Sight Words for Third Grade

Is your 3rd grader struggling to read fluently? Practicing sight words is a great way to help third graders read faster and more consistently, and improve their confidence in their reading skills. Here’s what you need to know about sight words for third grade so that you can help your child be successful with sight words.

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What are Third Grade Sight Words?

Sight words are words that a child can read instantly, without needing to sound them out first. There are two different kinds of sight words on every third grade list.

High-Frequency Words are common words that a child can sound out using their phonics knowledge. Because these words occur so often in text, they are important words for kids to be able to recognize without needing to sound them out.

Irregular words can’t be decoded using phonics. Kids will need to commit these words to their long-term memory to be able to read them.

Why Do Third Graders Need to Learn Sight Words?

There are many reasons why sight words are important when learning how to read. These include:

• When kids recognize sight words, this allows them to be able to read faster. They won’t need to sound out every word in the text.
• Memorizing sight words makes reading easier as well.
• When third graders understand sight words, they will be able to read with more confidence.
• Kids who can read more quickly and confidently tend to enjoy reading more.
• When kids know more sight words, they will be able to read more independently as well.

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

3rd Grade Sight Word Lists

Dolch Sight Words List

The Dolch Sight Word list is a list of 220 words, which are divided up by grade level including preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade. There is an additional list of 95 of the most common nouns. These lists include 80% of the words found in children’s books and 50% of the words in books overall.

Dolch Words for Third Grade

The Dolch third grade sight words list includes 41 high-frequency and irregular sight words. They are, in alphabetical order:

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

Grab a Free Printable List of the Dolch Sight Words for 3rd Grade Here!

These printable worksheets will help you get started with learning the 3rd grade Dolch sight words.

Fry Sight Words

The Fry sight word list is an update to the list of Dolch Words that was created by Dr. Edward Fry. The lists include 1000 commonly used words, and the words are organized in groups of 100. The words are not labeled by grade levels like the Dolch words are, so 3rd grade students can work through the list at their own pace.

The Fry sight words list includes 90% of the words kids will find in the books they read.

Fry Words for Third Grade

The third Fry word list includes 100 sight words:

above, add, almost, along, always, began, begin, being, below, between, book, both, car, carry, children, city, close, country, cut, don’t, earth, eat, enough, every, example, eyes, face, family, far, father, feet, few, food, four, girl, got, group, grow, hard, head, hear, high, idea, important, Indian, it’s, keep, last, late, leave, left, let, life, light, list, might, mile, miss, mountains, near, never, next, night, often, once, open, own, paper, plant, real, river, run, saw, school, sea, second, seem, side, something, sometimes, song, soon, start, state, stop, story, talk, those, thought, together, took, tree, under, until, walk, watch, while, white, without, young

Create Your Own Third Grade Sight Word List

Many families prefer to create their own sight word list for their 3rd grade students. You can create your own third grade word list by combining the Dolch and Fry word lists and adding any additional words that you want your child to be able to recognize.

How many sight words should a third grader know?

The Dolch Sight Word lists for preschool through 3rd grade include a total of 220 commonly used words. By the end of third grade, your child should know all the words on the Dolch list. If your child has not accomplished this by the end of the year, you can continue working on sight words in 4th grade.

Tips for Teaching Third Grade Sight Words

Teaching reading, including sight words, is an important part of homeschooling. These tips will make it easier.

What Order Should I Teach the Sight Words?

You can teach the sight words in any order. A good way to do this is to teach the words in order of frequency, starting with the most commonly used words first.

 

How Many Sight Words Should My Child Learn at Once?

Most kids learn best when they practice sight words in small groups, rather than trying to tackle the whole list at once. Introduce just a few sight words at a time, and make sure your child has lots of practice and feels comfortable with those words before adding new ones.

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 3rd Grade Sight Words

Fun Sight Word Activities

One of the best ways to teach sight words to third graders is with fun games and activities. Here are a few ideas to include in your lesson plans that will help kids practice their sight words in a fun way.

Trace, Cover and Check

Fold a piece of paper to make 3 columns. Write the high-frequency words that you are practicing in the first column. Ask your child to trace the word. Then, fold the paper so the word is covered and ask your child to write the word. Finally, unfold the paper and check to see if they spelled it correctly. Make any needed corrections in the third column.

Sight Word Bowling

Write words from your child’s list on plastic cups. Set up the cups like bowling pins and invite your child to knock them over with a soft ball. After the round of bowling is complete, your child can collect the cups and test their reading skills by practicing the sight words.

Beach Ball Words

Blow up a beach ball. Use a permanent marker to write one sight word on each colored section of the ball. Play throw and catch with the beach ball. Ask your child to read the word that their right hand is touching each time they catch the ball.

Climb the Stairs

Write sight words on sticky notes or index cards. Put one of the sight word cards on each step of a staircase. Ask your child to climb the stairs one at a time, while reading the word on each step.

Word Games

Spelling games like a word scramble are a great way to help your child remember how to spell their sight words. You can create simple spelling worksheets for your child using their sight words.

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

Tips for Success with Third Grade Sight Words

Make Learning Fun

Make sure that your 3rd grader is enjoying practicing reading. Include lots of hands-on activities and fun games to keep things interesting.

Be Patient

Remember that learning how to read takes time. Learning sight words is an important skill, but one that will take lots of practice. Keep encouraging your child as you see their progress.

Be Consistent

When learning new sight words, kids need to practice daily. Make sure that you keep lessons short and make them a part of your daily routine.

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 3rd Grade Sight Words

This PDF file includes a printable list of the Second Grade words, a checklist you can use to keep track of which words your child knows, and a set of Dolch Second Grade 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

Kindergarten

First Grade

Second Grade