It’s time to get silly with sight words! In Power Up Your Child’s Sight Word Practice – Part 1 you identified exactly which words cause your young learner difficulty while reading. In Part 2 you strengthened sight word recognition by playing a quick and easy DIY game. Now in part 3 of 3 get ready for some super sight word silliness.
Silly Sight Word Sentences
This time we only really have two steps, three if you want to take this one to the next level.
Step 1) Depending on your child’s current comfort level, choose 2 or 3 or 10 sight words at random. Do you remember those sight word cards that you created in Power Up Your Child’s Sight Word Practice – Part 2? You can use those cards again or simply choose words from any of the lists in part 1.
Step 2) Take turns with your child concocting the silliest sight word sentences that you can. Bonus points (okay, we’re not really keeping score) for using the same sight word more than once in the same sentence.
For example, your random sight words might be:
the, go, and.
Silly sight word sentence sample:
The hungry monkey wanted to go to the store and eat all of the bananas and the apples and the candy bars and the marshmallows and then go home because he had a tummy ache.
If you really want to amplify the sight word reinforcement in this activity, go ahead and add a third step.
Step 3) Have your child write the complete silly sentences that each of you created. If the sentences become so silly and long that they are difficult to remember, simply audio record the sentences. Your child can listen to the recording a little at a time.
Is your child too young to write the larger, non-sight words in the silly sentence?
Option 1) Go ahead and write the sentence together as a team effort. Your child writes each of the sight words while you take care of the rest.
It’s a good idea to save these sentences so you can review them later, and see just how far your child’s sight word recognition has come.
Option 2) Instead of writing you can always grab a shallow bucket of sand, or fill a cookie sheet with shaving cream, or cover some waxed paper with finger paint. Your child listens to the sentence again, or tries to repeat it, pausing to write each of the sight words in whatever medium you choose. The more times each word appears in the sentence the more practice your child will have writing it.
Alternative to step 3) Are you playing Silly Sight Word Sentences in the car or while you wait in line somewhere? Can’t write anything down? Add an auditory memory component to the mix. Challenge yourselves to remember as much of each other’s long, silly sentences as you can. Don’t worry about perfection. Giggle it up and have some fun!
Did you miss Power Up Your Child’s Sight Word Practice parts 1 and 2? Find them here:
Part 1: Timed Sight Word Reading (a.k.a. Off to the Sight Word Races)