Sight words: the words you just know
The five Dolch lists and the Fry first hundred — each a tap-to-hear wall with a flash trainer, a progress checklist that remembers, and a printable list.
Half of everything a child will ever read is the same two hundred words — the, said, was, of. Many of them break the phonics rules, and all of them appear too often to sound out every time. They have to become sight words: recognised whole, instantly, like faces.
Phonics and sight words are the two legs reading walks on. Teach blending on the word-family pages; grow the sight vocabulary here, a handful of words a week, and tick them off as they stick.
Dolch · 40 wordsPre-primerThe 40 words that start it all — the ones a child meets in their very first books.Dolch · 52 wordsPrimer52 words for the first real year of reading — was, they, what, with.Dolch · 41 wordsFirst grade41 words — from, when, could, know: the connective tissue of real sentences.Dolch · 46 wordsSecond grade46 words — because, always, would: the words opinions are made of.Dolch · 41 wordsThird gradeThe last 41 Dolch words — together, myself, laugh. After these, it's just reading.Fry · 100 wordsFry first 100The 100 most frequent words in written English — about half of everything ever printed.
The five Dolch lists hold 220 words between them — and cover more than half of everything in a children's book.