Working on New Words with Flashcards

One way to work on sight words with your child is using flashcards multiple times each day. If you choose to do this, a very effective way to assist your child in retaining the words long term is to present new words one at a time, mixed in with old words your child has learned over the past week, month and year. Introduce 1 – 3 new words each day. (How many new words you are able to introduce each day depends on how easily your child is able to retain the words long term.

Here is a sample presentation of flashcards:

1. NEW WORD #1 (introduce and talk about new word)
2. A known word #1
3. NEW WORD #1  (again – the new word is repeated often)
4. A known word  #1
5. A known word #2
6. NEW WORD #1
7. A known word #1
8. A known word #2
9. A known word #3
10. NEW WORD #1
11. A known word #1
12. A known word #2
13. A known word #3
14. A known word #4
15. NEW WORD #1
16. A known word #1
17. A known word #2
18. A known word #3
19. A known word #4
20. A known word #5
21. Mix up this pack of 6 and make sure all words are read correctly.

At this point the new word is considered a known word and is left in the pack as ‘known word #1.’ and another New Word can be introduced. The oldest known word is added to the main review pack, which should be reviewed daily. The pack of 6 cards represented above should be practiced many times each day.

When introducing a new word it is important to work with your child to define it clearly and use it in many sentences.

If your child struggles with a new word, implementing activities such as writing, saying and spelling out loud (possibly while bouncing a ball), creating the word in clay, making a visual for the word, and other such activities should be used.