Why are Sight Words Important?

     Sight words are very important for your child to master because, believe it or not, “sight words account for up to 75% of the words used in beginning children’s printed material”, according to Study to Identify High-Frequency Words in Printed Materials, by D.J. Kear & M.A. Gladhart. They are called “sight” words because the goal is for your child to recognize these words instantly, at first sight. Many of the over 200 “sight words” do not follow the basic phonics principles, thus they cannot be “sounded out.”

     There are different sight words for every grade level. Each set of words builds upon the other, meaning that once your child learns the sight words in Kindergarten, he will be expected to still recognize those words as he learns new words in first grade, and so forth.

     * Sight words promote confidence because the first 100 sight words represent over 50% of English text; a child who has mastered the list of sight words can already recognize at least half of a sentence.

     * Sight words help promote reading comprehension as a child is able to decipher half of the sentence with the knowledge of sight words.

     * Sight words provide clues to the context of the text.

Students should become familiar with all of the sight words for each grade. Both the Dolch List of Basic Sight Words and Fry’s 300 Instant Sight Words list is equally important.

                          Dolch Sight Words by Grade Level <-- click on me to learn the Dolch Sight Words

                          Fry Sight Words by Grade Level <-- click on me to learn all of the Fry Sight Words

Sight Word Practice

Dolch Sight Word Story - 220 Sight Words Used

Listen and Say Dolch Sight Words

Sight Word Smash Up

Starfall Sight Word Match

Dolch Listen and Spell

3rd Grade Jigword Sight Words 

Snowball Fight Sight Words 

Kitten Hop Dolch Sight Words 

Sight Word Bingo 

Sight Word - Complete the Sentence 

Spell the Sight Word 

Sight Word Bingo Creator

Printable Flash Cards for Home Use