Dolch Sight Words for Kindergarten to Third Grade

The Dolch Word Lists were developed by Edward W. Dolch. He researched English text he found published in the United States and found those words that show up the most in text. Some of those words are decodable, because they follow general phonemic and spelling rules for English. Many, however, are not decodable but instead are irregular, meaning they do not follow the rules of English. Over 50 - 75% of the most commonly used words are found in the Dolch List below. The Dolch Lists are among the most highly respected tools in the field of reading instruction, and are critical for creating meaning in text—using those common verbs, articles, and conjunctions to make words into language.   The Dolch lists are also valuable for word walls. Word walls provide a dictionary for emerging writers as well as readers, as they look to find the words they need to write. Dolch created a spiraling list of sight words that builds from grades to grades. You can add words from the lists to your word wall as you expand your students skills through appropriate pre-primer or primer decodable books, which will have many of the sight words. Then, you can encourage your students to use the word wall words in writing samples. Still, the goal should be to write to communicate, not write to meet some teachers requirements. Students with reading and language difficulties often dislike writing tasks—make them fun and make them about communicating their meaning and they will flex their writing muscles! How to Use the Dolch Words: Play games with them, cut the cards out and use them as flash cards.Use oral reading activities with the cards. Hold up the word, and use a sentence with a blank prompting the child to state the word. For instance: I liked that movie so much that I watched it _________ (again).Use and oral cloze activity, placing three cards, one that fills the cloze. You can have the child point to the correct word. This is especially good for children with reading skills but apraxia. i.e. John went to the park to (swim, and, the.)Shuffle the Dolch cards, turn them over one at a time and use them in a sentence.Have students go back and highlight (and correct, when necessary) the word wall words in their journal entries or free writing.   Daily routine use of the words will build reading confidence. For students with learning disabilities, these words can be learned developmentally, beginning with the pre-primer list.  There are five lists offering appropriate words for the  Pre-Primer,  Primer, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, and  3rd Grade  reading levels. Word cards for all 44 spelling sounds  are available and can be great additions to your spelling program and word walls.