My students need engaging and effective materials to help them learn sight words, which make up between 80-90% of all the words we read. Snapwords cards create a visual picture that helps students master sight words.
The students in my classroom come from all sorts of different backgrounds. We are a low-income school that prides ourselves on our student diversity. Teaching kindergarten means that my students enter the classroom on all different levels. Some have never been to school before and some are already reading.
Learning to read offers windows of opportunity for them to experience things that they may not get to do in their everyday lives.
Each day that they walk into my classroom is a new adventure for them. They enter the classroom eager to learn! I want my students to seize that opportunity and to develop and embrace a lifelong love of reading.
My Project
Sight words are important because they make up 80-90% of the words that appear in the books children read. If students know their sight words, they will be able to read! Children who can fluently recognize and read most of the words in a book can focus their energy on the small percent of unknown words.
Most struggling readers are visual learners who think in pictures, not symbols.
Many sight words are abstract and the child cannot create a visual of the word in her head. Another challenge for students is that many words in our language cannot be sounded out so they will have to be learned another way.
Some benefits of using these cards in my classroom will include:
*Children will stop trying to sound out common words that can't always be sounded out.
*They will capture the whole word as a picture.
*Their reading level, fluency, and comprehension will improve.
*Active children will capture words at a glance.
*Kinesthetic learners will have a body motion.
*Children can use their learning strengths.
*Children will become more confident readers.
These cards will be used in whole-group reading lessons, as well as in small-group teacher-led centers, and transitioned into independent centers. The letters and words will be taught whole group to all students. When students are working in small groups with the teacher, they will be working on words specific to their reading level. The cards can be used independently with students partner reading to each other and checking for errors. Best of all, I can continue to use them with other classes year after year.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Kernell and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
