Diana Zakeli

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About Diana Zakeli
Diana has been tutoring pre-school children for several years. To support their reading journey, keep them motivated and make learning fun, she produced many games, worksheets and exciting activities.
One of the most successful activities was the Personalized Sight Word Stories. These were born out of her desire to ensure that her preschoolers could recall the Sight Words that they had learned, within the context of everyday reading.
She created hand drawn stories for each child, featuring their friends, family members and pets, and using only the Sight Words the child had already learned. Though time-consuming, this was a big hit with the children, who loved pointing out the pictures of themselves and their parents in the book!
Diana witnessed a huge boost in the confidence of the children once they were able to read their own stories. Additionally it gave them an opportunity to practice their Sight Words repeatedly by reading short stories instead of reading flash cards.
The success of the Sight Word Stories with her own students led Diana to produce "Sight Word Adventures with Jay and Kay" which introduced 72 Sight Words, and more recently "Sight Word Mania" which introduces over 100 Sight Words.
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Author Updates
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Blog postMy children love bowling, which is the inspiration behind our newly updated Sight Word game.
Build the triangle bowling pins by cutting them out, folding and taping them together. Line them up and let your little ones bowl them over with table tennis balls. When they knock the pins over, they get a chance to score points by reading the Sight Words on the two-sided triangle pins.
Find it in the Games Gallery4 years ago Read more -
Blog postWe have just begun a series of Sight Word Mats - another way for little ones to practice the Sight Words.4 years ago Read more
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Blog postMy nephew loves trains. He loves his toy trains, he loves riding in trains, he loves stories about trains and he especially loves Thomas the train. So this is the inspiration behind "All Aboard!"
Load up the carriages with Sight Words you can read and then the train is ready to leave the station! Put the Mania Word Cards in a pile and as your child reads each word, he can load it onto a carriage. If he does4 years ago Read more -
Blog postPractice reading and writing Sight Words with Sight Word Of The Week worksheets.
This week's word, LITTLE, is introduced in Sight Word Mania 5 : Purple Words.
Click the image to print the worksheet.4 years ago Read more -
Blog postEach Sight Word Mania story introduces 12 new Sight Words. I've purposely kept the number small so that my students can start reading a real story very soon after learning a few words. But they still need to know those 12 words before starting the story.
Not being a fan of just reading flash cards, I created the game Ready-Set-Read! Children love to race, and race cars are not just for boys - my girls love this game too.
Select the track for the book your child&n4 years ago Read more -
Blog postPractice reading and writing Sight Words with Sight Word Of The Week worksheets.
This week's word, COME, is introduced in Sight Word Mania 2 : Green Words.
Click the image to print the worksheet.4 years ago Read more -
Blog postAnother way that we prepare for the next Sight Word Story!
I print the Sight Words for the story we are going to read and lean them against the steps on the staircase. (I stand them up so that no one slips on them).
Each time my daughter and I go up the stairs, she tries to read the words on the steps. Rewards are aplenty if we can get to the top of the stairs reading all the way!4 years ago Read more -
Blog postPractice reading and writing Sight Words with Sight Word Of The Week worksheets.
This week's word, CHILDREN, is introduced in Sight Word Mania 3 : Blue Words.
Click the image to print the worksheet.4 years ago Read more -
Blog postA few weeks ago, I shared some ideas on celebrating your child's reading progress.
One of the ideas was to throw a Reading Party, so I created these invitation cards that your child can give to all the potential invitees. Having your child write their names on the invitations to be given to their aunts, uncles, grandparents etc, will show them just how special their achievement is.
Find these Reading Party Invitation Cards on th4 years ago Read more -
Blog postPractice reading and writing Sight Words with Sight Word Of The Week worksheets.
This week's word, PLAY, is introduced in Sight Word Mania 1 : Grey Words.
Click the image to print the worksheet.4 years ago Read more
Titles By Diana Zakeli
That's what Jay and Kay Sight Word Adventures are all about! No more boring books of random Sight Word sentences. Our books contain real stories made up of 100% Sight Words, so instead of just reading flash cards, your child can actually read a story.
This book presents 3 short stories, each introducing 12 new Sight Words. The stories are preceded by 12 flash card pages to give your child the opportunity to practice the Sight Words before reading the story. Each story builds on the preceding one, so your child will be practicing old Sight Words as well as learning new ones, and by the end of the book, your child will have practiced and learned 36 Sight Words.
Visit www.SightWordAdventures.com for Sight Word videos and lots of other free resources to help your child on their Sight Word Adventure.