Using Sight Words to Strengthen Sentence Writing

Teaching Early Learners to Write

Teaching early learners to write is one of the most challenging tasks a teacher has. When you consider what these kids will have learned to do by the end of the school year, you know that the teacher has done an amazing job! 

We also need to teach them sight words as well. What? Sight words?? They are just now learning to sound out three-letter words. DO NOT LET THIS STOP YOU FROM TEACHING THEM! As you begin to teach them, give them time to practice, encourage them, and they will begin to master these skills. It takes time and patience but it will happen.

Sight Word Sentence Writing

I have created a teaching resource where I have combined both skills, Sight Word Sentence Writing. This activity gives your students the opportunity to practice writing while using the sight words you are teaching them every week.

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I have taken Fry’s First 100 words and broken them into 4 sets with 25 words on each set. Set 1 has Fry's First 100 words 1-25.

There are 4 parts to each practice sheet.

• Ø In each practice sheet, students will have a color by sight word. Here they will isolate each sight word by coloring the entire word in one color. There should be no mistaking which sight word they would be working with for that day.

• Ø On each page, students will have a model sight word sentence to trace. This will provide them an example of what their sentence could look like. They will trace this model sentence because we know that the young learners are still needing to work on their letter formation.

My friend, Christy with Happy Hive Homeschool has created a very useful teaching resource, National Scribble Day Activities. She has the kids scribble, then they begin to control their scribbles to create a monster critter. To read more about this resource click on this link, Scribbles. What a clever approach to help kids improve their attempt at letter formation!

• Ø Then they get to have some challenging fun by unscrambling a set of words and correctly forming a sight word sentence.

• Ø Finally, they will write their own sight word sentence using the word on that sheet.

With this resource, students are seeing and ‘doing’ sentence writing in a variety of ways. 

Still Not Writing

    If students are not yet ready to independently write a complete sentence, I would still encourage them to write what they can. Even if they write a string of random letters, let them do this. As they attempt to do this, you will see how they progress. Soon you will see their string of letters looking like sets of letters that look like possible words, you will see them attempt to write the correct initial sounds. If you do not give them this opportunity on a regular basis, this process will take them longer to accomplish.

Sometimes it seems that it is impossible to teach these skills to our PreK, Kindergarten, and 1st-grade students. As teachers, we continue to find different ways to teach this to our students. This resource can be one of those approaches. It provides a regular chance to practice writing sentences and using sight words.

Set 2 Fry 26-50

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Set 3 Fry 51-75

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Set 4 Fry 76-100

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If you want to get some information on the bundle, go to Combining Sight Words and Sentence Writing.

Teacher friends, it's my goal to provide useful resources to help you be the best you can be for our young learners!

Debbie - Froggy About Teaching on Amped Up Learning

Froggy About Teaching on Teachers Pay Teachers

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