Master 5 has been bringing home sight words for a few months now (when did he grow up?!) Even though we are halfway through the school year, and he is well-settled into the school routine, he is still quite tired at the end of each day. Due to his tiredness, and because he has other 'boring' homework to complete throughout the week (which, in my opinion, seems a heck of a lot, but that's another story), I wanted to make the learning of his sight words fun, rather than just have him sit down and recite them straight from the book. That's enough to put anyone to sleep :)
One thing I have learnt with having four children, is that they all learn differently. Master 5 is a very keen learner (yay!) and also hands-on. So with that in mind, I came up with some fun ways to encourage his learning of his sight words:
Write the names of common household objects and place them around the house:
chair
table
toilet
door
light
mirror
bed etc.
This is encouraging Master 5's word and object recognition.
(and I just realised that our light switches need cleaning!)
Swat that sight word.
I printed out my son's sight words and laid them on the table. Armed with a plastic egg-flip (I couldn't find our fly swat!) he identified and hit each sight word when I called it out. (No surprise this is his favourite activity!)
I made a bingo grid with the sight words (I would normally have laminated it but someone decided that the laminator was a good posting box for pins!) and Master 5 covers each word with a counter when I call it out.
Blocks
This game was purchased from a direct selling company a few years ago and is a fantastic learning tool. The blocks all have individual letters and slot onto a lego-style tray. I set Master 5 up with the blocks and his sight word lists and he uses the blocks to make his words. (My kids also enjoy 'making pizza' with these blocks!)
These are very simple play-based ideas that have kept Master 5 focused and super keen to learn.
How do you help your child learn new words?
