Free Sight Words List Printable

A good sight word list printable is important when teaching children to read. There a two free sight words list pdf downloads in this post!

It’s true. Learning sight words, or high-frequency words, is important for learning to read and spell.

But what type of sight word list printable should you use? In this blog post, I’m sharing two free printable sight word lists.  There are pros and cons for both lists.

So read on, choose the list that is best for your needs, and get to work.

Free Printable Sight Word Lists

When you’re wondering how to teach sight words, you’ll need to start with a word list. I have two free printable sight word lists available for you.

You can choose the one that is best for your situation – or grab them both!

• Free Dolch Sight Words Printable (by frequency)
• Sight Words Sorted by Sounds (by phonics skills)

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Free Dolch Sight Words Printable

In this free printable, you’ll get the 220 Dolch Sight Words divided into 11 lists of twenty words.

Online you’ll find lists by grade level. I choose not to do that.

It’s pretty insulting for children who are already behind to be given a word list of “preschool” or “kindergarten” sight words. Plus those grade-levels are arbitrary.

Second, I find lists of about 10-20 words better. Students get a sense of accomplishment as they finish each list and that can really snowball.

You can grab the list here but make sure to read about the pros and cons of teaching sight words by frequency.

Teaching Sight Words by Frequency

This is the traditional way to teach sight words. Teach them in order of frequency. It makes sense, right?

If your child or student is going to see the words ‘the, was, and I’ the most – you should teach those first, right?

There is merit to this approach. You’ll know your child or student is getting exposure to the most used words early on.

The problem with this approach is your child won’t have learned all the phonics rules yet.

Think of the word “was.” You need to teach your child early on that s spells the sound /z/ over 60% of the time. It’s not a rule breaker.

This isn’t necessarily a problem. I taught this to kindergarten in the first two months of school.

You’ll just need to do a lot of teaching with this approach. So read about the merits of teaching sight words by sounds below.

Sight Words Sorted by Sounds

My preference is to teach sight words grouped by sounds. This way you can leverage phonics skills.

But wait? Don’t sight words not follow phonics skills?

That’s a common misconception. And it’s one I had for years.

The truth is 66% of the words on the Dolch list are completely decodable! That means your child or student can sound them out.

But what about the other 33%? Almost all of them have some decodable parts.

So if you invest time in teaching those words, you’ll be strengthening phonics skills at the same time.

Grab the list of Sight Words Sorted by Sounds below.

Is there an order to learn sight words?

There is no set order for learning sight words. There is also no one agreed upon list of sight words.

I use the Dolch List. Others use the Fry’s Word List. There is a lot of carryover from one list to the other.

The researchers who created the lists had different methodologies. You can’t go wrong with either list.

You can be certain your child is learning the most common words in written English.

Fastest Way to Learn Sight Words

Traditional sight word approaches have focused on memorization. The fastest way to learn sight words is by word mapping sight words.

So whether you decide to go in order of frequency or by sounds, try word mapping. This means you will be teaching the words clearly.

Don’t just hold up a flashcard to memorize. Explain each sound in the word and how the letters represent them.

Get a detailed explanation of this process in mapping sight words.

Sight Word Worksheets

In the shop, I have worksheets that accompany both approaches.

Sight Word Read and Spell

During the pandemic, I made these for my daughter. I saw signs of a learning disablity and she was not getting what she needed from distance learning.

These worksheets can be bound as a printable workbook.  They include word mapping for the tricky words. All the words can be color coded to help your child focus on how the letters spell each sound.

By working on writing words, older children will also strengthen their ability to read the words easily.

I recommend this for grades one and older. Advanced kindergarten students would also benefit from the writing practice.

Check out the Sight Word Read and Spell printables.

Word Mapping Sight Words by Sounds Worksheets

These worksheets are grouped by sounds. This way, your child or student will learn so much faster.

It comes with one word mapping worksheet per word, plus flashcards, answer keys, and 2 review worksheets for the sound.

Don’t be surprised if your child masters the words in just one exposure with these worksheets. They work with what modern neuroscience demonstrates about how the brain learns to read.

Grab the Word Mapping Sight Words Worksheets or find them on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Sight Words List PDF

Choose the sight word list pdf that will work best for your family or classroom. But if one approach isn’t working, come back and try the other!

It is more important that you get started, commit to working on sight words, and then evaluate how it’s going.

Remember, the enemy of the good is the perfect. There is no perfect approach. So just get started today!