Learning to read is an exciting time for children; it opens up a whole new world for them. The process, however, can extend over several years. To read, children must be able to identify and understand many words. Building up their basic vocabulary or internal dictionary using words they can easily recognize helps lay the foundation for reading. These words are called sight words.

What are sight words for preschoolers?

Sight words are essentially words that can be recognized at first glance. They’re short, simple, commonly used words. They’re words that often don’t need to be, or can’t be, sounded out phonetically. Some basic examples for preschool-aged children are but, be, in, was, at, the, am, have, it, and do. They’re also called high-frequency words because of how frequently they’re used in the English language. Books for preschool-aged children are often made up of 70% to 80% sight words. For fluent readers or older children, more words may be considered sight words. 

Benefits of learning sight words

The greatest benefit of learning sight words is how much they help children on their journey to becoming great readers. Knowing more sight words means they can be more fluent in reading because they don’t have to stop and think about as many words. Children can readily understand more sentences and concepts by being able to make connections between all the sight words at their disposal. This also frees up their mental energy to focus more on new and unfamiliar words in the text. In addition, it builds up their confidence when they see a lot of words they immediately understand and can easily string together sentences.

How to teach sight words to preschoolers

The first step to teaching sight words is choosing which ones to teach. Edward William Dolch, Ph. D., is known to some as “the father of sight words” for his creation of the Dolch Sight Word List in 1936. It features the 220 most common words in the English language, organized into different academic levels based on the frequency of use. The “Preprimer” and “Primer” words are a good place to start for preschool children.

Once you’ve chosen your sight words, focus on one or two at a time. Introduce them with a fun activity, present them being used in a way they recognize, and point them out throughout the day. Don’t focus on two sight words at once that are similar, such as in and on. Ensure children read the words aloud, help them if they’re struggling, and praise them when they do it correctly. Also, try to keep the activities or lessons for sight words brief so children don’t get overwhelmed with too much information. If a child struggles with certain sight words, don’t add more until they get more practice with the current set.

In addition, a great strategy for teaching sight words is to focus on multisensory learning. This means engaging in activities that require the use of multiple senses. For example, spelling a word in the sand and hearing it read aloud would call upon the sense of touch and the sense of hearing. Seeing and hearing words simultaneously is especially important because it reinforces the connections between sounds and letters, also known as the alphabetic principle. 

If some time passes and a child can still not grasp sight words, you may need to engage in pre-reading activities with them to strengthen that skill set first. But remember, repetition and daily use is key for learning sight words. Use a tool like brightwheel’s lesson plan feature to arrange your strategy and incorporate them into all of your classroom activities. 

Sight word activities 

There are a lot of engaging, creative activities you can do to help children get familiar with and learn sight words. For any activity, you can make it your own and customize it to your classroom and preferred materials. Anytime you’re doing a sight word activity, be sure to have children read the words aloud to continue reinforcing what they’re learning. Here are a few examples of activities for preschoolers:

• Pancake matching game: Cut up pieces of brown cardboard into small circles and write a few sight words on them, twice each. Have children use a spatula to flip over two at a time until they can find all the matches.
• Fill in the blank: Write a few very simple sentences on the board, each with a sight word missing, and a word bank with the missing words. Have the children read the sentences aloud with each word bank option in the blank space, and ask them if it’s the correct choice.
• Sound-letter mapping: This activity, also known as orthographic mapping, is the process of separating words into the sounds they’re made of. Write sight words down on colorful construction paper, then cut them up into their sounds. Have children sound-letter map each word, one piece of paper at a time.
• Classroom spy: Hide flashcards of sight words around the classroom and let children earn points or prizes for how many they can find. Have them say the word aloud to collect their winnings.
• Sensory bin fishing: Fill a small tub or bin with sensory items, such as beads, packing peanuts, sand, or shredded paper. Then, write a lot of letters commonly used in sight words, several of each, on a material that will be hidden inside the bin. Have children fish around in the bin and pull letters out until they can build a sight word. Then, have them put the letters back in and try to build a different sight word the next time. 

Focus on sight words daily

As you teach sight words, keep a large list of the ones you’ve covered so far somewhere visible in the classroom. This encourages children to think about them throughout the day and gives you somewhere to bring their attention if you want to point one out being used in daily activity. Sight words are a building block for fluent reading, so utilize creative, engaging ways to help children understand them.