At-Home Practice Ideas
Letter Recognition
Sounds
Sight Words
From: http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2011/06/sight-word-fun-learning-to-read-week-3.htm
• Sight Word Hopscotch Use sidewalk chalk to make a hopscotch with sight words in each square. Say the words as you hop.
- Letters are Everywhere --Draw your child's attention to letters and words in his/her environment (signs, cereal boxes, toy boxes, menus, etc.)
- Letter Writer--Have your child trace letters on/in different surfaces (sand, rice, cloth, etc.) Say the name of the letter with your child as they form the letter.
- Letter Builder--Build letters with different materials such as macaroni, pipe cleaners, play dough, etc.
- Print the Letters -- Practice printing upper and lower case letters. (one time each week)
- Tactile Letters– Make a tactile letter for finger tracing. Write a letter on large paper. Trace with glue. Sprinkle with sand, salt, or rice. When dry, have your child trace the letter with his/her finger and say the name of the letter.
- Rainbow Letters-- Write one letter on a large sheet of paper. Have your child rainbow write the letter by tracing over it with 4 or more colors of crayons or markers.
- Letter Search-- Name a letter and ask your child to find as many different sizes, colors, and styles of that letter as possible to cut and glue onto a sheet of paper.
- Which Letter? -- Write a row of different letters for your child. Say one of those letters and ask him/her to circle the letter you said.
- Highlights -- Give some of your junk mail to your child and ask him/her to use a marker or crayon to highlight or circle certain letters. (exp. Highlight all of the Kk's orange, all of the Pp's purple, all of the Yy's blue, etc.)
Sounds
- Flashcards/ABC Picture Chart—Daily do a quick review of letters and sounds. Show the card and have your child either…say the letter name and the picture name; say the letter name and the sound; say the sound and the picture name; or say the letter name, picture name, and another word that would start with that same letter.
- Sticky Letter--Make 3x5 letter cards. Make several of the same letter. Work on one sound at a time. Have your child find an object in the house that begins with that sound and tape the card to it. Keep it up for a few days so that your child can be reminded of the sound each time they see the letter card.
- "I Spy" letter sounds -- "I spy something that begins with the sound of b." Or, say, "I spy a ____. What letter do you hear at the beginning of that word." This is great for waiting in line or driving in the car.
- Brainstorm--Give your child a sound and ask him/her to think of as many words as they can that start with that same sound.
- ABC Tub Games--Get a butter dish or small bowl. Gather several household objects that begin with the same letter sound and a few that don't. Your child must figure out which items begin with the same sound and put them in the bowl.
- Search the House -- Your child can search around the house for objects whose names begin with a certain letter. (exp. B- bananas, brush, band-aid, belt, etc.)
- Picture Sound Collage -- Ask your child to search through magazines, etc. for pictures that start with a certain letter. Have them glue all the pictures they find onto one sheet of paper to form a letter collage.
- Tongue Twisters -- Play with tongue twisters-traditional or made up! They are fun and emphasize the initial consonant. (exp. Pink pigs play with purple pegs.)
- ABC Memory—Find 1 picture that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Also, make flashcards, 1 for each letter. Play memory by asking your child to match each letter to it's corresponding picture. (exp. An apple with the letter Aa)
Sight Words
- Play Sight Word Twister This has to be the most fun we had reviewing sight words! Kids will be begging you to practice sight words this way. Place the sight words on a Twister mat!
- Sight Word Discovery Bottles -Fill an empty water bottle with beads and little strips of paper with the sight words printed on them. These are basically like playing "I Spy" in a bottle with sight words. What's not to love?
- Sight Word Craft Stick Puzzles So simple and fun. Write one letter on each craft stick. Just use craft sticks to spell out words & put them together like puzzles.
- Sight Word Island Jumping What kid doesn't enjoy jumping on the furniture? Put a sight word on each pillow/mat. Let them jump on pillows and cushions & practice their sight words at the same time.
- Shaving Cream Writing Tactile & fun! Practice spelling sight words in shaving cream.
- Slap It! Sight Word Game This one can be played so many ways but our fave way was definitely using fly swatters to slap the sight words! FUN!
- Catch the Sight Word Use balloons, beach balls or other inflatables to play Catch the Sight Word by writing the words on the inflatable.
- Playdough & Wikki Stix Sight Words Another fun way to practice spelling sight words is to use play dough, wikki stix, pipe cleaners, pebbles or any other fun materials you have on hand.
- Magnetic Writing Sight Words Magnetic letters on a magnetic board = FUN! Go ahead and practice those sight words on it too.
From: http://www.momto2poshlildivas.com/2011/06/sight-word-fun-learning-to-read-week-3.htm
• Sight Word Hopscotch Use sidewalk chalk to make a hopscotch with sight words in each square. Say the words as you hop.
- Wordo Played just like the game Bingo, but this version uses sight words instead of numbers on a grid card.
- Concentration Sight word concentration cards can easily be made using index cards. Simply write each word on two cards, shuffle and lay face down to play.
- Word Searches Create word searches featuring sight words or use one of the many available on the Internet.
- Go Fish Go fish cards can easily be made using index cards. Simply write each word on two cards, shuffle and deal to play.