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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


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


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.


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’.


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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

find information and activities at: www ... - open sight wordsopensightwords.com/open sight words -...

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