Sight Word Dictionaries {dolch & fry}

My latest labor of love...  :)  I got so much great feedback on my Facebook page by asking about the sight word lists you all use in your classrooms.  And I hope I have accommodated everyone with my new sight word dictionaries!!

All of the packets include dictionary pages for each word with a place to read, trace and write or finish a phrase or sentence using the word in context.  There is also a large picture space for the students to draw meaningful pictures.  It is important that these dictionaries are personal to each student so it is more than okay if each child's picture or sentence is varied!  In fact, they should have differences.  Whatever will help that child understand what the sight word means - as long as it shows the right meaning - is ok!  :)  There are also a few different covers to choose from and flashcards of the words that you can put in a word work center or send home with your students.  They are color coded in case you end up getting more than one list and want to keep them separated...my OCD tendencies helping your organization!!

My ESL {English as Second Language} students have benefited from these SO much.  The phrases and sentences are very simple and often include other sight words.  Even if the phrases or sentences seem too simple for your students' reading levels, remember that the focus is on learning the sight words, so you don't want them to struggle with recalling the sentence.  Use your guided reading time to push them.  ;)

These can be kept at school, in your students' individual book bins or book baggies for independent reading time or they can be kept in homework folders.  Your students can add words at school with you then take them home to practice and study.  As of now, the dictionaries are available for....

{Dolch Pre-Primer}

{Dolch Primer}

{Fry Lists 1 & 2}

{Color Words & Numbers 0-10}

This totally came about as a fluke when I pulled out copy paper during Guided Reading one day because my ESL students were mixing up every sight word we'd introduced so far.  Once they had the words in an example sentence and a picture that made sense to them...bingo!  We're reading!!  :)  Please let me know how you like them and if you see your students' Sight Word fluency increase like mine did!!  This is by FAR one of my favorite creations...ev-er.  Check out more K faves at the Kindergarten Works Show & Tell party!!

brown day.

Thursday was not only groundhog's day, it was {brown} day!  Hmm...somebody may have orchestrated that on purpose.

We made these cute Cara Carroll inspired burrows and added a writing piece.  {How adorable is all of her stuff?!}  But then, because I couldn't help thinking the burrows looked like bladders {bad cutting skills?!} I added fringe to the top.  It looks like grass, right?  RIGHT???

We also created cute little groundhog ears {sentence strip with 2 construction paper ears!} and practiced popping up out of the ground.  If you missed it, you can watch the actual proclamation online:

We had pretzel sticks for a brown snack and shared our hints for the brown items we brought from home.

Then we made these ah-dor-a-ble football players from A Cupcake for the Teacher to write about the Superbowl.  After all, what color is a football anyway?

Totally worth the $1 purchase.  There are 4 different writing prompts and, while the pieces take some time to cut out, they were completely worth it.  I took some major slack from my staff trying to figure out how to represent the teams {hello...they're both blue!} but finally figured it out thanks to Superbowl.com.  And my coworker heckling.

Cute cute sideline fans no matter which team you choose to root for!

orange day.

We had our first color day last week and started with {orange!}

For each color day I send home a paper bag with a clue.  The kids find something from home, put it in the bag and write a few hints.  Here was mine.

It was orange vampire teeth from the Halloween treasure box.  It's just a Word document with 3 simple text boxes, but click the link and you can download and edit it.  Just promise to let me know how you inevitably make it better.  :)

Some kid examples:

This one I had to share because of the replacement paper.  We must've heard 14 times that day that she had to use a post it note because her brother puked on her clue sheet.  "ALL over it.  He puked.  All over it."

What's orange day without an orange snack?!

Then we read The Carrot Seed and retold the beginning, middle and end of the story.  On a carrot of course!

 Look at those tissue paper tops...isn't it cute?!

I'm working these color days mostly in to my literacy lesson so it's just a few ideas each day.  The kids also dressed all in orange and made orange crowns for morning work.  Yay orange!

purplicious.

Continuing with our color theme days to teach color words as sight words, we had purple day last week. After reading Purplicious and Harold and the Purple Crayon we brainstormed lots of purple things.  Then I thought, instead of making another Circle Map, why not put our purple things in a grape outline?!  

Some of them did a really great job filling in every inch with something purple...while others got tired and filled in with their crayons.  :)

Either way, the kids thought it was funny and I think it turned out pretty cute!

My many colored days...

In case you can't yet tell {and just wait until May!} I am a teacher who looooves a good theme.  And every year I dread the third quarter because we just don't seem to have many fun, special, theme days.  So I got to thinking and decided since we always teach color words as sight words during third quarter anyway, why not make a day of it?!  We introduce one color word each week, along with the regular word list, and on Thursdays we do it up right!  This is the first year so I don't have a lot of activities or projects yet {especially since this is on top of our regular daily schedule} but here's some of what we've done so far.

RED DAY!  The kids wore red, brought in red items, wrote in red marker and we had a red strawberry snack.  We also read "The Little Red Hen" by Paul Galdone.  After a discussion on responsibility and fairness, I let the kids discuss back and forth whether or not the little red hen was just in eating the whole cake herself.  I really wanted to do a point of view activity with my students but wasn't sure if they'd grasp the concept...and they totally did!  Each child chose to either be the cat, dog or mouse and wrote a letter to the little red hen explaining their thoughts on the matter.  Here are a few of my favorites:

{This child was INSISTENT on being the Little Red Hen...and his reading expression was spot-on!}

"Dear Dog, Cat and Mouse, You should do some work. If you don't, you will not get no cake.  Love, The Little Red Hen."

"Dear Little Red Hen, I am sorry for not helping you make the cake.  I did not deserve it.  I am sorry for being lazy.  Love, The dog."

"Dear Little Red Hen, Maybe next time you must give me a cake.  Why don't you make another one.  Love, The cat."

"Dear Little Red Hen, I am sad.  I am sorry for not doing my chores.  I'll do it next time.  Love, The mouse."

This display is nothing fancy or cute but the kids worked really hard and showed a lot of thought by writing from a character's POV so I had to put them up somewhere quickly.  This year they colored and cut out the picture.  Next year I'll have to come up with a better display.

We also made red Circle Maps {apple maps??} of red items we found in magazines.

 

YELLOW DAY!  The kids all wore yellow, brought in yellow items from home, wrote in yellow marker and we ate bananas for snack.  Then we read and sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and talked about the -ar sound.  I talked a little bit about the Bossy R and we brainstormed a few examples.  Then the kids added their own -ar words and pictures.

PINK DAY!  We wore pink, wrote in pink, chewed pink bubble gum and made pink Circle Maps.  Then after reading "Pinkalicious" by Victoria & Elizabeth Kann, the kids responded to the story by writing about a time they ate too much of something too.  We were writing in booklets and focusing on a beginning, middle and end.  Most of them wrote about what they ate too much of, what happened and what they had to then do to turn back to normal.  I let them choose their own details and we had a lot of creativity!  :)  I had to hang them in the hallway for everyone to see.

Most of the titles were great-alicious like this one:

BLACK DAY!  Black week happened at the beginning of March when we would already be celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday so we opted to move our black dress up day to March 2nd...and become the Cat in the Hat!  I always have black eyeliner in my drawer {usually whatever's the cheapest at Target} and I used that to draw a nose and whiskers on the kids' faces.  Then they made their own -at family hats and colored bow ties that I taped to their shirts.  Voila!  They also thought it was quite funny when I called them "Jenna in the Hat" or "Isaac in the Hat" all day.

Our principal came and read "Fox in Socks" to us...he was good at those tongue-twisters!!