Beaded Bracelets With Sight Words!

     My sight word bracelets were such a hit in my classroom today that I just HAD to come home and blog about them!  If you follow my store (or have a student in my class), you might notice that I'm a little bit obsessed with bracelets this year.  (Well, any sort of "wearable" really, as you might soon see if I have time to put it together.)  Anyway, here's what we did today . . .

Today, we made sight word bracelets for the word "THE."  

     I think I should just stop looking at any sort of catalog that comes to my house.  The School Supply and Oriental Trading Company ones should go straight to the recycle bin, as a matter of fact.  But, they don't!  I just happened to check out the craft pages and spied these big letter beads with large holes, just perfect for little hands.  (Click HERE to see them.  Scroll on down the page for similar, cheaper options.)  Of course, they are just perfect for spelling sight words!  
     A few great things came out of this that make me eager to keep doing more sight words:  

1) My students really enjoyed this activity.  They worked on fine motor skills, did patterning (it was optional today), identified letters, and read the word.
2) Everyone was eager to read their word to someone else, including friends on the playground, another teacher, or a parent.  Reading the word over and over was exactly what I wanted to see!
3) You know they like something when they wear it ALL DAY!  

     Of course, this activity would get to be "old hat" after a while, so I plan to do it only a couple of times a month, focusing on main sight words.  Well, really on the sight words that I have the letters for.  For example, we used almost all of the Ts today, so any word with T is out of the running for now.   

     Anyway, I would highly encourage you to make sight word bracelets with your students.  They're sure to be a hit!

Happy teaching!  
Tammy