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"Buggy" (Tricky) Words

What Are "Buggy Words"?
 
 
Throughout the year, you may hear your child talk about "Buggy Words".  These are tricky words that come from the DOLCH list of sight/high frequency words.  Once assessed, your child will be working on the list that is at his/her level.  This information will be shared with you.  PLEASE have your child practice reading these "TRICKY WORDS".  The majority of them cannot be sounded out.  They need to be MEMORIZED with a lot of REPEATED PRACTICE! The goal is for your child to practice the words for mastery and automaticity.  Having a large storehouse of sight/high frequency words will help support your child's reading fluency.
 
 
What will your child be working on if he/she can read all of the "buggy" words that we will be assessing?
 
Once your child can fluently read all the "Buggy Words" (DOLCH lists), he/she will work on learning how to spell the words. 
 
Ways to Practice at Home
(This will be introduced to your child in school.)
 
Version 1 allows you or your child to write 6 words in the gray area (1 word per box) that he/she is working on practicing the "tricky" spelling for. 


How to Play:
Your child needs a "die" for this game.  He/she will roll the "die" and match the number on the "die" with space on the paper. 
For example: if under the "1 dot" your child has the word "the" and he/she rolled a "1", he/she will need to say the letters, "t", "h", "e" while they write the word in the first space in the column (starting at the bottom of the paper).  They are "racing" to see which word gets to the top of it's own column first.  Then they roll again and repeat the steps for whatever word corresponds with the number rolled. PLEASE remind your child to SAY the word, SAY/SPELL each letter name as they WRITE the word.  (By saying the letter names as they write the letters, they're using both visual, auditory and motor memory.)
 
Version 2 allows you to TYPE the word for you child, prior to giving the sheet to him/her.  Your child will play the game in the same way as outlined above ("How to Play").