Category Archives: fry

Teaching Reading: Working with Words {Shake It, Roll It, Write It Game}

Months ago, I wrote a post on essentials in teaching reading.  I would like to continue this series with focusing on working with words.  Like I said in my last post, the more interesting you make it for kids the more they will want to participate in the steps to learn how to read independently.  This next activity gives you an idea of a game you can use over and over again to make creating words and reading interesting for little ones.

This next game I call: “Shake it, Roll it, and Write it!”  I’ve created a printable to share with you and here are some pictures with my kinder and first graders using this game to learn new words or practice old one
Click here to access the PDF for this game
With this printable you will be able to create seven blocks each unique to the other to create this game.

This is the recording sheet I created to accompany the game.
I inserted mine in sheet protectors and the kids used dry erase markers

The final recording sheet.  This one was played as a team, so they both had the same words and score since it was one of the first times we played.  Once proficient, the kids will get to compete with one another.  This game could also be played solo or keep track of weekly scores.
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Review & Giveaway: Rock N Learn Sight Words DVD

If you have little ones learning to read, like I do (two of them actually), then you know the importance of teaching them Sight Words.  {A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post about what sight words are and why they are vital in teaching little ones to read, if you missed it here is the link}.  Since repetition is important in teaching these words as they do not follow a phonetic pattern, it is important to make learning these words as fun as possible.  This is why I loved being able to review Rock N Learn’s newest DVD on Sight Words.  They put these words to music and in context throughout their colorful video that both boys and girls will love.  Mine did!  In the summer I got to introduce them to this DVD and though they weren’t 100% able to identify all the words when I began this school year I was so surprised when my daughter saw a sight word and recalled the scene from the DVD!  It was great!  Its important for children to learn these in so many forms that putting these words in context on a DVD was a brilliant idea!  

My kids love watching it, for my 6 year old it’s great review, for my 5 year old it is a fantastic part of her Reading Program and for my 3 year old, a wonderful opportunity to expose him to these words already (and my 18 month old loves to dance to the music)!  As a reading specialist myself, I was not surprised to find out that to put this DVD together Rock N Learn worked with reading specialists with 50 years experience combined!  It is a great addition to your homeschool’s reading program.  I love all of our Rock N Learn DVDs because I know my kids can watch them time and time again and always learn something new.  PLUS, I love hearing them sing the words to educational things instead of silly songs to cartoons!

Here is a little clip of what this DVD is like, I love how they expose the kids to the sight words in context (opposed to isolation):

Sight Words Covered:
 • up • down • come • go • in • out • of • the • a • where • is • it • here • there • one • two • three • red • yellow • blue • little • big • look • see • find • run • jump • play • away • and • you • I • we • can • make • funny • face • get • to • for • me • my • give • from • came • as • are • no • not • now • said • help • will • he • she • his • her • they • that • was • with • on
Bonus Sections:
  • Word Shapes
  • Pronouncing t-h-e

Description:Sight Words, a new DVD program from Rock ‘N Learn, helps kids learn to read. Using fun music and exciting characters, kids learn to read over 60 words. These are the most common words used in the English language and are words kids need to know automatically. This program is perfect for parents with very young kids who appear advanced and eager to learn, as well as older students with remedial needs. It’s effective at helping kids learn to read at all ages. Developed along with four reading specialists having combined classroom experience of over 50 years, Rock ‘N Learn Sight Words is designed to hold the interest of kids and get results. A bonus section helps kids practice their spelling skills and focus on the shapes of words. The program engages kids to participate along with the fun characters. Approximately 50 minutes in length, it’s most effective when kids watch again and again. Before too long, they are reading the sight words with ease.

Want to get one for your homeschool?  We are hosting a give away!  YAY!  Here is what you need to do:

Don’t want to wait for this giveaway to end?  You can buy one for your little ones at Rock N Learn’s website but wait there is more, if you us this code:  JQ7711 you can get 25%off your order.
Blessings,
Erika

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Teaching Reading: Sight Words Part 1

I love to teach reading and it really comes as second nature to me.  I learned this around 1998-1999 when I was helping a neighborhood kids in the 5th grade.  Tony was reading at a 2nd grade reading level and his teacher and school was threatening to retain him.  Smart boy but had never been properly taught to read as a small child, unfortunately he is one of those quiet good kids that get left behind by teachers when they have too many students to tend to (this was his specific case).  I took him to help him how to read and write better and learned that Tony was VERY proficient in Phonics but not in sight word recognition.  So I started with that with him and viola!  he was reading away real quick!  This led to me going back to school to get a Masters in Reading K-12…it was so much fun!  I actually miss being in college learning about the art of teaching reading! 😉

This past week I’ve had a lot of on the road time traveling to see family and I realized that I haven’t writtern about that which I love so much!  So I will be posting things about teaching reading in hopes that I can help someone out there that is having trouble or just starting out and could benefit from these posts.

If you are teaching reading to your little one or have a child who is having trouble reading, then it is vital that they become proficient in sight words. Why? Well because sight words are about 87% of all the words that children read in their trade books. Words like “the” “in”, “a”, “it”, and “is” are all part of this very important list.  These words are phonetically irregular words, meaning you cannot use phonics to decode them so they must be learned by sight.  Knowing sight words is one of the basic building blocks when learning how to read and one that should not be ignored.

What happens if the Reading or Phonics program you selected does not include the teaching of sight words?  I suggest that you do it on your own and it is quit simple.  Am I saying that you shouldn’t teach Phonics? NO!  Never!  Phonics is important or just as important as teaching sight words.  Many programs fail to intergrate both of these in their reading programs, which is unfortunate but important for homeschooling moms to know.  For the purpose of this post, I’m going to focus on sight words.

There are two lists but most of the words overlap.  Dolch Sight Words and Fry Sight Words are the two lists you can work from.  In the 1940s, Dr. Edward William Dolch created the  list by using 220 phonetically irregular words and 95 common nouns to create his Dolch Sight Word List.  He chose words that were most often used in children’s reading books during the 1920s and 30s.  In the 1990s, Dr. Edward Fry took the Dolch researched list and created 1,000 most frequently used words and he put them in order of frequency.  Children should be repeatedly exposed to these words so that they learn them quickly.  This bolsters their reading self-esteem, which in turn makes them want to read more.  You would be so surprised how your little Joseph or little Mary is going to want to start reading and selecting books at the library!

Each list is arranged by levels of difficulty advancing in it and the levels of infrequency, well at least the Fry list is.  Dr. Dolch created his lists to be mastered by the third grade while Dr. Fry’s list is separated by grade levels and goes up to the fifth or sixth grade.  Each list is separated by 100 words so the first 100 words are called pre-premer words and should be learned by kindergarten the next words are learned in increments of 100 but I suggest should only be taught 5-10 at a time until mastered.  Once those 10 are mastered you teach another 5-10 but always exposing them to the previous ones either by games or flash cards and with exposing them to easy reader texts. 

Here are the list of words for your use in PDF format:

First Hundred
Second Hundred
Third Hundred
Fourth Hundred
Fifth Hundred

Depending on your child’s ability is when you should start.  For example, my six year old son is brilliant in Math but not in reading whereas my five year old daughter is the opposite so she is in kinder and he is in first and this is what we are doing this year:

Trimester 1:  Words 1-150
Trimester 2: Words 151-300
Trimester 3: Words 301-500

Now this is the plan and yes I do have high expectations for them but its because of how they learn and what they can do.  So far so good.  There are several ways to teach sight words.  Here are some examples:

1.  flash cards
2. memory games
3.  practice tracing the words
4.  use tactile things like playdough mats or any multi-sensory way to create the words
5.  create a power point of the words
6.  use the words to create sentences (include vocabulary from either your Science or History lessons).
7.  teach the shape of the word
8.  Sight word games

Repetition is important in learning these words by sight but it can be boring so it is vital that you make this as fun of an experience as possible!  🙂

Blessings,
Erika

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