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Driving down the same road you always do on your way home, you hear a little voice from the back start sounding out the word on the billboard that you pass nearly every day.
“G-O-T-B-U-G-S – Hey Mama! That sign says ‘Got bugs?’!” You hear them say with such excitement and enthusiasm.
It is truly such an amazing time of a child’s life when they begin learning to read. The world seems bright and new as they realize that all around them are letters and words that mean something. They are not in the dark anymore! The world just got a whole lot more exciting.
As this new world opens up before their eyes, it can be helpful to really start focusing on sight words since many of them can be tricky to sound out. That said, as was discussed in a previous post called “50 High-Frequency Words for Kindergarten,” a sight word is actually simply:
“A sight word is a word that is instantly and effortlessly recalled from memory, regardless of whether it is phonically regular or irregular. A sight-word vocabulary refers to the pool of words a student can effortlessly recognize.” – David A. Kilpatrick, PhD (link HERE)
This definition implies that any word can be a sight word if its appearance is one that we can instantly recognize. In other words, simple words like “cat” or “bat” can be common sight words, but words like “geometry” and “seasonal” can also be examples of sight words if you have seen them enough times and memorized the way they look.
Knowing this definition can change slightly the way we approach teaching our young children to read since it becomes helpful for them to know both how to sound out words and how to memorize them so that they can become common words or “sight words.”
With that in mind, here is a list of 101 words that contain the syllable “at.” Though some of these words may not be new words for your early readers, learning the letter sounds in each of the words here will help them become more fluent readers. You could consider this group of words a kindergarten sight word list, but it is very specific in that each word contains the syllable “at.”
Three letter at words for kindergarten
(each of these different words are cvc words and have a short vowel)
- bat
- cat
- rat
- sat
- mat
- fat
- pat
- lat
- nat
- hat
Four letter at words for kindergarten
- that
- brat
- slat
- atom
- flat
- chat
- mate
- cate
- late
- bate
- rate
- fate
Some of these next words may be a little bit tricky for emergent readers, but I wanted to go ahead and include these words even though they may be a little bit advanced for kindergarten students. They may be more suited to first grade students. When it comes down to it, you know the needs of your students along with their reading fluency. You will likely know how much to challenge students based on their reading levels and learning styles.
With that said, I did try to choose words that were easier to sound out and words whose meaning are likely more familiar to young learners.
Five letter words with “at”
- atlas
- attic
- water
- later
- cater
- mater
- crate
- state
- catch
- match
- batch
- latch
Six letter words with “at”
- atomic
- attend
- attack
- attach
- fatter
- matter
- batter
- patter
- latter
- crater
- rattle
- cattle
Seven letter words with “at”
- batting
- matting
- ratting
- catfish
Eight letter words with “at”
- flatboat
- flatland
- chatting
- catching
- matching
Ways to practice sight words
From what I have seen, I would say one of the best ways for you to help your young learners get more comfortable with each of these important words, you can definitely use resources like sight word flashcards or sight word printables. Sometimes basic words can get confusing as you add more words to your student’s vocabulary. With that in mind, extra practice is the to help your young readers become confident readers. Playing a fun learning game can also be a great way to help your kindergarten children get some sight word practice. These games may include something like a matching game with flashcards or even hangman. There are also a lot of different printable worksheet collections that can present a fun way for young students to practice their basic sight words.
With all of that said, there are really and truly so many things that you can do with a simple set of flashcards. All you really need to do is purchase a pack of 3 x 5 cards or 4 x 6 cards and just write all the words you would like your student to learn on one side. From there, you can use those same cards to play so many different games. Some of those games are below, but the options are truly endless.
Here are a couple of specific activities that are pretty creative and helpful!
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Sight Word Tic-Tac-Toe – Playdough to Plato
How cute is this idea! I love that you could do this activity with your kindergarten student with or without a printable and that you could maybe just choose two different words every day to help your student get used to seeing the words that you choose.
2. Sight Word Go Fish – Nap-time Creations
I thought this game was such a fun way to use flashcards that you may already have! Even if you do not already have flashcards for the words you would like your child to focus on, they would not be hard to make, and you could add new ones in each week to keep things interesting and challenging.
3. Playdough Writing – The Happy Teacher
This idea is so fun, simple, and inexpensive. You could also simply use the flashcards that you already have for each of the words you would like your child to practice 🙂
4. Sight Word Worksheets
There are so many different options for free printable sight word worksheets. I actually wrote a compilation post of 25+ free printable sight word worksheets that I would love for you to check out!
There you have it! This post has discussed both lists of 50+ at words for Kindergarten along with different activities that can be fun ways to help young learners become more familiar with their sight word lists.
I sincerely hope that these sight word lists of “at” words and activities are helpful for you and your emergent readers as you seek out different ways to teach your littles how to read and increase their language skills. If you are looking for more lists of high frequency words, I encourage you to check out the post that I mentioned earlier with “50 High Frequency Words for Kindergarten.”
Do you have a favorite way to teach your children their sight word lists?
Would more posts like this be helpful for you?
Have any of the activities in this post inspired you?
Let me know in the comments below!
I’d love to hear from you 🙂
Until next time
