look like they would be incredible to teach sight words to my lower students.

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  69. My students LOVE sight word books. These would be great for my classroom!

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  70. I love reading all these ideas. My kinders love using their white boards and challenge eachother to read the words.

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  71. I like using sight words as table names and having sight word hands to hit on our way out the door!

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  72. We have a sight word bus that gets a new word each week and we have a great little song to go with! I also have my students high five the word on their way out the door! :)

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  73. We work with a new list every week, we make tons of fun exercises, like rainbow words, blue vowels, color de consonant (I'm a very colorful person), and of course we practice their pronunciation and fluency, at the end of the week we make a dictation, and then we start it all over again. I'm always trying to improve my teaching, and I think this is going to be a great and fun way for my kids. Thank you for the giveaway!!!

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  74. I would love to win this. I feel that sight words is an area that I need the most improvement.

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  75. some fun ways we practice our sight words are using the heidi songs cds and playing POP. thanks for giveaway offer!

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  76. We love to pokey pin our sight words.
    -Andrea
    alwayskindergarten@gmail.com

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  77. I use all of our sight words as our word wall words. We focus on three per week and we cheer the words everyday. My favorite one is the opera singing cheer. So if you were cheering "not" (in your best opera voice) you would say "n", "o", "t", "not". I have always have one boy each year who is the best opera singer. It always the one you would least suspect to sing their heart out. :)

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  78. What a fantastic giveaway! We also use HM Journeys, and are about to start learning 6 sight words a week! Yikes! We play games like sight word hop -- I have the Sight Word Floor Pocket Circles from Lakeshore -- where I split my class into 2 teams, call out a color, and the first kid to read the sight word on their color circle wins a point for their team!

    I also have created a set of sentence building activities that use all of the sight words from the Journeys list. I'll put those in a center for the kids to build a mixed-up sentence, read, and then write it! Anything to get them more familiar with seeing and reading the words.

    There's also a great sight word video on Harry Kindergarten that my kids love! I only wish it had more words!

    --Caitlin
    The Kinder Garden"

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  79. We practice sight words by sending home flashcards and learning a few fun spelling songs. We also read the word wall using different voices.

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  80. Thank you for all the good ideas about teaching sight words. I teach kinder and there are some fun ways to teach this concept. Thank you!

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  81. I love to first teach a cheer for the word, then we practice writing it throughout the week in shaving cream, playdough, with stamps, magnetic letters, and/or tiles. We also make a little book that goes with each word:) Thanks!!!

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  82. I use the cheer, put words on a Sight Word Ring ( the kids love to flip through them and read them as we put new words on in ABC order) and the word wall. Best of all they love songs and easy books that we have made.

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  83. Practice, practice, practice. We have flash cards, and use fun videos on You Tube. We focus on a few per week and practice one per day on paper, whether it be writing, manipulating, finding, or all of the above.

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  84. Cut unscramble and paste pages.

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  85. I use a huge variety of ways to teach sight words, they are so important. I have a few of these booklets and would LOVE the set

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  86. I would love the sight word readers. I feel like my sight words have been very dull lately and would love to freshen them up with these books.

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  87. I use flashcards and highlighting in our AtoZ books. Would LOVE a set like this!
    Thanks for the opportunity.

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  88. I use differentiated word lists that each student progresses though in addition to those taught whole group! These books look terrific for centers!

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  89. I am teaching my son sight words using Ball Words from Differentiated Kindergarten.

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  90. I use these books also, along with trace, color, build sheets.

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  91. I enjoy singing sight words. I use Heidisongs and also make up my own to familiar melodies.

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  92. I use many things, but my kids enjoy High Five hands the most. I traced my hands on construction paper, cut them out, and laminated them. I write the words we are learning for the week on them and tape them to my door. When we leave the room they high five the hands and say the words.

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  93. I use the ball words, in addition I do a sight word poem a week, and a sight word mini book. I have the students use word work to do the sight words, but I'm finding that for some kids all of that doesn't matter. If they aren't ready for the words they aren't ready.

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  94. I usually use poems and have students highlight the sight words we are working on. We love to do See it, Say it, Spell it together, too. Would love to use these books. I've had them on my TPT wishlist forever! :)
    maryc413@yahoo.com

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  95. We use sight word "watches" also reading :-)

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  96. Try to do it many ways. Like songs and mystery write with crayons and marker. This would be a great addition.

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  97. We play WORDO every Friday. Like BINGO with small candy as counters. When finished my kids have to find the words on the Word Wall and color them the correct color. They are finding words, writing words, recognizing words, and them finding and coloring words. Pizza Wordo is a favorite!!
    My Kindergarten Kids

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  98. Love these....hope I am the winner!
    Thanks for the chance!

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  99. We go through our sight words each way and spell them together out loud in different ways...slow motion, talk like a pirate, swing a baseball bat for each letter, etc. They love it!

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  100. Every day is a different day. On Monday I introduce the sight word with flashcards and we clap the letters and air write the words. Tuesday we will use various activities to write our words on white boards and the students use the words in a sentence. Wednesday we chant/cheer the spelling and the words - we may also use various "games" with the word wall...depending on time. Thursday we pokey pin the words. Friday we create and rainbow write the words. I would LOVE to be able to incorporate books into the routine.

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  101. I do a daily word work activity with the words. Some of the activities they do are a trace/write/rainbow page, they bingo dot their way through a sight word maze, they color code by sight word, build it with magnetic letters, use play dough to build the words, etc. There are so many activities that can be done with sight words. I think sight words are one of my favorite things to work on! :) These books would be a great activity to add to my collection. Fingers crossed.

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  102. Oh, I also forgot to add that I LOVE Heidi's Songs. Seriously, all I have to do is say "y-o-u spells, y-o-u spells" and they instantly say you! They are great.

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  103. I love to use Heidi's Songs DVD for sight words!

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  104. I like to clap and chant sight words. I also like to have the students air write the sight word.

    Erica
    Blooming In First

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  105. We are always practicing them in a variety of ways - Heidi Songs, Rainbow words, Mystery Words, Clap and Cheering etc! I just started introducing these books as well and they love them!

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  106. I've been using Maria's incredible books this year too!! In combination with HeidiSongs... it has really helped my kiddos SOAR with sight words!
    Karen :o)
    Mrs. Stamp's Kindergarten

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  107. I love to find them in books or around the room. (Like I Spy) :)

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  108. Incorporating them in center games is my favorite!

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  109. I love doing cheers to learn our sight words. I like to incorporate the body movements as well as the brain. I also like using little decodable books because I think it is important for the children to see the words in context.

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  110. I love doing cheers to learn our sight words. I like to incorporate the body movements as well as the brain. I also like using little decodable books because I think it is important for the children to see the words in context.

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  111. My class is very musical so anything I can do to music seems to stick with them. They will just randomly start to sing! There are a lot of sight word videos/songs online that we use.

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  112. I love the have fun teaching videos. I also love to play sight word games like boom, go fish, slap and trap, etc. plus we read a ton of little readers to really master them in context!

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  113. I use a lot of songs from Have Fun Teaching.
    Sara
    Polka Dot Kinders

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  114. My students like to use clothes pins, letter tiles, magnets, play doh, and caps. They are hands on and like to manipulate letters to spell their words. The also like to play games. Their favorite one at the moment is "Who Stole the Cookie"..These mini-books are great. I love how they are made and designed well for independent work.

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  115. We have so many ways to teach sight words that it's hard to choose my favorite. We play games with the words on cards, but if they get an Oops card they put their cards back. We have lists of words and also words in phrases that I time them on, so they improve their fluency. We rainbow write, write them on the whitboard in front of room, etc. I love your sight word books.

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  116. Thank you for hosting this great giveaway!

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  117. As a new teacher, this would be such an awesome resource to have in my class. I love Maria's books and would love to have this set.♡

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  118. Sight word card games and flash card memory games are fun. Harry's KG has great songs and activities , using a sight work as a ticket in the door, using a word as a secret word, when found or heard they get a sticker.

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