Sight Words Worksheets
The most common words in English, learnt by sight: Dolch pre-primer to grade 3 and the Fry first 100.
Worksheets
Why sight words matter
A small number of words make up a huge share of everything children read. The Dolch list of 220 words and Edward Fry's lists of the 1,000 most common words are two classic collections. Many of these words do not follow regular phonics rules (the, was, said, they), so children need to learn them by sight, alongside their phonics skills, so reading becomes smooth and fast.
Introduce a few new words at a time, practise them in several ways (looking, saying, tracing, writing, finding in a sentence) and revisit them often. The flashcards in the vocabulary section have printable Dolch and Fry card sets.
Questions parents ask
How many sight words should a child know?
By the end of kindergarten, most schools aim for around 25–50; by grade 1, about 100; by grade 3, the full Dolch list of 220 words plus nouns.
What is the difference between Dolch and Fry?
Dolch (1936) is a list of 220 service words plus 95 nouns, sorted by grade. Fry (1957, revised) ranks the 1,000 most common words in order of frequency.
