Sight Word Street

The big ideas

What the levels teach, in grown-up words.

• Some words are everywhere. About a hundred little words (the, and, is, of, to) make up half of everything we read. Knowing them on sight frees the reader to sound out the rest.
• Tricky words are learned by heart. Said, was and they do not follow the sound rules, so they are remembered as whole shapes. Seeing them many times is what makes them stick.
• An apostrophe marks missing letters. Do not squashes into don't; the apostrophe stands where the o used to be. Won't is the odd one out: will not changes more than it drops.
• Words can be built from words. Sunflower is sun plus flower, and spotting the two words inside makes a long word easy. Plurals usually add s, add es after s, x, sh and ch, and a few change completely: mice, feet, teeth.
• Same sound, different word. Pear and pair, one and won, knight and night sound alike; the spelling tells readers which meaning is meant. English has hundreds of these homophones.

Try it at home

Quick experiments that match the game.

1. Word hunt in a book. Pick one sight word (the, and, is) and count how many times it appears on a page. Then try another word.
2. Word wall. Write the words from the game on cards and stick them on the fridge. Add one new word a week and read the wall together at breakfast.
3. Squash it. Say two words and squash them: do not... don't! Can not... can't! Then say the short one and ask for the long one.
4. Compound building. Look around the house for compound words: toothbrush, bedroom, sunlight, cupcake. Say the two words inside each one.