Sight Word Task Cards Year Round
Sight words are some of the most common words that occur in student text. Sometimes they do follow phonics rules, but many times we have to memorize them by sight. I love the approach of ‘heart words’ when teaching students to decode and recognize these common sight words when reading and writing. According to Fry, "sight words account for up to 75% of the words in children's books."
Keep students engaged in learning sight words year round!
Why use task cards?
Task cards are a great way to help students work independently on decoding, fluently reading and writing sight words. Repetition and practice are crucial. Activities like flashcards, word walls, and interactive games help reinforce sight word recognition. Another great thing about sight word task cards is their versatility! Put them in a center with stamps, markers & a white crayon, play dough, letter tiles or magnet letters and have students practice reading and spelling them. Multisensory approaches, incorporating visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles, enhance retention. If you have students who love to be up and moving, place the sight word task cards around them room and play musical chairs! When the music stops, the students read as many sight word cards as they can.
How to prepare task cards:
This set of sight word task cards includes all 100 Fry words for 2nd grade, but also incudes editable cards and tracking sheet if you have your own set of sight words you use in the classroom.
Choose the season or holiday task card.
Print & laminate.
Print out worksheets for centers.
Store in boxes, plastic bags, mini accordion folders, recipe boxes etc
When to use task cards:
Phonics centers
Early finishers
Substitute activities
Task card games & activities:
Use these for independent work, partner work or whole group activities. Here are some ways I love to use these sight words with my 2nd graders.
Stamp the word on the task card in playdough.
Write the words with a white crayon on white paper and color over it with markers.
Play musical chairs. When the music stops, the students will run to the cards and read as many as possible.
Go on a scavenger hunt. Place the word cards around the room and have students write down on a whiteboard the ones they find.
Use the worksheets included to have students work at centers to read and write the high frequency sight words.
How to assess:
Use the tracking sheet and have students color in when they have mastered reading and writing a word. I like to use a corresponding Google Sheet to keep track of the words they are still working on. This helps at conference time or RTI meetings when you need to present data on sight words and reading. As students have mastered a word, pull them aside and use the task cards or a copy of their tracking sheet and have them read the words and write them in a sentence to prove mastery and application.
Science of Reading
We all know with the current research in the science of reading and how the brain processes information that decoding is ESSENTIAL to reading. However, when students are struggling with decoding words, they can often become frustrated and regress in reading. According to Dr. Linnea Ehri, "Sight word recognition is a crucial component of reading proficiency. It allows children to read more fluently and focus on comprehending the text rather than decoding each word." The more sight words a student can recognize, the more room their brain has to focus on decoding and understanding what they are reading.