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TRANSCRIPT
Contents of this Pack
• About Open Sight Words
• The Word Lists
• The Word Lists Explained
• Using Open Sight Words
• Sight Word Booklets
Open
Sight
Words
A free sight-word program for use in schools
that use PM Benchmarking and PM readers.
Open Sight Words is a sight word program that I implemented atmy school to replace our old sight-word program. It’s designed forschools that use PM readers and PM Benchmarking. It was a huge
success in my school and other schools in my area have adoptedthe program and wanted to know more information about it. I’vecompiled information about my sight-word program to make iteasier to share with new schools that may be interested. I hopeyou find this useful!
Find information and activities at:www.opensightwords.com
Why did I create Open Sight Words?
I first had the idea for my own sight word
program when I started teaching. My school
was using a popular series of sight words but
I noticed that the words in this program
didn’t correlate to the words found in our
readers. I spent hours and hours going
through our low-levelled readers and
analysing the words used. I discovered that
some of their first-level sight-words in my
schools program didn’t even appear in our
readers until level 8.
I set to work creating my own set of sight
words that would work for my school. My
school used PM readers and PM
benchmarking. The word lists I’ve made
correlate to the PM series of books and help
students become familiar with words they
will frequently use in the beginnings stages
of writing. Each list is only 9-12 words, a
manageable amount for young learners.
Should you use Open Sight Words?
If your school uses PM Benchmarking and
PM readers, then this program will be
perfect for students who are reading at
levels 1-10. All you need is a printer!
Why I named the lists ‘Open Sight Words’
I named these lists Open Sight Words
because they are open to everyone to use.
I became a teacher because I wanted to
educate children. I believe education
should be free and I am happy to share my
lists with other schools that will benefit from
this program, because the children are the
ones who benefit.
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
That means you are able to share this
document as much as you want. You can
upload it, send it, and photocopy it.
You are allowed to make resources using
this word list but you must link back to
www.opensightwords.com
About Open Sight WordsSight Word Levels
There are ten different levels of sight words
which roughly correlate to a reader level, as
shown below:
My Research
I considered a few things when I made my
lists. This includes the frequency of the words
overall, the number of books they
appeared in, and their importance to the
early writer. My research included the
analysis of the reader books themselves, in
addition to consulting the Oxford Word List.
Below is a screenshot of my research in
progress:
Sight Word Level PM Reader Level
Pink 1-3
Red 3
Yellow 4
Blue 4
Green 5
Orange 6
Aqua 7
Purple 8
Brown 9
Grey 10
www.opensightwords.com
The Word Lists
is here the
come look at
I am too
up comes mum said
a on little to
hungry big no in
and for looked
you me see
are asleep my
can not happy shouted
looking mother go sees
going down oh goes
it’s can’t made
making have having
walked playing new
please again way
eat inside make
walk out this
coming with today
play I’m we
help back stay
they came like
will she after
thank some your
away went into
home he where
good ran cried
saw now then
without laugh take
that old off
Pink Words Red Words
Yellow Words Blue Words
Green Words Orange Words
Aqua Words
Grey WordsBrown Words
Purple Words
www.opensightwords.com
Pink Words
This is the first set of words and contains
the most frequently occurring words. The
words ‘is’ and ‘here’ were in every level 3
PM reader used in my research. The words
‘the’, ‘said’, ‘look’, ‘at’ and ‘come’
appeared in 60-90% of them. ‘I’ and ‘am’
do not appear as frequently as some of
the red words, but these are important
words for beginning writers, and they still
appear in the texts regularly.
Below is the text from a level 3 reader (The
Big Hill). Note the use of ‘look’, ‘at’, ‘is’
and ‘the’.
Red Words
The red words contain 12 more words that
are found in level 3 readers. Once
students know these, they will most likely
be reading level 3 texts independently. As
students advance in sight-word levels,
they begin to make connections
between words. For example: ‘comes’ is
the pink word ‘come’ with an ‘s’ on the
end.
In the above text, note the use of ‘big’
and ‘a’, two red words.
Yellow Words & Blue Words
Yellow & Blue words are the most frequently
occurring words found in level 4 readers.
‘Dad’ is a word that frequently occurs at
around this level but is not included as once
students get to level 4 texts they are able to
sound out ‘dad’ with reasonable ease.
The Word Lists ExplainedBelow is some text from the level 4 reader,
Lily’s Apple. Note the use of yellow words
such as ‘you’, ‘are’ and ‘my’. Pink and red
words ‘here’ and ‘said’ are also used.
Green Words
By the time students get to green words,
they have know 42 sight words. Green
words correlate to level 5 readers. From
this level students are only given 9 sight
words per level as they already have a
strong foundation.
Orange Words & Aqua Words
Orange and Aqua correlated to level 6
and 7 readers. Once students know words
such as ‘stay’, they can use suffixes such
as ‘ing’ and ‘ed’ to decipher words such
as ‘stayed’ and ‘staying’.
Purple Words
Purple words correlate to a level 8 reader.
By this stage students have a range of
strategies to decipher words that may not
be sight words. For example: The word
‘outside’ will appear in texts, but is not a
sight word. Students can use the
connection of ‘in’ and ‘inside’ and apply
it to ‘out’ and ‘outside’.
Brown Words & Grey Words
By the time students get to brown and
grey words, sight words are much less
important. Some teachers may not find as
much use for these two sight-word lists.
www.opensightwords.com
You are welcome to use the Open Sight
Words list however you like within your
classroom. Here I will explain how I’ve
implemented them in my Kindergarten
Classroom.
Sight Word Booklets
Each student in my class has a sight word
booklet. I’ve included the pages used to
make sight word booklets at the end of this
document.
I make the little booklets by photocopying
the pages onto coloured card and stapling
them together.
The sight word booklet goes home with the
student’s home readers so they can
practise the sight-word booklet with their
parents.
I test my students at least once a week on
their sight words. I usually do this as part of a
guided reading group. As I test, I sign each
word they get correct, or draw a little circle
for words they get wrong. Once they know
their whole set, I put a sticker on the front of
their sight word booklet.
I’ve included two front-covers for the sight-
word booklets depending on how many
word-lists you want to use. (8 or 10).
Word Wall
My classroom contains a word-wall which
displays each sight-word in the NSW
handwriting font. They are laminated and
have some Velcro on the back, so they are
easily removed by students for games or for
use in their writing. Having the words printed
in NSW handwriting font helps students use
correct letter formation.
I also include a selection of 30 other words
from the Oxford Word List which not Open
sight words. These are words that students
are more likely to use in their writing than
come across in their reading. This includes
words such as ‘was’, ‘because’ and
‘yesterday’.
Using Open Sight WordsLiteracy Activities
My school has literacy groups in the
morning, and ‘sight-words’ is often use as
one of their rotating activities. Here’s some
examples of literacy activities they may do
with their sight words:
Bingo
Each student gets a board with 6 sight
words. One student (or parent helper) calls
out the sight words one at a time. The
student who fills up their board first calls out
‘bingo’.
Font Match
The students are given 3-4 copies of their
sight words, with each copy in a different
font. Students need to match the words
together. This gives student practise reading
sight words in different fonts such as the
handwriting font, the sans serif book-font
found in readers, and serifs fonts in higher-
levelled readers that use the double story
‘a’ and ‘g’.
Memory
I have two copies of every word on cards.
Students lay them all face down and take
turns to make a ‘pair’.
Book Hunt
I usually do this activity after a guided
reading session. Students get a small
checklist of their sight-words and then look
through their reader trying to find as many
sight-words as they can. Sometimes they
may look in other books for the words too.
Swat the Bugs
Each of the sight-words is on a different
bug. When a sight-word is called out, the
student needs to find the bug with that
word and ‘swat it’.
www.opensightwords.com
Name:
Class:Open Sight
Words
pinkLevel 3
redLevel 3
yellowLevel 4
blueLevel 4
greenLevel 5
orangeLevel 6
aquaLevel 7
purpleLevel 8
brownLevel 9
greyLevel 10
Name:
Class:Open Sight
Words
pinkLevel 3
redLevel 3
yellowLevel 4
blueLevel 4
greenLevel 5
orangeLevel 6
aquaLevel 7
purpleLevel 8
brownLevel 9
greyLevel 10
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Name:
Class:Open Sight
Words
pinkLevel 3
redLevel 3
yellowLevel 4
blueLevel 4
greenLevel 5
orangeLevel 6
aquaLevel 7
purpleLevel 8
Name:
Class:Open Sight
Words
pinkLevel 3
redLevel 3
yellowLevel 4
blueLevel 4
greenLevel 5
orangeLevel 6
aquaLevel 7
purpleLevel 8
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Pink Words
Open
Sight
WordsPink Words
is here the
come look at
I am too
Open
Sight
Words
is here the
come look at
I am too
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Red Words
Open
Sight
WordsRed Words
Open
Sight
Words
up comes mum
a on little
hungry big no
to said in
up comes mum
a on little
hungry big no
to said in
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Yellow Words
Open
Sight
WordsYellow Words
and for looked
you me see
are asleep my
Open
Sight
Words
and for looked
you me see
are asleep my
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Blue Words
Open
Sight
WordsBlue Words
Open
Sight
Words
can not happy
looking mother go
going down oh
shouted sees goes
can not happy
looking mother go
going down oh
shouted sees goes
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Green Words
Open
Sight
WordsGreen Words
away went into
home he where
good ran cried
Open
Sight
Words
away went into
home he where
good ran cried
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Orange Words
Open
Sight
WordsOrange Words
they came like
will she after
thank some your
Open
Sight
Words
they came like
will she after
thank some your
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Aqua Words
Open
Sight
WordsAqua Words
coming with today
play I’m we
help back stay
Open
Sight
Words
coming with today
play I’m we
help back stay
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Purple Words
Open
Sight
WordsPurple Words
please again way
eat inside make
walk out this
Open
Sight
Words
please again way
eat inside make
walk out this
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Brown Words
Open
Sight
WordsBrown Words
it’s can’t made
making have having
walked playing new
Open
Sight
Words
it’s can’t made
making have having
walked playing new
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Grey Words
Open
Sight
WordsGrey Words
saw now then
without laugh take
that old off
Open
Sight
Words
saw now then
without laugh take
that old off
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
Gray Words
Open
Sight
WordsGray Words
saw now then
without laugh take
that old off
Open
Sight
Words
saw now then
without laugh take
that old off
www.opensightwords.com
www.opensightwords.com
is here
come look
I am
the at
too
mum little
up comes
a on
hungry big
to said
no in
and for
you me
are asleep
looked see
my
can not
looking mother
going down
shouted sees
happy goes
oh go
away went
home he
good ran
into where
cried
they came
will she
thank some
like after
you
coming with
play I’m
help back
today we
stay
please again
eat inside
walk out
make this
way
it’s can’t
making have
walked playing
made having
new
saw now
without laugh
that old
then take
off