Sight words by grade, Pre-K to Grade 3

All 220 Dolch words, grouped by the grade they are usually taught in — plus how to teach them in a way that sticks, and how many a child is expected to know by when.

Reference · the Dolch lists (Edward W. Dolch, 1936/1948)

Sight words are the words a child should recognize instantly, without sounding out. They matter for two reasons: they make up a huge share of everything written — the 220 words below are somewhere between 50% and 75% of the words in most children's books — and many of them cannot be sounded out reliably anyway. Said, come, once, of do not behave.

The lists below are Edward Dolch's, compiled in the 1930s and 40s. They are still the lists most American classrooms send home.

The lists

Pre-primer — Pre-K and early Kindergarten · 40 words

Primer — Kindergarten · 52 words

First grade — Grade 1 · 41 words

Second grade — Grade 2 · 46 words

Third grade — Grade 3 · 41 words

Dolch nouns

Dolch also compiled 95 common nouns — apple, baby, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box… — which are usually taught alongside, but are less important. They are concrete, picture-able and easy to sound out, which is exactly why they matter less than the 220 above.

How to actually teach them

Not with flashcards alone

Flashcards drill recognition of a word in isolation. The job is recognizing it inside a sentence, at speed, while also doing everything else reading requires. Children who are fluent on flashcards and stuck in books are extremely common, and the flashcards caused it.

Use cards to introduce, then move to text as fast as possible.

Five or six at a time

More than that and none of them stick. Add new ones only when the current set is instant — not "right eventually", instant.

Say what the word means

The, of, was are not meaningful on their own, which is exactly why children find them slippery. Put each one straight into a sentence they would actually say.

Spot them in real books

Pick one word and hunt it through a page they are already reading. This connects the list to the point of the list, which is the step most sight word practice skips.

Keep the old ones in the mix

A word learned in September goes stale by November without being seen. Shuffle previous sets back in.

Where sight words fit in learning to read

Sight words are one of three things happening at once, and the balance matters:

1. Phonics — sounding words out. This is the engine. Most words, including many on these lists, can be partly or fully decoded, and children taught to decode read far better long-term than children taught to memorize shapes.
2. Sight words — instant recognition of the high-frequency words, so attention is free for meaning rather than spent on the.
3. Fluency — putting it together: reading in phrases, with expression, at a pace that sounds like talking.

The common mistake is treating sight words as the whole program. They are the lubricant, not the engine.

What to do when a word will not stick

• Check it is actually irregular. Many "sight words" are perfectly decodable — and, can, him, stop. If it can be sounded out, teach it that way instead; it will stick far better.
• Look at the tricky part only. In said, the s and d behave. It is the ai that does not. Point at the part that is lying.
• Write it, do not just read it. Writing a word forces attention to every letter in order.
• Let it go for a fortnight. Some words land later. Grinding away at one word teaches a child that reading is a thing they are bad at, which costs more than the word is worth.

Next

• Reading milestones by age — what else should be happening at each stage, preschool to Grade 3
• Reading fluency norms — the words-per-minute benchmarks schools measure against
• Words per minute calculator — where your reader sits today

Free chart from myfluentreader.com — reading fluency benchmarks, a words-per-minute calculator and the full sight-word lists, free and without signing up.