Sight Words List
Sight words are the common words children learn to recognise instantly, without sounding them out. Here are all 220 Dolch sight words grouped by level. Tick off the words a child can read, practise with on-screen flashcards that shuffle the words you haven’t mastered yet, and print lists and cards for practice away from the screen.
Sight words practice
Sight Words Printable Pack
Printable Dolch sight word lists by level, flashcards for all 220 words, a progress chart for each level and sight word sentence worksheets.
- Pre-primer list (PDF)
- Primer list (PDF)
- First grade list (PDF)
- Second grade list (PDF)
- Third grade list (PDF)
- Flashcards (PDF)
- Sentence worksheet (PDF, DOCX)
Formats: PDF, DOCX. Instant download after payment (link valid 72 hours, up to 5 downloads). AI-assisted: the templates were drafted with AI help and reviewed and laid out by Kedop.
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What are sight words?
Sight words are high-frequency words that appear so often in children’s reading that recognising them instantly makes reading much more fluent. Many are also hard to sound out with early phonics — “the”, “said”, “could”, “one” — so children learn to recognise them as whole words. The best-known list is the Dolch list, compiled by Edward William Dolch in the 1930s and 1940s from children’s books of the time: 220 “service words” grouped by level, plus 95 common nouns.
Dolch sight words by level
| Level | Words | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-primer | a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you | 40 |
| Primer | all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will, with, yes | 52 |
| First grade | after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, going, had, has, her, him, his, how, just, know, let, live, may, of, old, once, open, over, put, round, some, stop, take, thank, them, then, think, walk, were, when | 41 |
| Second grade | always, around, because, been, before, best, both, buy, call, cold, does, don’t, fast, first, five, found, gave, goes, green, its, made, many, off, or, pull, read, right, sing, sit, sleep, tell, their, these, those, upon, us, use, very, wash, which, why, wish, work, would, write, your | 46 |
| Third grade | about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm | 41 |
How to practise sight words
- Start with a small set — five to ten words — rather than a whole list.
- Say the word, have the child repeat it, then point to it in a sentence.
- Use flashcards for two or three minutes a day.
- Move a word to the “known” pile only when the child reads it instantly on several days.
- Mix known words back in regularly so they stay fresh.
- Find the words in real books — that’s the goal.
Games that make it fun
- Sight word hunt: find the words on a page of a favourite book.
- Slap it: lay cards on the table and slap the word called out.
- Go fish: make two sets of cards and play the classic card game.
- Word ladder: climb a step for each word read correctly.
- Write it three ways: pencil, crayon and in sand or shaving foam.
How to use the tracker and flashcards
- Choose a level.
- In list mode, tick the words the child can read instantly — progress is saved in this browser.
- Switch to flashcards to practise only the words not yet ticked, in random order.
- Press “Knew it” to move a word to known, or “Practise again” to keep it in the deck.
- Print lists and flashcards for offline practice.
Worked example
A child starting kindergarten practises the pre-primer list. In the first week they tick 12 of the 40 words; the flashcard deck then shows only the other 28. Two minutes a day with five new words at a time gets them to 30 of 40 by the end of the month, and they move to the primer list while still reviewing the last pre-primer words.
Dolch and Fry lists
The Fry list, created by Edward Fry, ranks the 1,000 most common words in English reading material in order of frequency, in groups of 100. The two lists overlap heavily at the start — the first 100 Fry words include most Dolch pre-primer and primer words. Many schools use Dolch in the early years and Fry to extend beyond it. Either list works when used little and often.
Dolch nouns
Alongside the 220 service words, Dolch listed 95 common nouns that young readers meet often, such as apple, baby, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, cat, chair, children, cow, day, dog, door, egg, farm, father, fish, floor, flower, garden, girl, goodbye, grass, ground, hand, head, hill, home, horse, house, kitty, leg, letter, man, money, morning, mother, name, nest, night, paper, party, picture, pig, rabbit, rain, ring, robin, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun, table, thing, time, top, toy, tree, watch, water, way, wind, window and wood. Most are easy to picture, so they are often taught with picture cards rather than as sight words.
Signs of progress
- The child reads a word instantly, without sounding it out, on three different days.
- They spot words in signs, cereal boxes and picture books.
- They start writing the words correctly in their own sentences.
- Reading a simple book becomes smoother, with fewer pauses.
Sight words and phonics
Sight word practice works best alongside systematic phonics, not instead of it. Many “sight words” are partly decodable — “and”, “can”, “it” follow regular patterns — and children should be encouraged to notice the letters and sounds. Memorising a small set of truly irregular words helps children read real books early while their phonics knowledge grows.
Frequently asked questions
How many Dolch sight words are there?
220 service words in five levels, plus 95 nouns.
What are the first sight words to teach?
The pre-primer list: a, and, the, I, see, can, go, to, is and others.
How many sight words should a kindergartner know?
Many schools aim for the pre-primer and primer lists (92 words) by the end of kindergarten, but expectations vary.
How long should sight word practice take?
A few minutes a day is more effective than long sessions.
Is my child’s progress saved?
Yes, ticks are saved in this browser only.
What is the difference between sight words and high-frequency words?
High-frequency words are simply the most common words; sight words are those taught for instant recognition, often because they are irregular.
Can I print the lists?
Yes, print any level as a list or flashcards.