Teacher M
Sight Words Shoot Out
I had two 6 year olds who came in to school, but they had not gone to school prior and we basically have a year to get them ready for Primary 1. It was quite challenging when after "testing" them using the Dolch sign words, and finding out one of them could only read 8 words, and the other one 13.
I tried blends with them, and although they knew letter sounds, one of them just could not do the blends, and he would zone out immediately whenever it came to L& L class. But the thing about both boys is, they are quite competitive when it came to games. So, I had an idea to get my boys interested in reading sight words. I placed sight word cards on toilet rolls (which we recycle for craft anyway) and then get them to shoot them down with Nerf Guns. They have to say out the word before they can shoot it down, then, they get a point (or 10 points if you want to encourage them to get 100 points first, They quickly enjoyed playing the 'sight word' game and ask for it quite often. Although this is not a solution for helping them to read, it does make reading more enjoyable.
