Free Printable Kindergarten Sight Words List

Learning to read sight words is an important skill for kindergarteners to practice. This free printable kindergarten sight words list includes everything that you need to get started practicing with your child. Keep reading for tips to teach your child to read sight words with confidence.

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Kindergarten Sight Words

Sight words are words that your student recognizes when they see them and can read right away without needing to sound them out. Children usually learn sight words from a list of words that are organized by grade level or difficulty.

The Dolch sight word lists were created by Edward William Dolch, and the Fry lists were created by Edward Fry. Dolch sight words lists are organized by grade level, and Fry lists are sorted by difficulty and common occurrence.

Why Do Kindergartners Need to Learn Sight Words?

Memorizing sight words is helpful for kids who are learning to read. Some of the benefits of learning sight words include:

• Helps kids build confidence in their ability to read
• Makes it easier to read words faster
• Helps make reading more fun and less frustrating because kids don’t have to spend so much time sounding out words
• Allows kids to read independently

Kids need a solid foundation of common sight word knowledge, along with strong phonics instruction, to become good readers. Kids should learn to read using both sight words and phonics.

Kindergarten Sight Word Lists

Dolch Sight Words

The Dolch Sight Words list is one of the most popular resources for teaching sight words. The Dolch lists include 220 high frequency words, which Dolch calls service words. These words include 80% of the words found in children’s books and 50% of the words in adult books. The words are divided into lists for each grade level, and there is an extra list of the 95 most common nouns.

Dolch Words for Kindergarten

The Dolch word list for kindergarten is called the Primer Sight Words. The Primer list includes 52 sight words. They are:

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

Free Printable Kindergarten Sight Word List

Grab this free printable list of Dolch sight words for Kindergarten to make learning sight words easy!

Fry Sight Words

The Fry sight word list is an updated alternative to the Dolch Words. The Fry list includes 1000 commonly used words, divided into 10 groups. The groups are not organized by grade level, but your young learner could work on some of the words from group 1.

Fry Words for Kindergarten

The first Fry sight words list includes 100 words. They are, in alphabetical order:

a, about, all, am, an, and, are, as, at, be, been, but, by, called, can, come, could, day, did, do, down, each, find, first, for, from, get, go, had, has, have, he, her, him, his, how, I, if, in, into, is, it, its, like, long, look, made, make, many, may, more, my, no, not, now, number, of, on, one, or, other, out, part, people, said, see, she, so, some, than, that, the, their, them, then, there, these, they, this, time, to, two, up, use, was, water, way, we, were, what, when, which, who, will, with, words, would, write, you, your

Create Your Own Kindergarten Sight Word List

You can choose to create your own sight word list for kindergarten by choosing words from both the Dolch and Fry word lists. Combine the lists, or choose words of your own to include. Your sight word list should include common words that your child will see in books they are learning to read.

How many sight words should a kindergartner know?

The Dolch Sight Words list for kindergarten includes 52 frequent words. When combined with the 40 words on the Dolch list for preschool, that makes a total of 92 words that kindergartners might know.

It is important to keep in mind that kids develop reading skills at different rates. If your child is ahead or behind, that is ok. Make sure to practice consistently to help your child continue to improve.

It is also helpful to make sure your child knows the letter sounds and understands how to blend sounds to make new words using phonics, before introducing the idea of sight words.

Teaching Kindergarten Sight Words

Teaching reading is an important part of homeschooling. These tips will make it easier.

When Should I Start Sight Words with my Child?

Kindergarten is a great time to start teaching sight words to your child if you haven’t already. Make sure that your child knows letter sounds and names, and that they understand how to blend letter sounds with phonics to make words, before starting sight words.

When you introduce phonics first before sight words, you teach your child that reading is the process of sounding out words- not memorizing and guessing.

What Order Should I Teach the Sight Words?

When learning primer sight words, you should start with the simplest words first. You can also teach the words in order of frequency, or in the order that you find them in books you are reading.

How Many Sight Words Should My Child Learn at Once?

Your kindergartner should not learn more than than a couple of sight words at a time. Introduce the words in small groups to make them easy to remember. Once your child has had practice with a small group of words, you can add a few more. Remember to go back and review the words your child already knows regularly as well.

Are Sight Words Enough to Help My Child Learn to Read?

Just memorizing sight words is not enough to help your child become a strong reader. Lots of research shows that kids learn to read best when they memorize sight words in combination with a strong phonics-based reading program. You can learn more about sight words vs phonics here.

Helpful Products for Learning Kindergarten Sight Words

Sight Word Strategies

One of the best ways to teach sight words to kindergarten students is with a variety of activities and fun games. Here are a few of our favorite activities for teaching about sight words in kindergarten.

Sight Word Search

Hide sight word flashcards around the room. Then play sight word hide and seek and ask your child to find the cards. When they find each card, they can bring it to you and read the word.

Alphabet Stamps

Kids can use a set of alphabet stamps to stamp their sight words. This is a fun way to practice spelling, even for kids who don’t know how to write yet. Using a washable ink pad is the best way to minimize mess during this activity.

You could even give spelling tests using letters of the alphabet stamps, or write most of the word and ask your child to use a stamp to fill in the missing letter.

Play Dough

There are many different ways to use play dough to practice sight words!

Form the letters of the sight word using long thin pieces of playdough. You can also flatten out the playdough into a large sheet with a rolling pin and write sight words in it with a toothpick.

Pipe cleaners, wiki sticks, and even Twizzlers also work well for this activity. This is a great way to practice fine motor skills too.

Frog Pond

Choose a small group of sight word flashcards and spread them out on the floor. Call out a word and ask your child to jump on that word. You can also write your words on the sidewalk or driveway with sidewalk chalk and play this game outside.

Light Up Words

Write your child’s sight words on index cards and tape them to a wall. Turn off all the lights. Your child can shine a flashlight on the words and read them. Or, quiz your child by telling them a sight word and asking them to find it with their flashlight beam.

Be sure to check out my huge list of fun ways to practice sight words at home. By implementing these common sight words learning activities, your child will be on his way to becoming a great reader at an early age!

If your child loves to play on your phone, using online sight word games for kindergarten can also be a good strategy.

Tips for Success with Kindergarten Sight Words

Practice with Fun Activities

Make sure to make practicing high-frequency words fun for your kindergarten student. Play games and try a variety of hands-on activities to keep kids engaged in learning.

Be Patient

Make sure that you are patient with your kindergartner as they learn their new sight words. Learning to read takes time, so it is important to keep practicing.

Be Consistent

Help your child practice their sight words regularly. Many short practice sessions are much more effective than one long session. Practice daily for best results.

Sight words are an important part of teaching kids how to read. When you practice sight words with your kids regularly, they will become better readers as they gain confidence and fluency with sight words.

Free Printable List of Primer Sight Words

This PDF file includes a printable list of the Primer kindergarten words, a checklist you can use to keep track of which words your child knows, and a set of printable worksheets and Dolch Primer Kindergarten Sight Words flash cards to help you practice with your child!

Sight Word Lists for Other Grades

Grab a printable pack of free teaching resources for each grade here:

Preschool

First Grade

Second Grade

Third Grade