Dolch Sight Words

What are Dolch sight words?

Dolch sight words are a list of the most frequently used words in English, compiled by educator Edward William Dolch between 1936 and 1948. The list of 220 service words consists of regularly used words such as pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions. The list of service words is grouped by grade level, from Pre-K until 3rd grade. In addition to the service words, there is a list of Dolch Nouns, consisting of frequently used words.

Dolch sight words are taught as "word recognition" rather than by phonetic decoding. Because many Dolch words are phonetically irregular (e.g., "said", "was", "they", "one"), children cannot be expected to decode them. The words on the Dolch list are words that are used so frequently in written language that children must recognize them by sight in order to read fluently. Dolch reported that the 220 service words on his list accounted for 50-75% of all words found in typical children's books.

Dolch words are grouped into six lists

Below is a list of the words found in each of the six lists, along with an approximate grade level and the date that children should master each of the words in the lists for Target Mastery.

• Pre-K (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. The child should master these words by the end of kindergarten (Target mastery: end of kindergarten).
• 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. By the end of the 1st grade.
• 1st Grade (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, think, walk, were, when. It is anticipated that by the end of the 1st grade and/or the beginning of the 2nd grade, students will have learned to recognize these words when encountered in their reading.
• 2nd Grade (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. There is no specific target grade for mastering these words, but the target for mastering the Dolch nouns is the end of 3rd grade.
• 3rd Grade (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. Target mastery: End of 3rd Grade.
• Dolch Nouns (94 words): A list of supplementary common concrete nouns (apple, baby, ball, bear, bed, bird, boat, box, boy, bread, brother, cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, coat, corn, cow, day, dog, doll, door, duck, egg, eye, farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower, foot, game, garden, girl, 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, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun, table, thing, time, top, toy, tree, watch, water, way, wind, window, wood). No specific grade level target.

Dolch vs. Fry sight words: which list should you use?

While both lists are typically introduced in the elementary school years, the majority of Dolch's 220 words are contained within the first 300 words of Fry's list. There is no educational research to support the idea that all of Dolch's words must be taught before moving on to Fry's words. Most educational curricula are developed around one list of high-frequency words and then stick with it. A common approach is to introduce the Dolch words from Kindergarten through Grade 2. These words are grouped by grade level (pre-primer through 3rd grade) and include many of the irregular words that cannot be phonetically sounded out by students. After those words have been mastered, the corresponding Fry sight words for each grade level can be taught to help increase reading speed in upper elementary and middle school grades (Grades 1 through 9). You can also browse the full Sight Words Generator for grade-specific practice sets.

How to use this tool

1. Select a grade group from the dropdown (or leave it at "All Dolch").
2. Set how many words you want your student to practice (15 is a good daily practice size).
3. Click Generate (or tap on the spacebar on desktop) to get a generate a random list.
4. Click the speaker icon beside any word to hear the correct pronunciation.
5. Mark the words your child struggles with to save them for later review.
6. Click Practice Mode to practice the words your child struggles with.
7. You can copy all the words in the saved list to print out for later use.

Dolch sight word teaching strategies

Effective methods for early literacy training, according to current research, include flashcard repetition (show a word, have the child repeat it, then check whether he was correct). Multisensory tracing of words in sand while repeating them. Context reading of short sentences containing the sight word in order to give children a meaningful connection to the word. Short daily sessions of 5-10 minutes as opposed to one longer session a week.