Sight Word Flash Cards:Learning to Read

When The Boy was little, I had never heard of sight words.  Imagine my surprise when I learned during our very first parent/teacher conference that he was "behind" because he did not know his sight words.

Mommy failure.  {In Kindergarten!}

Having a second child means learning from past mistakes and getting a do-over card. The Short Chic is now 4. Kindergarten is within our sights. And I am determined to get her ready for it.

What are sight words?  They are words frequently used in our daily reading. It is said they make up nearly 75% of the words children will encounter. Why are sight words so important?  Well,  because the English language is complicated. Some times sounding out words is tricky. And often words do not sound as they are spelled. By learning site words a new reader can have success and can spend their effort on those words that need to be sounded out.

So, my latest project was to make her sight word flash cards. I started off by taking her with me to the craft store. She picked out the papers. I used three sheets of each: teal card stock, pink cardstock with glimmer, and three sheets of sparkly princess paper.

I then looked up Dolch sight words on the Internet, you can find them here. I decided to focus on the preschool words, she is only 4 after all!

I cut the pink and princess paper into strips. I used three inches wide and four inches long. I then secured them together with my scrapbook adhesive. I wanted a double sided flashcard. The solid pink was to be the background for the letters while the princess paper was just too pretty.

Next, I used my Cricut machine to cut out the site words. I used the teal card stock and the Alphalicious cartridge. I kept changing the font size. I used 2 1/2 inch font for the one-word words, 2 inch for the two-word words, ect.

After the words were cut out, I put them through my Xyron machine and turned them into little stickers.  I put the stickers onto the solid pink card stock (I think the teal/pink combination looks amazing). I also used a hole puncher and put a hole in the corner.

To keep her interested and just to jazz it up a bit more, I purchased some Disney die cuts and put them on the back side.  Have I mentioned to you all that my Short Chic loves Disney Princesses? So even if she does not have the patience at age 4 to learn sight words, I know she will be playing with the flash cards because she loves Princesses!

So, here is the coolest step. I took the completed cards to my local US Toy store and they laminated them for me. For $1.00!! Seriously! A dollar.  Who says a dollar can't buy anything any more. Lamination services at US Toy are FIFTY CENTS per FOOT!

I brought them home, cut them apart, taking great care to make sure they stayed a uniform size. I would recommend using a paper-cutter for this step.

I re-cut the hole in the corner and used it to attach all the flash cards to a D-ring. My husband picked up a cute Princess key-ring and I put that on the D-ring too. I hate to admit it, but it was the first thing she noticed, and squealed about.

Who says learning has to be boring?




I have linked up! Check out these super cool sites!

• Design Dazzle
• Pink Cricut
• A Law Student's Journey
• Serendipity and Spice
• It's a Blog Party: Show Me How
• Oopsey Daisy: Wednesday Wowziers
• Sassy Sites: FFA party!
• Six Sisters' Stuff: Strut Your Stuff