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Sight Word Practice on the iPad

Sight words are a big part of learning how to read, so I am frequently trying out new ways to make learning sight words exciting. Recently, I added a quick, simple activity to our weekly sight word practice.  
First,  my little friends each chose a sight word they knew from our pile. Then, using the free ShowMe app, they took a picture of their sight word card, then wrote the sight word and last they recorded themselves using their sight word in a sentence. 
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 I love that all three steps: taking a picture, writing and talking/recording can all be done right within the app so there is no need to switch back and forth between apps.  There are just a few steps to follow to get these all done- click the picture icon, snap the picture, select use & done. Then simply choose the marker color of choice and use your finger to write the word. Last step- just click the red record button and say the sentence. You can then save and listen to each recording! 

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 After recording their voices, we played through each one and listened to their sentence. Oh my, did my little friends ever love hearing their voices coming from the iPads…it was so cute- they couldn’t stop giggling with each recording! ShowMe is such a kid friendly app and can pretty much be used for anything and everything. This is definitely one of my top used apps in my classroom and I love it!

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This activity is great for a center or small guided work, even if you just have one iPad. I will be doing this at least once a week since they loved it so much and it helps them practice their sight words. Thanks to the amazing Holly over at Fourth Grade Flipper for hosting Tried It Tuesday!
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Have a great day!
Aylin

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Picture of Aylin Claahsen

Aylin Claahsen

Providing resources and support to engage all readers.

24 Responses

  1. This is a great idea to reinforce high frequency words and even get in a little handwriting and grammar! I'll be trying this out with my firsties- thank you for sharing 🙂

  2. I'm going to try this with some of my kinders. I like reading and writing aspects with this very much and they would go nuts hearing themselves speak. Wonderful as always!

    Also, check out ChatterPix–you might be able to incorporate that to some of this. I don't want to spoil the app because it is really cool for kids.

    matt
    Digital: Divide & Conquer

  3. What a neat idea! I have 1 iPad to use with my kindergarten Title I small groups. They struggle to learn sight words, and I struggle to use technology since I am tech-illiterate. 🙂 How do I get apps on the iPad? They need to be free. Also, what are the other students doing while the one is using the iPad? I'm not sure how to manage it with 7 students. Thanks!

  4. Awesome idea! I saw this post and thought I'd share my recent experience with Show Me. We got into a discussion about animal noises or something during lunch and I know they all like that annoying song we all LOVE "What Does the Fox Say?" because our kinders are singing it. So, I suggested maybe we should make a video about "What does the say?" But then I said, "Well, it really needs to be educational so maybe we could record our sight words instead." I have some shy kids so I opened the show me app instead. We discussed using hand signals, so everyone would hear the kids voices and not mine since I was holding the iPAD. They all gathered around. I pressed record and started writing a sight word. As I wrote, they would spell the sight word out loud then sing and it went something like this, "T – H – E! What does the THE say? the the the the the the the the the," etc., and so on. I'm sure you get the picture. They LOVED it and I LOVE the Show Me app because it's so simple.

  5. I downloaded it tonight and played with it! Loved the explore section too. I can't take a picture in the app. When I click on the picture, the only option I get is "choose photo" from my camera roll. Do I need to do something else? Thanks for sharing this great app!

  6. Hi Lee Ann,
    I'm excited for you that you have iPad to use with your small groups! Go to the App Store on your iPad, touch the Search button (looks like a magnifying glass) and then type in Show Me Interactive Whiteboard. Then the image that I have above should show up and you can click Free/Install and it will install it on your iPad. You can then hit Open once it has downloaded, or just find it on your iPad. I would have my other students doing other activities either directly with you or some sort of literacy center and then allow each child to have a turn with the iPad to do this sight word activity. It shouldn't take more than 3 minutes per child, so you could possibly give each child a chance in one 30 minute session…or just split it among a few days!
    Hope this helps!
    Aylin 🙂

  7. Gina- I LOVE your idea! Singing it along to "what does the fox say" had to make this so very fun- that recording has to be hilarious! I'm totally going to use your idea this week- thanks so much for sharing!
    Aylin

  8. Hi Kimberly,
    I'm excited you downloaded and are loving it already! I'm not sure why the "take a picture" option isn't popping up for you– but it can still work with the "choose photo" option. Your students (or you) will just have to take the extra step of taking a photo outside of the app with the iPad camera. Once they take the picture there, you can follow the same steps but just choose the photo from the camera roll- it should all work the same from there.
    Hope this helps!
    Aylin 🙂

  9. The option of taking a picture while still in the app is no longer in the latest version. Another app that does let you do that is edureations. It's very similar!

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Hi, I'm Aylin!

I’m so happy you’re here! I’m a certified reading specialist who loves talking all things literacy. I have a huge passion for providing resources and support to engage all readers!

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