What are the Dolch Words?

Edward W. Dolch developed a list of 220 sight words which are found in 50% to 75% or more of all children's books including text books. Dolch also developed a list of 95 commonly used nouns which should be recognized on sight. The Dolch words need to be recognized on sight, i.e. instantly, for reading to progress smoothly. Many of these words cannot be sounded out by decoding rules. Many of

them can't be represented by pictures, for example: if, do, am, for, as, so, be. They are service words which give meaning and direction, e.g. here, there, now, then, on, at, in, over, today.

Before children finish first grade, they should be able to read all of the Dolch sight words and the commonly used nouns. The lists represent frequency of use in books on different grade levels. For example, if is on the third grade list. This only means that E. W. Dolch found this word frequently in third grade books. He put words on the third grade list which did not appear often in pre-primer through second grade books. The nouns aren't listed by grade level.

Why are Dolch Sight Words Important?

Confidence and reading ability improve when children know Dolch sight words. Many of these words are in almost anything they read. They will have more experiences of success if they know these words.

Preprimer	Primer	First	Second	Third
a	an what	after	always	about
and	am white	again	around	better
away	are who	an	because	bring
big	at will	any	been	carry
blue	ate with	as	before	clean
can	be yes	ask	best	cut
come	black	by	both	done
down	brown	could	buy	draw
find	but	every	call	drink
for	came	11y	cold	eight
funny	did	from	does	fail
go	do	give	don't	for
help	eat	going	fast	fun
here	four	had	first	got
f	get	has	five	grow
in	good	her	found	hold
Is	have	him	gave	hot
it	he	his	goes	hurt
little	into	how	green	It
look	we	jump	its	keep
make	must	just	made	kind
me	new	know	many	laugh
my	no	let	off	light
not	now	live	or	long
one	on	may	Pull	much
play	our	of	row	myself
red	out	old	right	never
run	please	once	sing	only
said	pretty	open	sit	own
see	ran	over	sleep	pick
the	ride	put	tell	seven
three	saw	round	their	shall
to	say	some	these	show
two	she	stop	those	six
up	so	take	upon	small
we	soon	thank	us	start
where	that	them	use	ten
yellow	there	then	very	today
you	they	think	wash	together
	this	walk	which	try
	too	warm	why
	under	were	wish
	want	when	work
	was		would
	well		write
	went		your