Today I have just a quick little post with a downloadable freebie of a Sight Word Graph! I hope you like it and are able to put it to good use. I am writing this as I am on my way to the International Reading Association Conference! I am excited to be presenting two sessions there on Sunday in the beautiful city of San Antonio, Texas, home of the beautiful RiverWalk and the world famous Alamo!
My first session at IRA is called “Musical Fun for Phonics and Tips for Teaching Kids to Sound Out Words.” This will be a two hour and 45 minute workshop, and attendance is limited to just 75 people so that participants can really ask questions, etc. The second session is called “Developmentally Appropriate Ways to Get K/1 Students Writing- Fast!” and lasts just one hour, but the room capacity allows for 216 people. I am really excited to have the privilege to present at this wonderful event! Plus, presenting only two sessions sounds like a piece of cake to me (I usually do four sessions a day with SDE,) so I am looking forward to a wonderful long weekend.
The IRA website says that they are expecting about 10,000 attendees and will have 500 sessions to choose from! The exhibit hall alone is likely to be spectacular. I am also really happy to have a traveling companion this time, since my hubby is coming along- hooray! I think that the highlight will be hearing Mo Willems speak on Monday morning before we have to fly home. I love his books!
And now, on to the Sight Word Graph! I originally saw this activity done in the kindergarten classroom next door to mine, (as in the picture shown below) and was given permission to share it with you here!
This activity was designed to be done in a whole group setting, drawing just one word per day, but would probably also work in a small group as well with some modifications. For example, you could have your students draw cards and then fill in a box for each word that comes up. Then they would keep going until the graph is completed all in one day.
My class does this daily as a part of our morning calendar routine. This is the procedure:
1. Each day, our helper of the day chooses one sight word flash card out of the bag and reads it.
2. That child finds that word on the graph and colors it in (or tapes a square piece of paper) on a corresponding space for that word on the grid.
3. Then the class sings that sight word song from one of the Sing and Spell the Sight Word CD’s!
4. To finish up the activity, ask the children which word has the most and the least amount of boxes filled in on the graph, and if any of them are equal.
The copy that I provided includes the words that seem to be the hardest ones for my students this year. However, I included a blank master so that you can change the words to suit your own students’ needs. You might be able to put it into a page protector and use dry erase markers as shown in one of the examples above.
If you would like to try this, just click here to download the graph. Have fun!
Heidi 
