The 5-Minute Sight Word Routine That Will Instantly Improve Recall
When Sight Words Don’t Stick
Have you ever gotten to Friday and wondered if your students were unconscious when you introduced the weekly sight words on Monday? You’re not alone. You pull out the flashcards, the worksheets, everything you can think of to try to make those sight words stick, but….nada.
Sight word knowledge is so important to developing successful readers - automaticity with these words will give students more “brain-power” to devote to comprehension and fluency.
During my first year of teaching first grade, I thought sight words should be one of those things that I could pull up onto my SMARTboard and kids would just pick them up after a few exposures to them. I thought, “they're just supposed to memorize them, right? I'd flip through some slides of words, send home the weekly list, maybe throw a worksheet or two at my kids and call it good. I think you know how that story ends - it. didn’t. work.
I started to change the way I introduced sight words to my students and at the same time, I started to think about ways I could incorporate fun and movement into our daily sight word practice.
Sight Word Chants
As I brainstormed ways to help students with sight word recall, I thought about what my students loved. They loved getting up and moving. They loved being silly. They loved food. Why not some food-themed sight word chants? I’m going to share my favorite whole-group sight word chants with you today!
In my classroom, we gathered at the carpet for this activity, but they can also be used in a socially distanced classroom. For 5 minutes a day, we practiced each tricky sight word with these chants:
Sight Word Chants #1 - Cupcake, Cupcake
For this chant, students will pretend to hold a cupcake in one hand. As they say each letter of the sight word, they will pretend to peel back the cupcake wrapper one time for each letter. It would sound like this:
“s - o - m - e, some”
After they finish spelling the word, they will say the whole word, then take a bite out of their imaginary cupcake!
Sight Word Chant #2 - Scoop It Up!
For this chant, students will pretend to hold an ice cream cone in one hand and an ice cream scoop in the other. For each letter in the word, they will “scoop” up a scoop of ice cream to add to their imaginary cone. When the word is complete, they’ll take a bite of their imaginary cone!
Sight Word Chant #3 - Birthday Cake
For this chant, students will pretend there is a huge birthday cake in front of them. As they say each letter of the word, they will add a birthday candle to their imaginary cake. Once the word is finished, they will pretend to blow out the birthday candles!
Want More Chants?
These chants and many more are included in my Bite-Size Sight Word Lessons - this bundle is a comprehensive was to introduce and practice sight words for your students!
Try a Sight Word Lesson for FREE!
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