Sight Word

In Jumpstart last week, we were on the second implementation of “Dog’s Colorful Day.” While reading and asking questions, the girls in my reading group kept pointing out words they called “sight words.” They counted how many times they could find the word “the” or “to” on a page. Now, I was very proud of the questions I had decided to ask that day. “Dog’s Colorful Day” was very conducive to the types of questions and conversations I like to have with my scholars around the core storybooks. I had questions like, “I see that Dog got a red spot from jam, what other foods can you think of that are red?” and “If you had blue paint, what would you paint?” I wanted to make sure I could include as much discussion around MY questions as we could possibly fit in, because usually my reading group loves talking about stuff like that. But on this day, they were all about sight words. So that’s what we talked about, in addition to as many of my color questions as I could fit in with the time allowed. We counted how many sight words were on each page, and how they were used in the sentence. I was very excited about their ability to read! They were basically reading! I knew the girls in my classroom were very smart, they know all of their letter sounds and can spell many words so long as someone helps them sound it out. But having them point to a word in a book and be able to identify it was a very cool moment for me. I remember learning certain words and letter patterns to look for when I first learned to read (with a Dr. Seuss-type workbook involving all sorts of rhyming words). I just loved seeing that moment of them being so proud to share their new ability and knowledge with me. I have a cousin who is 2 years younger than me, who I taught how to ride a bike and whistle and blow bubbles with bubble gum, and the excitement of a new bit of knowledge is contagious. I couldn’t help smiling as the girls spelled “the,” “to,” “at,” “look,” and other words to me, because I could tell how excited they were by their new knowledge. I know that “sight words” aren’t part of the Jumpstart curriculum, and I am sure they learned them in their regular class time, but they were happy that I found a way to incorporate their new knowledge in with the book we had already read. Besides, we still had time to talk about ketchup and spaghetti, and painting the sky and oceans.

~Caitlin Simpson

Corps member

Team Compassion