However, it is important that educators do not overwhelm beginning readers with long lists of words to learn. It is easy to find lists of sight words to begin introducing to young children. My Favorite Tips to Teach Kindergarten Sight Words 1. If you’re looking for how to teach sight words to kindergarteners or preschoolers, here are some great tips and strategies to do so. However, teaching kindergarten sight words with the right strategies can help any child to improve quickly. It can take time for children to learn sight words depending on their age, motivation, and cognitive skills. A few letters and their sounds will let them get started with pre-primer sight words. Once your child begins showing an interest in letters and words, it indicates that a child is growing closer to reading.Ĭhildren are not required to recognize every letter before they begin learning sight words. Usually, it should not be before about five years of age.īefore learning sight words, make sure the child has developed pre-reading behavior. Similar to talking and walking, learning sight words is a developmental stage that children begin at different ages. Not every child is ready for sight words at the same time. They may use strategies such as making the first sound and looking at the picture cue. This allows them to focus their word-solving strategies on the final word in the sentence.

Children with a well-developed bank of sight words can instantly and effortlessly recognize the words “I” and “am.” This frees up their efforts for words that require more strategies to solve.įor example, a book written for a beginning reader may include the sentence starter, “I am” on each page, with endings such as “swimming” or “running” completing each sentence. The goal is for children to recognize sight words instantly, without needing to devote much effort to sound them out. Some examples of early sight words are “the,” “I,” “a,” and “am.” As children progress with their reading, they can begin to work towards recognizing longer sight words, such as “they,” “said,” “where,” and “have.” Sight words are also referred to as “high frequency words” because they are words that appear most frequently in texts. Read on for some great tips to get them started early. If you’re wondering how to teach sight words to kindergarteners and preschoolers, it’s a task that can be done, but it will definitely take time.

It’s important for beginning readers to develop a bank of sight words to support their early reading.

Sight word list for kindergarteners