How I Teach Sight Words in Kindergarten with Sight Word Stations

I can not wait to share with you how I teach sight words in Kindergarten. Last year I  worked on the idea to create sight word stations. My goal was to get my students to really WORK with sight words for a small chunk of time each day. I want them to read, build, write, and use sight words in engaging activities. We are talking about using explicit, direct instruction followed by actual time to work on learning the word. What were the results? Amazing. Let me tell you about sight word stations.

How I Teach Sight Words in Kindergarten in Stages

1. We start by starting to change the conversation with parents to change our conversation from sight words to high-frequency words. We are starting this transition in the 2023-2024 school year. If you are wondering why I am still referring to high-frequency words as sight words, it is because I have to find those who still call high-frequency words sight words so we can change that conversation.
2. Then, we work on the process of orthographically mapping words to help brains learn new words for them. We do this every single Monday.
3. Next, we work on Sight Word Stations Tuesday- Thursday to focus on using these words. This focuses on working on these words in fun ways with and different ways.
4. On Fridays, we review all the words we have previously learned this year by playing review games.

What Happened When We Started Sight Word Stations?

When we started Sight Word Station last year it was a HUGE hit. My students ran to their stations and complained when we left. Their sight word retention increased, but more importantly their ability to USE their sight words in writing drastically increased.

How We Start Sight Word Stations

Therefore this year, I made it my mission to start these sight word stations MUCH earlier. In fact, we started working on learning each station during the second week of school. We did each “week” over a two-week period of time, learning how to complete each activity.  I paid close attention to my students’ sight word retention, their use of those words in reading and writing activities, and their attention span in activities. I teach my students how to complete each sight word activity in small groups.

Then, we accelerated our stations to doing each “week” during a one-week period of time. Again, I paid close attention to the needs and abilities of my students. I moved only at their pace. We also started doing actual independent station time now too. 10-20 minutes a day of JUST open choice sight word stations. Once the light bulb illuminates, they could not get enough words.

Sight Word Stations Set Up

My class has successfully completed all the PrePrimer Sight Word Stations within the first 12 weeks of school. We have moved on to the Primer Sight Word Stations this past week.  I have taken some pictures over the past few weeks of our amazing sight word adventures… so hand on tight to see what we have been doing.

Clean Up From Last Week and Reset Sight Word Stations

Now, let’s talk about How I Teach Sight Words in Kindergarten when it comes to resetting from one week to another. Time is critical. First, on Friday afternoons, I lay out the baskets from the week before.

Prep for the New Week

After I put away the words and activities from the week before, I flip to the next section of the binder to grab the activities for the next set of sight words. So once I grab those activities, I put the new words in the baskets.

Because of this structure, Reset is extremely easy. First, I print the copies in just a few minutes. This week needed 3 sets of copies. Then I fold the tent piece in the orange basket and add the words to the die for the yellow. The hardest part is laminating the pieces and cutting them apart. This takes maybe 5 minutes too.

Let’s Break Down Some Sight Word Station Options

1. Secret Code Words

Here are some of the activities we work on during this station time. Here is an example of our Secret Code Words activity. We break the code to make our sight words, using the code breaker at the bottom of the page. Once we are done, we scan the QR code to check our work.

2. Roll the Word

This activity is called Roll the Word. We roll the die and graph which word lands on top. We say each letter of the word as we write it. I included a cube in the pack if you don’t have the foam dice to make this. This game is a great way to practice writing sight words and using math skills.

3. Unscramble the Sentence

 This activity allows students to unscramble the sentence. There are colorful pocket card-sized cards and worksheets. My students love to use colorful sentence scrambles on pocket charts. As a follow-up activity, we use these printables to practice sentence scrambles independently.

Each pack comes with at least 2 sentences to scramble sets. Each set has one pocket chart sentence and one worksheet for each sentence. The cards and the sheets match each week. These example photos came from different packs over the past few weeks.

4. Word Puzzles

Another table activity is the word puzzles. I set up the folded paper as the tent. This gives my little learners an extra easy word enforcer to help them build the words.

5. Sight Word Memory

The easiest table station is memory.  It is a student favorite. I make sure my little wonderfuls practice saying the words as they flip it over. That is the most important part. If they don’t know the word they turn over, they can ask their friends around them. They can even ask me!

6. Painting Sight Words

One of the sure-fire FUN ways to use sight words is with the painting sheets.  Who doesn’t want to use watercolors to make sight words? I feel like painting should be a standard in every Kindergarten classroom, but I know that some teachers have administration restraints. Painting sight words may be a way you can sneak painting into your classroom.

7. Check Out Snap Words

Next, I also love to use these awesome sight word cards from Child 1st. They are called Snap Words… and I have used them for years! I actually bought a second set for my own child to use at home! Here are her baggies with a smiling face for YES and a frown face for no. We used them for months at home with enormous success, and my own kinder know ALL her sight words.

 8. LISTENING TO WORDS WITHOUT THE TEACHER

Also, check out these QR Scan & Learn Sight Word Books…

My students can scan and HEAR me read the words to them with a supportive sentence. I have a PrePrimer Book, Primer Book, and 1st Grade Book. {These are divisions of the Dolch sight words.}

You can NOW create YOUR OWN EDITABLE sight words!

CLICK HERE to check out these files to help with How I Teach Sight Words in Kindergarten.

I hope you got some ideas on some great sight word activities you can use in your classroom. Here is a link to older posts all about Sight Word Stations. You can buy the bundles to save on the cost, as I always discount the bundles. There is no code needed to get this discount.

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