Sight word worksheets (K & 1st grade)
Sight words can be a tricky thing to teach. We used our set to learn 25 non decodable words and over 75 other high frequency words to help my daughter get ready to read early reader books.
They include sight word worksheets, sentences to read, color by sight word, and more to help build skills and confidence.
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Just want the worksheets? Jump to the end. Or keep reading to learn more about sight words.
What is a sight word?
Sight words are soooo confusing.
You can easily find “sight word” lists if you search fry sight words or dolch sight words.
These lists contain a wide variety of common words that kindergarten and first grade children should learn to help them dive into reading.
The term “sight words” has become a common term used for all word lists but really refers to words that need to be learned by sight.
These words are also referred to as tricky words, heart words, or non-decodable words. Basically, they are words that don’t follow the “rules” and cannot be sounded out.
These larger lists include both decodable (words that can be sounded out) and non-decodable (words that have to be learned by sight). Kids can try to learn all of these words by sight but it’s better to focus first on the ones that cannot be sounded out, by them or anyone else.
The problem is there is no one agreed upon list of what counts as a tricky word or what order they should be learned in. Some of the words didn’t seem unable to be sounded out to me, yet they appeared on multiple lists of tricky, non-decodable words!
Sight word worksheets
So how did I come up with words for my sight word worksheets? I looked at a lot of lists from various sources. I also looked at lists of the most frequently used words.
From there I made a list of words I wanted to use and went to work!
I’ve tried to make the worksheets build on each other, so the words that have already been learned will continue to show up in later worksheets for extra practice.
That being said, you can use the worksheets in any order you want but there will be non-decodable words that your child hasn’t learned yet if you go out of order.
Who are these for?
These worksheets are geared towards kindergarten or first grade children who know their letter sounds and are ready to start building their knowledge of sight words.
They’ll need to know an extensive list of words before they’re ready to start trying to read early reader books.
These worksheets also include other common words that may not have an entire worksheet of their own but will appear frequently so they can be learned as you go.
For instance, I do not have worksheets for specific colors but they appear often through the worksheet set.
What do the worksheets include?
Each word comes with 4 worksheets. The first includes various activities to help them learn the word.
They say it (have them repeat it after you several times. This is when I usually discuss with them what the word means).
Then they can color it, find it, spell it, trace it, and finally write it on their own.
I generally do the sentences on another day so the word has time to sink in.
There are three sentence sheets. The first one has them circle or highlight the word in each sentence and read the sentence.
The second page has them trace the word in each sentence and then read the sentences again.
The third has only three of the sentences with blank lines for them to copy the sentence.
I would use only the tracing or the writing page depending on where the child is in terms of reading and writing.
How to practice sight words
There are endless ways to practice sight words but here are some things we do.
- Learn a new word each week with the worksheets
- Review the sentences on other days. (Have them read them to another parent, grandparent, etc.)
- Write the new word on an index card and review it each morning.
- Have the child read this weeks “sight word” if you come across it when you are reading books aloud to them.
My favorite is having them read the sentences to other people. By the third or fourth time reading them I know that my daughter has largely memorized the sentences. But, the repetition still helps and it really helps to build her confidence to feel like she is reading those sentences on her own!
Get the worksheets
The sight word set features 25 “sight words” and over 80 other high frequency words! So by the end kids will have earned over 100 words!
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