Dolch Word List

Help Make Reading Easy for Your Child

The Dolch Word List is a list of the 220 most common sight words in the English language. The words in these word lists make up 50 to 70% of everything your child will read.

The problem is that these words don't follow the phonetic rules. This means that they can't be sounded out, so they must be learned by sight.

Below are lists of the words broken up by the grade that they should be taught. If your child learns all the words in his list, go ahead and teach the next list. Do this only if the child isn't stressed out or feels pressured.Never pressure your child into learning.Keep it fun -- keep it light.

Dolch Word List by Grade Level

• Preprimer Word List
• Preprimer Dolch Cards

• Primer Word List
• Primer Dolch Cards

• First Grade Word List
• First Grade Dolch Cards

• Second Grade Word List
• Second Grade Dolch Cards

• Third Grade Word List
• Third Grade Dolch Cards

As for the other grade levels, I suggest that you introduce the words in the same manner mentioned above and add in games like Concentration, Hangman, and Memory Match. If you don't start teaching these words to your child until Kindergarten or first grade, don't worry. Just start with the Preprimer word list and take it from there.

Games for Teaching Dolch Word List

You can also find some games that could be used to teach the word lists in the Free Educational Games section of Home-Schooling-Haven.com. Please check them out for some extra ideas.

Dolch Cards

I've also included a PDF for a set of cards for each word list in the links above. Print these cards out on card stock or paper and cut and glue them to card stock or index cards.

You can use these cards as review and to play Concentration or Memory Match that I suggested above.