Pick a list or type your own words
- Choose a Dolch list. The buttons above the box fill it with a whole list, from pre-primer to third grade. The page opens with the 40 pre-primer words.
- Or type your own. Delete what you do not need and type this week's words, one per line. Each line becomes its own page, so five words make five pages.
- Several words on one page. Put them on one line, such as the and is, and they are traced together.
- Print or save as PDF. A whole list prints in one go, up to 200 pages.
What each page looks like
The first line shows the word in solid letters, with green starting dots and stroke order numbers and arrows on the first copy. The lines below repeat the word in dotted letters to trace, across the whole line. Under More options you can add empty lines at the end, so the child writes the word alone after tracing it, fade the tracing line by line, or switch to D'Nealian or cursive letters.
Sight words are best traced while saying them. Have the child read the word aloud, trace it while spelling it letter by letter, then read it again. Saying, spelling and writing together is what moves a word from "sound it out" to "just know it".
The Dolch sight word lists
Edward Dolch collected these 220 words in 1948 from children's books of the time. They are still the most used sight word lists in US schools.
Pre-primer (40 words, pre-k): 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.
Primer (52 words, kindergarten): all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will, with, yes.
1st grade (41 words, first grade): after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, going, had, has, her, him, his, how, just, know, let, live, may, of, old, once, open, over, put, round, some, stop, take, thank, them, then, think, walk, were, when.
2nd grade (46 words, second grade): always, around, because, been, before, best, both, buy, call, cold, does, don't, fast, first, five, found, gave, goes, green, its, made, many, off, or, pull, read, right, sing, sit, sleep, tell, their, these, those, upon, us, use, very, wash, which, why, wish, work, would, write, your.
3rd grade (41 words, third grade): about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm.
A weekly sight word routine
- Monday: introduce three to five new words. Read them, trace one page each.
- Tuesday to Thursday: one page a day, on smaller lines as the letters get steadier. Add an empty line and let the child write each word without help.
- Friday: mix this week's words with last week's and read them as flash cards. Words that still cause a pause go back on next week's list.
Once a few words are known, put them in a sentence, such as I can see the big red dog. The handwriting worksheet generator turns any sentence into trace and copy lines. For single letters, use the letter tracing worksheets.