Sight Words
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Sight words are also called trick words, Dolch words, Fry words, flash words, and heart words.
“High-Frequency Words that are irregularly spelled are called Heart Words because some part of the word must be explicitly taught and “learned by heart”. Students will encounter these words often so they need to be able to read and spell them automatically. Examples of Heart Words include said, are, do, and where. 37% of the words on the Dolch 220 list are considered Heart Words” (Mrs. Winter’s Bliss).
The purple is temporary until the pattern is learned.
The Dolch List contains words that must be quickly recognized for reading fluency. If the child spends too much time decoding or figuring out words, comprehension cannot occur. The Dolch Words are the most frequently used in English, making up 50 to 70 percent of any text!
Here are FUN ways to practice sight words!
Dolch Sight Words
When my son was in preschool and kindergarten, we bought a notebook, took 5 words daily from the Dolch and Fry lists (Fry lists below – many of the words overlap), and wrote 5 sentences each day together! This helped GREATLY with his reading, creative writing, spelling, and fine motor skills! The notebook full of sentences will always be treasured, and he continues to be an excellent reader, writer, and speller!
Many Dolch words have irregular spellings and can’t be sounded out, but try the following method:
Buy a blank set of index cards and drill sections of the word lists each evening of use these flashcards.
Here is an excellent video on teaching sight words based on the Science of Reading.
Repetition and practice are essential to make these words automatic. Again, once these essential sight words have been mastered, children will read more fluently, positively impacting comprehension.
Reading Rockets categorized the sight words by:
- decodable flash words
- decodable flash words with advanced vowels
- decodable 2-syllable flash words
- heart words (words with irregular spelling – students must memorize the irregular part “by heart”) Heart Words List
*****TEACH YOUR CHILD TO SPELL THE WORDS!*****
Dolch Story
Follow this link to a story that contains all the Dolch Words! When students regularly practice repeated reading of text or phrases, their word recognition, fluency, and comprehension improve significantly.
Sight words are learned best in context,
Have your child reread these daily!
These are color-coded and use much paper:
These are black & white and are paper savers:
Preprimer story by Susan M. Serena
Primer story by Susan M. Serena
Grade 1 story by Susan M. Serena
Grade 2 story by Susan M. Serena
Grade 3 story by Susan M. Serena
- The students should read the Susan M. Serena Dolch stories above.
- Drill the Dolch word list that goes with the story.
- Sort the words via decodable words or heart words.
Here are more free online sight word stories.
Bingo
- Follow up with Bingo. I made enough cards for 7 players. Students must be able to read the Bingo word and match it to their Bingo card.
- I call on one student at a time to read the Bingo word in question. If the child can’t read it, I write that word on the child’s chart. I later give the child a mini-lesson on how the trick word can be decoded. This is either by teaching the vowel team that the child hasn’t been exposed to or by finding the irregular part of the word that the child must memorize by heart.
Primer Bingo To make it easier, I labeled each Dolch card with the corresponding BINGO letter.
- B: new, yes, good, ride, but, under, she, please, too, four, do
- I: into, no, brown, eat, they, out, who, there, black, so, that
- N: want, ran, must, want, our, pretty, like, at, be, white, now
- G: get, say, well, this, with, am, will, say, what, went, soon
- O: all, was, are, ate, did, have, saw, he, came, on
- B: together, laugh, today, kind, grow, hurt, never, warm, only
- I: much, clean, keep, shall, start, full, ten, fall
- N: cut, long, if, eight, better, bring, got, small
- G: draw, light, seven, try, about, hold, six
- O: pick, carry, far, drink, myself, show, hot, own
Dolch Phrases
The above link has Dolch Phrase cards, with 12 phrases on each card. Start in order, teaching 5 phrases per day. Choral read them first with your child, then have your child practice rereading them throughout the day and previously learned phrases to build fluency. Students’ word recognition, fluency, and comprehension improve significantly when repeated reading of text or phrases is practiced regularly.
Fry Word Lists
In 1996, Dr. Fry expanded on the Dolch Sight Word Lists and developed the “Fry 1000 Instant Words.” Dr. Fry found the first 300 words in 65% of everything written! So, here are links to 1000 of the most used words in reading and writing. The list is divided into ten levels and then into twenty-five words based on the frequency of use and difficulty. Please be sure that your child is working towards recognizing these words automatically.
- Fry 1st 100
- Fry 2nd 100
- Fry 3rd 100
- Fry 4th 100
- Fry 5th 100
- Fry 6th 100
- Fry 7th 100
- Fry 8th 100
- Fry 9th 100
- Fry 10th 100
- Find six sets of 100 Fry phrases here:
When repeated reading of text or phrases is practiced regularly, students’ word recognition, fluency, and comprehension improve significantly.
PHRASE SET 1 contains the 1st 100 Words from the Fry Instant Word List. These words represent 50% of children’s words in elementary school reading.
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Copyright 05/04/2012
Edited on 10/20/2024
