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Wow! Since I first put this website up, the traffic has grown to several thousand visits each month. Unfortunately, that means it has started to cost me significant money to keep it up (my kids learned to read several years ago now).

SO, I've gone ahead and added some ads in hopes of getting some ad click revenue to keep the site up.

A few kind people have offered to make a small donation for using the site to teach their kids to read so I've added a Donation button below. If you found Sight Worder to be a useful site and would like it to remain up, please make a donation.
Thanks!


What are 'Sight words'?

They are the most common written words. If you know all of these words as soon as you see them, you are well on your way to being a reader.

The Dolch Word List is a list of commonly used English words that was originally compiled by Edward William Dolch, PhD and published in his 1948 book, "Problems in Reading". Edward Dolch compiled this list based on children's books of the period, and selected 220 "service words" which children need to recognize in order to achieve reading fluency. Dolch excluded nouns from his main list, but did compile a separate 95-word list of nouns.

Many of the 220 words in the Dolch list, can not be "sounded out", and hence must be learned by sight. Hence the list is often referred to as "Dolch Sight Word List", and the words on it, as "Dolch Sight Words".

I can't keep up with all those flash cards with the sight words on them.
They get lost or messed up or mixed up.
I looked all over the Internet and couldn't find a free substitute, so I created this program to help my kids learn and I put up this web site to help you and yours too. I hope it helps.

If you have any feedback (and especially if you spot any errors or problems)
please email me, Jay@JayBraver.com. Thanks.

Drill or Test?
Drill (missed words repeat)
Test (each word one time with results)

Select Words
5 Words (to get the idea how it works)
1st 50
2nd 50
3rd 50
Final 70
All 220
95 Dolch Nouns

Font?


Directions
Select 'Test' or 'Drill', the section of words you want to work on, then click 'Start Now'.
In random order, each Dolche Sight Word will appear on the screen.
When your child correctly names the word,
just click and the next word will appear.

And that's all there is to it.
If it took your child less than 3.5 seconds to name the word, it counts as a word s/he 'got'.
If it takes more than 3.5 seconds (or you have to tell him or her what the word is),
it will be counted as 'missed'.

Drill vs. Test
The 'Drill' is for learning the words and training for the test.
It will continue to re-show the missed words until your child has gotten them all.

The 'Test' will run through all of the words once and give the results.
Teachers can use it for the testing and you can tell how your child is progressing.

Tips & Hints
This program takes the place of the flash-cards, but does NOT replace you working with your young reader on the sight words. S/he still needs you to judge if s/he got it or not and to tell him what the correct word is.

When the child misses a word, take your time before clicking through to the next word. A missed word is missed no matter how long it takes. So make sure they take time to learn the word and are ready for the next one.

Always make sure your child is focused on the screen before moving on to the next word.

Got another tip? Email it in!

The Dolch Sight Words list

This is the grouping and order in which my children's 1st grade teachers (East Jackson Elementary in Nicholson Georgia) taught and tested my boy/girl twin seven year olds. I believe the easier words are towards the first groupings.

Words 1-50
go, help, look, at, run, me,  here, come, get, down, jump, said, and, I, no, you, can, that, not, is, to, with, play, did, find, the, away, we, see, want, this, ride, in, will, for, one, do, who, a, like, what, up, it, has, now, work, my, little, have, two

Words 51-100
red, three, big, funny, its, but, from, first, be, as, blue, after, call, yellow, where, yes, thank, out, eat, good, are, there, too, put, on, dont, please, fast, take, read, know, she, let, how, all, make, he, they, ran, went, was, white, black, pretty, try, got, her, him, came, new

Words 101-150
had, your, soon, saw, them, walk, so, am, by, many, brown, four, long, give, may, cut, hot, grow, every, again, fall, done, into, any, going, his, just, found, could, five, laugh, an, buy, green, made, about, some, wish, when, of, round, under, very, which, tell, show, right, must, off, sleep

Words 151-220
old, over, our, once, wash, why, think, does, around, cold, before, live, goes, kind, best, keep, both, bring, always, if, better, far, because, clean, fly, been, light, six, start, pick, ten, much, those, or, only, never, would, their, say, today, use, small, full, carry, ate, draw, drink, hold, eight, own, shall, myself, seven, sing, these, together, warm, open, write, upon, then, were, ask, well, stop, gave, us, hurt, sit, pull