Inside: A free, printable set of Sight Words Flash Cards for the Dolch Word Lists.
What is the Dolch Sight Word List?
There are a variety of different sets of sight words commonly used in schools and reading programs. The Dolch Word List was developed by Edward William Dolch in 1936. Dolch’s research led him to develop a list of the most frequently occurring words in popular children’s books of the time.
How many words are in the Dolch Sight Word List?
The Dolch word list contains 220 non-nouns divided into five groups, and an associated list of 95 high frequency nouns. These words are believed to represent between 50% and 75% of all vocabulary used at a grade school level.
The non-nouns are divided into five levels of difficulty;
Pre-Primer – 40 words
Primer – 52 words
First grade – 41 words
Second grade – 46 words
Third grade – 41 words
Learning to recall sight words quickly makes reading easier, as the reader can focus his attention on the remaining words, with less chance of losing track of the meaning of what has been read.
You can download a free set of Sight Words Flash Cards – the Dolch Pre-Primer and Primer words below.
These words are also the focus of our download, print and play Sight Word Games pack. Game playing is one of our favourite ways to develop sight word recall. Games are fun and engaging, and children often do not realize how much they are learning when they are having fun playing a game with a friend or family member.
To print your free sight words flash cards: Click on the images below to open each set of sight word flashcards – Dolch Pre Primer and Dolch Primer. This will open a PDF file. Download or save the PDF to your own computer. Open the PDF and print. When printing, select “Fit to printable area” (or similar) to ensure the page fits with your printer type and local paper size (these have been created at A4 size). For durability, print onto matte photo paper or lightweight card stock and laminate. Personal, non commercial use only.
Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
