When children are learning to read, they learn all about phonics. However, what happens when they reach certain words that the rules of phonics don’t actually apply to? What about the words that appear in our sentences on a regular basis? Should they have to sound out “the” every time they come across it in a sentence? No! For the first few years of school, kids should be learning sight words. This article contains worksheets and flashcards for the first 100 Dolch Sight Words! Enjoy!
So, who is Dolch and why did he decide what the 220 sight words should be?
The Dolch Word List is a list of frequently used English words compiled by Edward William Dolch, PhD, a major proponent of the “whole-word” method of beginning reading instruction. The list was prepared in 1936. The list was originally published in his book Problems in Reading in 1948.
Dolch compiled the list based on children’s books of his era, which is why nouns such as “kitty” and “Santa Claus” appear on the list instead of more high-frequency words. The list contains 220 “service words” that have to be easily recognized in order to achieve reading fluency in the English language. The compilation excludes nouns, which comprise a separate 95-word list. Between 50-75% of all words used in schoolbooks, library books, newspapers, and magazines are a part of the Dolch basic sight word vocabulary.
First 100 Dolch Sight Words:
For the past 10 weeks, I have been making printable worksheets and flash cards to help you teach and reinforce the Dolch Sight Words to your little ones. Some of you have asked, so here is the full list of the first 100!
- Words 1-10 – a, and, away, big, can, come, down, find, for, funny
- Words 11-20 – go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look
- Words 21-30 – make, me, my, not, one, play, run, said, see, the
- Words 31-40 – blue, red, three, to, two, up we, where, yellow, you
- Words 41-50 – all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came
- Words 51-60 – did, do, eat, for, get, good, have, he, into, like
- Words 61-70 – must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran
- Words 71-80 – ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this
- Words 81-90 – too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will
- Words 91-100 – with, yes, after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could
Dolch Sight Word Games & Books:
Here are a few of my top picks to help you reinforce the sight words to your kids!
Paulina oswald says
I Thank you for your hard work with the flash cards. Do you have the next 100 words? I have been teaching special needs adults how to read and it’s working amazing.
Kelli Miller says
THey are all here, but I don’t have them all linked – search in the search bar for “dolch”. They are sorted by week 🙂
Crystal@WhatTreasuresAwait says
What a fun way for the kids to learn! Thanks for sharing at Welcome Home Wednesdays!
Glenda Cates says
I am so glad I found this post as my son who is 8 still struggles
with some of the spelling words he should know. So I will be
printing these out to your in our Home school. So I can make
sure Charlie will know them before 3rd grade begins.
Christina says
Awesome! Thanks
Kelli Miller says
So glad you found it useful! AFter doing all these words, my youngest son is only struggling with 10 of them. So, we are going to focus one week on just those ten words. 🙂
Terry Hill says
Thank you!
Sandra Morgan says
Thank you for the sharing. May God bless you and your family.
Jill says
Thank you for all of your hard work on the dolch site word series. This is a fantastic resource!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
Jacqui Odell says
I have been working on sight words with my son. Thanks for the list and linking up at Tell Me About It Tuesday.