By grade
The lists most American schools send home, by year. Schools choose their own, so treat these as the common core of what you will be given.
- Kindergarten sight words92 wordsThis page prints the first two Dolch levels: 40 pre-primer words and 52 primer words, 92 in all.
- First grade sight words41 wordsThe Dolch level named for first grade holds 41 words, from after and again through walk, were and when.
- Second grade sight words46 wordsThe Dolch level named for second grade holds 46 words, from always and around through write and your.
- Third grade sight words41 wordsThe Dolch level named for third grade holds 41 words, from about and better through try and warm.
- Fourth grade sight words41 wordsThere is no fourth grade sight word list.
- Pre-K sight words40 wordsPre-K and preschool word lists often borrow from the Dolch pre-primer level: 40 words including a, and, I, is, the, to and you.
The named lists
Dolch and Fry are the two lists almost every school list is cut from.
- Dolch sight words315 wordsThe Dolch list is 220 service words in five levels, plus a separate list of 95 nouns, so 315 words in total.
- Dolch pre-primer sight words40 wordsPre-primer is the first Dolch level: 40 words, including a, and, I, in, is, the, to and you.
- Dolch primer sight words52 wordsPrimer is the second Dolch level and the largest: 52 words, from all and am through will, with and yes.
- Fry sight words100 wordsEdward Fry's Instant Words are 1,000 words ranked by how often they appear in print, taught in hundreds.
- First 100 Fry words100 wordsThe first hundred Fry Instant Words are the top band of Fry's ranked high-frequency list, printed in order from the, of, and and a downward.
Ideas and practice
What the words are, how to practice them, and what teachers mean by heart words.
- High-frequency words13 wordsHigh-frequency words are the small group of words, usually put at 300 to 500, that account for a large share of everything in print.
- Sight word flashcards40 wordsFlashcards work for sight words when they are used on a small stack of words a child does not yet know, with a fixed routine and daily review.
- Sight word sentencesA sight word sentence is a short sentence built almost entirely from words a child already knows, so the new word is the only hard thing in it.
- Heart words9 wordsA heart word is a common word with one or two letters that do not follow the usual letter sound patterns, so those letters are learned by heart while the rest of the word is sounded out.