Sight Words And Book Bags

When my children were in Kindergarten they had a fabulous teacher, who shared many things with me. We would send ideas and things we do in our classes back and forth to each other in my children's back pack (first my daughter had her, then the very next year, my son had her).  She ended up inspiring many organizational ideas that I still use in my class and passed ideas onto other teachers in my grade level. One of them was book bags. The way I do it is very simplistic that many of you may be nodding your heads thinking "I do that too" or "I know someone who does something similiar" and that's awesome for me because it shows great minds really do think alike!

Book Bags

Very simple. A freezer bag. That's it. A freezer bag with their name written on it and a card stock paper inside that says where to return if found, since I do put real books in the bag. I find slider bags are easiest for kids to open and close but regular Ziploc kinds work well too. These bags serve a multi purpose for my class. They contain not only books they read at home (both real and paper), but notes from home, parent signed papers, AR book logs and sight word bags. The kids have to return them every single day whether they are empty or not into my book box. I set this box outside my door every morning so the kids can put their book bags in before heading off to morning recess. Each morning, while the kids complete their bell work,  I checked each bag for notes from parents, books that needed to be returned and who still needed an AR or sight words test to be set aside for later. The rest would go back into the cubbies. The fact that the bags were see through and easy to replace were the best things about the bags.

Sight Word bags

These were kept in sandwich bags and inside the book bag. They each contained the sight word list the student was working on, flash cards for words on their list they didn't know, and the sight word lists the student had passed. All my students were working at different places so I kept track using a manilla folder and mini post it's with their names on it. As they moved up list numbers, so did their names. This way I could see where they were working at a glance. I am lucky enough to have a college intern working in my class so testing and keeping part of this data was her job. However, I think this is completely manageable on your own. Each list is printed on card stock and on different color paper. This makes it easier to keep the lists separate and visual for the parents ("oh, I haven't seen a pink list in the bag before").

As the student reads their list, they get to put a small sticker on the ones they know. Letting the students put the sticker makes it more engaging for the student. When the students is within 3 words of completing their word card, they are given a chance to work on the next card up. All of the word cards have 18 words on them. Starting with the Dolch Pre Primer words, I let my littles work as far as their little brains will let them. Last year I had a student get all the way to list 16 out of 18!! He would have kept going if Kindergarten hadn't ended, dangit!

Since the sight word baggies are in the book bags and go home every night, I also keep flash cards for the words they are still working on in the bag. This way the parents can practice with the children all week until we test again.  Testing generally falls on Monday and Tuesdays.

I have used this system of book bags and sight word bags in my classroom successfully for 2 years now. Do you use book bags in your classroom? How do you keep track of sight word progress? I'd love to hear what you do!

If you would like to purchase my sight word assessment, I have them listed in my TPT shop! I added an assessment recording sheet to go along with it and the lists are based on Dolch Pre Primer, Primer, 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade lists as well as the Dolch Noun lists. It includes over 300 words!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Assessment-Dolch-word-lists-1923929