Sight Words

Different reading programs use various names for sight words—the most common words in printed text. For example, Fundations refers to them as trick words, while UFLI calls them heart words. Classic basal readers, such as Dick and Jane from the 1970s, relied on the Dolch (1936) and Fry (1956) word lists, which were traditionally referred to as sight words. Some regions refer to them as flash words, as they need to be recognized in an instant or flash. Regardless of the terminology, these word lists overlap significantly. Recognizing sight words instantly is crucial for children to read fluently and understand what they read.

My recommendation for parents wanting to teach sight words is to use the Dolch list for reading and spelling. Dolch sight words (220 words divided by grade level, plus 95 nouns) make up 50–75% of the words found in children’s books and about 50% of all words in general English print, making them essential for early reading fluency and comprehension. Many of the words are function words—the glue that holds sentences together, which is why they appear so frequently across all text types.

Put the words on flashcards (index cards) for the child to read “in a flash.”

I learned to read in 1974 using the Dick and Jane series.

Parents, please focus on teaching your child the Dolch words. If your child masters the Dolch words for reading and spelling, you’re in excellent shape!

Dolch sight words—black and white PDF—220 words plus the 95 nouns
Dolch and Fry flashcards, or make your own with index cards

The Dolch list comprises words that require swift recognition to enhance 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!

Printable download of the above chart

When my son was in preschool and kindergarten, we purchased a notebook and took five words from the Dolch and Fry lists (listed below—many of the Fry words overlap with the Dolch) each day, and we wrote five sentences together. This significantly improved his reading, creative writing, spelling, and fine motor skills. We will always treasure the notebook full of sentences, and he continues to be an excellent reader, writer, and speller!

Sight words are best learned in context.

When students practice reading text or phrases regularly, their word recognition, fluency, and comprehension improve significantly.

Dolch phrases These Dolch phrase cards each contain 12 phrases. Start in order; teach five phrases per day. Echo read, then have your child read them chorally with you. Finally, please have your child practice rereading them throughout the day, using previously learned phrases to build fluency. Students’ word recognition, fluency, and comprehension improve significantly when they practice reading text or phrases repeatedly.
Dolch story—This story contains all of the Dolch words. Read, reread, reread, and reread this.

Have your child read these Dolch stories daily! For beginning readers, focus on just one sentence a day.

Decodable-Dolch-Sight-Word-Stories-Preprimer-Grade-3 Chat GPT made these stories. I have them for you in a Word doc so you may edit them. Perhaps you could have the students illustrate sections of the document.

Here are more free online sight word stories.

Spelling the Dolch words

Many of the Dolch words have irregular spellings that make them difficult to sound out, but you can try the following heart word method. The concept is that you can sound out some parts of the word, but you need to memorize the irregular part “by heart.”

What are 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). Click here and scroll down for a color-coded chart of the heart words!

Here are the heart word flashcards from UFLI.

Here is an excellent video on teaching sight words based on the science of reading.

Repetition and practice are essential to make sight words automatic. Once these crucial sight words have been mastered, children will read more fluently, which will have a positive impact on their 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

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 all written material. Many of the words overlap with the Dolch.

**The Dolch list, when combined with the Fry word list, (which expands to include more academic and content-area vocabulary), contains approximately 90% of the words in typical English texts.**

So, here are links to 1000 of the most-used words in reading and writing. Based on frequency of use and difficulty, Dr. Fry divides the list into ten levels, each containing twenty-five words. Please ensure that your child is working toward automatically recognizing these words.

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 Sight Word Phrases. PHRASE SET 1 contains the first 100 words from the Fry Instant Word List. These words account for approximately 50% of the vocabulary children encounter in elementary school reading.

Edited on 06/29/2025