Sight Word Sentence Journal

After completing our CVC journal (after learning to write our names), we move onto our sight word sentence journal. By this time, we have learned most of our first sight words, the RED set (a, like, my, see, have, the), so the Sight Word Writing Journal is a great reinforcement practice.

As always I only have so much time in a half day kindergarten class, so I utilize and do as much learning and practice in one lesson as possible.

10 standards = 10 minutes

Kindergarten Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1.a
Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1.b
Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.1.c
Understand that words are separated by spaces in print. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.3.c
Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.4
Read emergent-reader texts with purpose and understanding. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.1.a
Print many upper- and lowercase letters.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2.a
Capitalize the first word in a sentence and the pronoun. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2.b
Recognize and name end punctuation. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.5.c
Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note places at school that are colorful). CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.K.1
Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic.

The journal can be compiled with similar pages copied together or mix them up.

Teaching and Scaffolding the Journal

We only complete 1 page a day. This is their first “writing a sentence” lesson we do.

Look at the pictures. The pictures are labeled underneath the picture. We will need that word to write in our sentence. I show my students, using my doc camera, how to point with my index finger under each word/picture. We are learning to read, so we use our finger to help our eyes focus on the words we are reading. Watch how I point under the words and read these pictures. I point and read the pictures and labels. Now it is your turn. Whisper read your labels. This is when I go help different students every day to point and whisper read.

Now it is time to read our sentence. Put your finger underneath the first word. I model this on the projector. Let’s read the first word together. “I” Now we move our finger over to the next word. There is a white space in between the words to help us see that this is a new word. What is the 2nd word? “like” So far we have read “I like”– while moving my index finger under each word.

Now we decide which picture is our favorite one for the sentence. I call on a few students to tell which is their choice. I then point to my favorite. This is my favorite. I like hamburgers. I am going to write this word (point to hamburger) on my line. It might not be your favorite and that is ok. You might want to write hot dog like…. I am going to write hamburger. (write it)

Now it is your turn. Pick your favorite and write it on the line. Again, you do not need to write hamburger, pick your favorite and write that word. When you finish writing that word, you may color in one picture that you wrote about. I then walk around and monitor.

Differentiated to meet the needs of students:

This journal is DIFFERIENTATED for average student and the higher student (at least that is how it is for my school/kindergartners). The traceable could be for your lower students, but for us it is the average. I do have some students that are ready for a bit of a challenge and they are given the copy journals. The journal has the sentence, but they need to write it on the line while the others trace it.

This is the 2nd journal (shared writing) we do in the school year. We start it about end of October or first of November. It all depends on where we are starting with knowing how to write our names. (We start the school year writing our names, then do the CVC Journal to learn the foundations or reading and writing together! The CVC Journal is detailed in it’s own post! Check it out:

A CVC Labeling Journal

If you are interested in this awesome 10 standards = 10 minutes Sight Word Writing Journal, check it out on TeachersPayTeachers! It is a fantastic resource!