Helping Your Child Read with Dolch Sight Words

Sight words, or words that cannot easily be sounded out, are the key to reading success for younger students. The Dolch Sight Words are a collection of the 220 most common words in children's literature and are taught in many of the country's younger elementary classrooms. The Dolch Word List was compiled by Edward William Dolch, PhD, in his 1948 book Problems in Reading.

Sight Words are important to learn because they make up 50-70 percent of most texts. A student who has mastered sight words is on the path to reading success.

For education purposes, Dolch Sight Words are often broken down into four grade levels (though they can be learned earlier) with an additional list of 95 common nouns that can be taught in any grade.

The Pre-primer Dolch Word List consists of 40 words and is suited for preschool aged children. The words in this list are:
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

The Primer Dolch Word List has a total of 52 words for kindergarten students. The Primer Dolch words are:
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

The 1st Grade Dolch Word List has 41 words, which are:
after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, giving, 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

The 46 words in the 2nd Grade Dolch Word list are:
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

There are 41 words in the 3rd grade Dolch Word list. They are:
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

Finally, there are 95 nouns in the Dolch Sight word List that may be learned in any grade. They are:

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, good-bye, 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

Online and Print Resources for Teaching Dolch Sight Words

Mrs. Perkins Dolch Word website is a great resource for teachers and parents.

If you are looking for a little style for your basic Dolch word list, here is a series of Dolch Word Lists by illustrator Jan Brett.

Parents who want to help their children improve their reading skills my want to check out: Sight Word Readers Parent Pack: Learning the First 50 Sight Words Is a Snap!

Your tech loving kid may enjoy learning sight words the most with the Nintendo DS game My Word Coach. "You mean you want me to play more video games?"

Teachers and homeschool parents will appreciate making learning fun with this book--40 Sensational Sight Word Games: Quick & Easy Games and Reproducibles That Reinforce the Top 100 Sight Words That Are Key to Reading Success.

Teachers and homeschoolers will also appreciate the ready to go sight word lessons in 100 Write-and-Learn Sight Word Practice Pages: Engaging Reproducible Activity Pages That Help Kids Recognize, Write, and Really LEARN the Top 100 High-Frequency Words That are Key to Reading Success and also in10 Week-by-Week Sight Word Packets: An Easy System for Teaching the First 100 Words from the Dolch List to Set the Stage for Reading Success.

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