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Dolch Pre-Primer Sight Words (40 Words) — Free Printable List & Flash Cards

There are 40 Dolch pre-primer sight words. Pre-primer is the first of Edward Dolch's five levels: short, everyday words like the, and, see and look that fill the first books a child reads.

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Flash cards open in the maker with all 40 words loaded — the word on the front and again, printed light, on the back for whoever holds the card up. The word search takes the 29 words of three letters or more, and bingo gets the whole list to shuffle.

All 40 Dolch pre-primer sight words

In alphabetical order, as Dolch listed them.

  1. 1a
  2. 2and
  3. 3away
  4. 4big
  5. 5blue
  6. 6can
  7. 7come
  8. 8down
  9. 9find
  10. 10for
  11. 11funny
  12. 12go
  13. 13help
  14. 14here
  15. 15I
  16. 16in
  17. 17is
  18. 18it
  19. 19jump
  20. 20little
  21. 21look
  22. 22make
  23. 23me
  24. 24my
  25. 25not
  26. 26one
  27. 27play
  28. 28red
  29. 29run
  30. 30said
  31. 31see
  32. 32the
  33. 33three
  34. 34to
  35. 35two
  36. 36up
  37. 37we
  38. 38where
  39. 39yellow
  40. 40you

Flash cards per page

Pick the size in the flash card maker. Sheet counts are for the 40 words on this page, fronts only — printing the backs doubles them.

Cards per pageSheets for 40 wordsWord sizeBest for
2 per page — extra large2060 ptWhole-class flashing from the front of the room.
4 per page — large1044 ptSmall group work and pocket charts.
6 per page — standard734 ptThe usual choice. Fits a rubber band.
8 per page — compact528 ptFact decks and word rings.
9 per page — small524 ptBig decks where paper matters.

How to teach these words

Five short activities that work in a classroom and at the kitchen table. A few minutes a day beats one long session a week.

  1. 1.Three-pile sort

    Flash each card. Words read instantly go in a Know pile, slow ones in Almost, missed ones in Not Yet. Five minutes a day on the Almost and Not Yet piles is enough.

  2. 2.A word ring

    Punch a hole in each card and put three to five words on a binder ring. Add a new word when one is read on sight for three days running.

  3. 3.Sound out what you can

    Most sight words are partly regular. Sound out the regular part together and point out the tricky bit — the ai in said, the o in of — so the word is learned, not guessed.

  4. 4.Sight word hunt

    Pick three words and hunt for them in a picture book, a cereal box or a street sign. Keep a tally and see which word turns up most.

  5. 5.Games with the same words

    Use the list for bingo, a word search or a game of slap: lay out a few cards, call a word, and the first hand on it keeps the card.

35 of these 40 words are also in Fry's first 300 Instant Words, so a child working through either list is practising most of the other.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Dolch pre-primer sight words are there?

There are 40. Dolch published 220 service words in five levels — 40 pre-primer, 52 primer, 41 first grade, 46 second grade and 41 third grade — plus a separate list of 95 nouns, so 315 words in all.

What are the Dolch pre-primer sight words?

a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you.

What grade are the Dolch pre-primer sight words for?

They are commonly taught in pre-K and kindergarten. Neither the Dolch nor the Fry list was assigned to grades by any official body, so schools differ — follow your school's list if it has one.

How many pages of flash cards do the 40 words make?

At 6 cards per page, the standard size, the 40 words print on 7 sheets. At 9 per page it is 5 sheets, and at 4 large cards per page it is 10. Printing the backs as well doubles the sheet count.

Are the Dolch Pre-Primer words also Fry words?

35 of the 40 also appear in Fry's first 300 Instant Words. The two lists were built differently — Dolch from children's books of the 1930s, Fry by how often words appear in print — but they agree on most everyday words.

How many new sight words should a child learn at a time?

Many teachers add three to five new words at a time, mixed in with words the child already knows, and only move on when the new ones are read on sight for a few days running.

Is this sight word list free to print?

Yes. The Print this list button prints the words as a neat sheet from your browser, and the flash card maker prints the cards free, with a small PuzzlePage credit in the footer.

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More sight word lists

Dolch Primer Sight Words52 words · KindergartenSee the listKindergarten Sight Words92 words · KindergartenSee the listComplete Dolch Sight Word List220 words · Pre-K to grade 3See the listFirst 100 Fry Sight Words100 words · First grade, often started in kindergartenSee the list
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