Power Words

Power Words are 'high frequency' sight words that are taught to students beginning in Kindergarten. We use these words each day in our conversations with each other and in our reading and writing. As students work with these words and begin to commit them to memory, the easier it will be for them to progress in their reading and writing skills.

How to introduce a Power Word:
Print off and post the entire list of Power Words in a prominent location in your home near the area where your child is doing his/her school work. The list can be found on this blog in the 'Downloads' section to the right of this post. Each day a Power Word is introduced to the students, beginning at the top of the list with the word 'a.' To date, we have already introduced a, and, away, big, blue, can, come & down. Our next introduction will be the word 'find.' Here is how we do it in the classroom...

-Write the word onto a piece of paper, a whiteboard or a card. Show it to your child. Talk about how many letters are in the word. What are their names? Are they sky, grass or dirt letters (More on that in a moment)?
-Have your child look at the word and say it with you several times.
-As the parent, orally use the word in a few sentences. (e.g., The Easter Bunny hopes that we find all of the eggs he will leave for us.)
-Together, spell the word out...f--i--n--d.
-Ask your child to 'cheer' the word using sky/grass/dirt arm gestures (s/he will understand what you mean by that and can teach you to do it with him/her. Sky letters are letters like 'f 'and 'd'--hands high above your head, grass letters are letters like 'i' and 'n'--hands on your waist, dirt letters are letters like 'g' and 'y' and 'p'--hands touching the ground).
-Ask your child to 'write the word' in the sky or on the floor or in the palm of their hand using their finger.
-You may ask your child to think of a sentence using the word and share it with you, too.
-Then, tell your child to read through the list 3-5 times with you in order up to and including the word that you have just introduced. Remind them that they need to look directly at the word they are reading and say the word which you are touching under. This is very important in committing the words to memory. 

Try to introduce a new word every other day. Be sure and read through the word list in order each day repeatedly 3-5 times in one sitting. As you sense that your child is beginning to commit these words to his/her memory, you may want to put them on flashcards and present them to him/her out of order. I would only recommend this for SK's who are confident and demonstrating ease with their word learning. 

As you read stories to your child OR your child reads stories to you, point out Power Words that you run across. Praise them for recognizing these words. Encourage them to also use these words in their writing. Expecting too much too soon can lead to your child feeling overwhelmed and defeated by the process. **JK parents may want to scale all of this back a bit and just introduce the words and read through them 3 times each day.**

Have fun with this activity. Make it a small part of your daily learning routine. You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your child will catch on and learn these important Power Words (sight words).