Week 4 of 8
Week 4
Kindergarten → 1st Grade · Addition within 10 and Sight words preprimer
Math
Addition Within 10
Adding two numbers with a total no greater than 10. Late kindergarten. Fluency within 10 is the kindergarten end-of-year goal.
The mistake to watch for. Relying on fingers for every problem well past the point where the facts could be recalled — accurate, but slow enough to stall later work.
How to help. Practice the doubles first (2+2, 3+3, 4+4, 5+5). Doubles get memorized quickly and give children an anchor for near-doubles like 4+5.
A worked example
Try 6 + 3. Start at 6 and count up three more: 7, 8, 9. So 6 + 3 = 9. Starting from the bigger number makes counting on easy.
Reading & language
Sight Words: Pre-Primer
Recognizing the ~40 most common words instantly, without sounding them out. Kindergarten. These words appear so often that decoding them every time slows reading to a crawl.
The mistake to watch for. Trying to sound out words like "the" or "said" phonetically — many sight words don't follow regular phonics rules, which is exactly why they need to be memorized by sight instead.
How to help. Practice in short, frequent bursts (a minute, several times a day) rather than one long drill. Recognition speed is what's being built, not understanding.
A worked example
Circle the word 'is' in: it is in. Sight words are words we learn to know at a glance, so we do not have to sound them out each time.
Words for this week
- add
- To put numbers together to find how many in all.
- plus
- The sign ( + ) that means add.
- equal
- The same amount. The sign = means "is equal to".
- total
- All of the things added together.
- sum
- The answer you get when you add.
- ten
- The number 10, one more than nine.
- sight
- A word you learn to know at a glance, without sounding it out.
- word
- A group of letters that has a meaning.
- letter
- One of the symbols we use to write words, like a, b or c.
- read
- To look at words and say or understand them.
- sound
- What you hear when you say a letter or a word.
Read this week
Ranunculus
A short plants article from our Learn library, chosen for this reading level. Read it together, then ask your child to tell you one new thing they learned.