As part of our program for our Bumblebees (children aged 4-6), we include sight words in our lessons. Sight words are words that do not follow standard phonetic patterns and must be memorized. Many of these words are also high-frequency words and are often seen in early reading materials for kids.
The sight word list we use is the Dolch Sight Word list. This list was created by Dr. Edward William Dolch in the 1930s-1940s and consists of a total of 220 service words and 95 high-frequency nouns. The list is also separated into levels from Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 3. The list comprises of about 80% of the words you would typically find in a children’s book and what’s great about these words is that once your child is familiar with them, they can focus on learning other new words. It also builds confidence in reading when your child can recognize a majority of the words in a book.
Sight words make it easy for children to transition into reading, as they will encounter the majority of these words when starting to read. We recommend reviewing these words at home during story time with your child.
Here is the full list of Dolch Sight Words from Pre-K to Grade 3:
Pre-Kindergarten (40 words)
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
Kindergarten (52 words)
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
Grade One (41 words)
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
Grade Two (46 words)
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
Grade Three (41 words)
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
Nouns (95 words)
apple, baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, bread, brother, cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, Christmas, coat, corn, cow, day, dog, doll, door, duck, egg, eye, farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower, game, garden, girl, goodbye, grass, ground, hand, head, hill, home, horse, house, kitty, leg, letter, man, men, milk, money, morning, mother, name, nest, night, paper, party, picture, pig, rabbit, rain, ring, robin, Santa Claus, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun, table, thing, time, top, toy, tree, watch, water, way, wind, window, wood
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