Hopefully, everyone is having a fun, safe and relaxing summer! Unfortunately, mine has had a little bump in the road as my 6 year old broke her arm last weekend. So, I’ve been working on coming up with stuff for her to do that takes her mind off of wanting to be in the water or on her wakeboard behind the boat… so, Sight Words! Of course! What better substitute for wakeboarding! (She loves her daddy). Going into 1st grade, she is doing OK with phonics, but sight words are important for all students and something fairly easy and fun to practice during downtime…and easily doable with only 1-hand/arm on the mouse for my little broken one! The two computers my daughter has access to are smaller w/out the latest memory and graphics capability. One of them runs Windows XP and the other runs Linux. So, with these 2 constraints in mind, I set out on the web to find the best free Sight Word websites or Windows applications I could! Here’s what I’ve come up with:
Quiz-Tree: Word Searches, Dolch Word Lists and Free downloadable Sight Word Software. For example, here’s a screenshot of a Talking Sight Word Chart by grade level:
So, nothing real fancy at Quiz Tree Sight Words, but it’s quick, free and easy to get to with an internet browser in Mac, Windows or Linux! Quiz Tree also has Sight Words Buddy downloadable program for Windows. See Below. Quiz Tree: http://www.quiz-tree.com/Sight-Words_main.html
Sight-Safe:Lots of various sight-types of learning activities here. Some are freeware and some are shareware. There are apps and sites here that support text sight reading and others that work on music sight reading. http://sight.safe-install.com/
Sight-Words Buddy 1.1:Sight-Words Buddy 1.1is a FREE downloadable application for Windows. So, this one won’t work on the Mac or Linux systems, but see below for a Mac application. Students have to match the printed version of a sight word when they hear it auditorily. It will give you a percentage correct with one click and will tell you exactly which words your student/child missed. Your student can change the skin to make the program look a little different and you can choose word sets based on grade level. The only think I would love to have added to any of these sight word programs is the ability to upload/add my own words. Anyway, definitely download this small free app for Windows here: http://www.quiz-tree.com/sight-words-buddy.html
iFlash (Mac): I had a much more difficult time finding good free sight word apps for the Mac, but here is a flash card creator that runs on the Mac. It is not free ($14.95) but offers a free trial download here: http://www.loopware.com/iflash/
Genius (Mac): This one is free, but doesn’t quite offer all the functionality of iFlash above. This one is for the Mac and allows a student to practice, learn and review any information that needs to be memorized. http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/13938
