As we near the end of the school year, my son and I have been talking about "getting ready for first grade."
In preparation of this big step to full day/full week schooling I brought out my handy-dandy list of the 100 most common used words in English.
In preparation of this big step to full day/full week schooling I brought out my handy-dandy list of the 100 most common used words in English.
You can find several variations of this list online
with the gold standard being the Dolch Word List.
with the gold standard being the Dolch Word List.
My son and I have begun to read this list, marking those he can read with ease. Our goal is to have them mastered by the start of classes in the fall, which shouldn't be too difficult as he's intrigued by the task.
As we practice this '100 words list' my son is starting to memorize the small words that he will see most frequently. Relying on phonics skills to sound out each letter in a word is accurate but slow. Memorizing the words will allow him to speed up his pace as well as give his attention to more difficult vocabulary words.
I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want my son to know as he finishes kindergarten. Stay tuned for a few other projects we are tackling and please share your own 'preparation plans.' I'm all ears!
As we practice this '100 words list' my son is starting to memorize the small words that he will see most frequently. Relying on phonics skills to sound out each letter in a word is accurate but slow. Memorizing the words will allow him to speed up his pace as well as give his attention to more difficult vocabulary words.
I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want my son to know as he finishes kindergarten. Stay tuned for a few other projects we are tackling and please share your own 'preparation plans.' I'm all ears!