Here's a great (FREE) website called sightwords.com where you can get materials and activities for helping children learn sight words in a meaningful way. I'm sure you'll find useful information for your classroom, but it might also be a great resource for your parents.
Sight words are the words that occur most frequently in written English (such as and, will, can), and many of them don’t follow the “rules” of phonics (such as once and could). Children need to learn sight words to build their fluency and speed in reading. They need to be able to recognize these words “by sight,” rather than de-coding them letter by letter. When a child struggles to read the individual words in a sentence, she isn’t able to pay attention to what the sentence is about.
At SightWords.com we will show you a variety of teaching techniques to introduce new sight words to your child and review old words. One day’s instruction can include just 10 minutes of lesson time followed by 20 minutes of a sight words game. Our sight words games reinforce the lessons through repetition, but wrapped up in fun variations of classic card and board games.
Free Resources Include:
SIGHT WORDS
Sight Words Flash Cards
Print your own sight words flash cards. Create a set of Dolch or Fry sight words flash cards, or use your own custom set of words.
Sight Words Teaching Strategies
Follow the sight words teaching techniques. Learn research-validated and classroom-proven ways to introduce words, reinforce learning, and correct mistakes.
Sight Words Games
Play sight words games. Make games that create fun opportunities for repetition and reinforcement of the lessons.
PHONEMIC AWARENESS
Phonemic Awareness Basics
Learn what phonological and phonemic awareness are and why they are the foundations of child literacy. Learn how to teach phonemic awareness to your kids.
Phonemic Awareness Games
A sequenced curriculum of over 80 simple activities that take children from beginners to high-level phonemic awareness. Each activity includes everything you need to print and an instructional video.
Phoneme Sound Pronunciation
Teach phoneme and letter sounds in a way that makes blending easier and more intuitive. Includes a demonstration video and a handy reference chart.