The Dolch Sight Word list is a list of 220 words that make up between 50-70% of the words we encounter in text. Most of these words are “service words” that must be quickly recognized in order to read fluently. Many of the Dolch sight words cannot be “sounded out” and they need to learned by “sight”. Because recognizing these words is so important during reading, using a variety of activities to teach, practice and memorize the words is critical in teaching children to read. I’m such a believer in a hands-on approach to learning. Using hands-on activities (aka multi-sensory activities) children have a better chance of recognizing the word when reading and knowing how to spell the word during writing. To help with the organization part of multi-sensory teaching, I created these file folder activities so that you’d have everything you need right at your fingertips!
There are four bundles each containing 50 of the Dolch Sight Words (well, the final volume contains 70 complete the 220 sight words). There are many ways to store your file folder activities, but I found they fit perfectly in these file folder containers that I purchased at Office Max. Not only do the file folder fit in the containers, but the containers store great on shelving units. There’s a little bit of assembly required to create each file folder activity, but it’s super easy. Simply glue the templates on a file folder and laminate. The activities can be use over and over again and will last for years!
Each file folder contains two build word building activities. During the first activity, the student builds the word with Play-Doh and the second activity has the student building the word with magnetic letters. To help with letter recall of the word, the student traces each letter with his or her while saying the letter name at least 3 times (“t” “a” “k” “e” – take). This is an Orton-Gillingham technique.
It’s always important to transfer into writing right away. Using a dry erase marker, the student first traces the word and then has an opportunity for practice without the dotted lines.
Then, of course, we want the student to practice recognizing the word in text. The back of the file folder contains sentences with the targeted sight word. For the beginning lists, picture cues are used for the more difficult words. With these hands-on activities, our kiddos will be learning critical sight words in no time at all!
If you’d like to create your own file folder activities, you can find the templates in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Assembly directions are also included as well as the label for the file folder containers.
The File Folder Activities for the first 50 Dolch Sight Words can be found in my online Teachers Pay Teachers store or through the Make, Take & Teach website.
The File Folder Activities for the Dolch Sight Words 51-100 can also be found in my TpT store or through the Make, Take & Teach website.
Of course you can find the File Folder Activities for the Dolch Sight Words 101-150 in my TpT store or through the Make, Take & Teach website too!
The File Folder Activities for the Dolch Sight Words 151-200 can be found in my TpT store or through the Make, Take & Teach website.
