One of the best ways to teach children to read is, of course, to have them read.  When they are in the very early stages of reading, there are not that many books out there that offer more than you can make at home. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of wonderful books and resources out there, but if you do not want to spend the money on them and you would like to personalize your books for your child, then this activity is for you.  There is a bit of prep work involved, but depending how “perfect” you want your books to be will determine how much time you spend.

Creating a Sight Word Book

First of all, when creating the book, I wanted to keep in mind what research says about boys and reading.

• Research says boys want to read about themselves and to picture themselves in the story.
• Research says boys are more likely to read about things they are passionate about.

• with my son as the main character
• that incorporated all the different kinds of vehicles he loves.
• that uses the sight words we were working on.

• I Googled “free vehicle clip art” and found  what I was looking for. I chose a picture of a car, a boat, a train, a truck and a bus.

• I printed each picture and cut them out.

•  I then grabbed a picture of my son, put it in a word document, made it really small and printed it 5 times.

•  I wrote the text- remembering the words I wanted have him practice– is, in and the. I printed the text out from my computer and then cut them out as strips.  The text was super simple. It read–Cooper is in the car. Cooper is in the boat. Cooper is in the train. Cooper is in the bus.

• I then took a few sheets of paper, cut them to the size I wanted, put a cover of colored paper on the back and the front then stapled one edge. On each page  I glued
  –a picture of a vehicle
  –my son’s picture in the driver’s seat
  –the text at the top of the page.
• The last thing I did was “color” each word the same color as the card it was written on on our word wall. See picture below. I did this in order to be sure my son understood the connection between the words in the book and the words on his word wall.

The book was done and ready to read. I showed it to my son. He was immediately able to read all the sight words and figured out the rest of the words based on the picture clues.  And, he didn’t need any help from me! It was a success!

Cooper is in…

A personalized book that focuses on the sight words is, in and the.

A sample page.
Note how the “color” of each word corresponds with the color paper on his word wall.

Another sample page

Final sample page

Another Example

Cooper Likes to Swim

A personalized book that focuses on the sight words likes, to, and he and reviews the words is, in and the.

© www.boymamateachermama.com 2012