Dolch sight words are a compilation of the most frequently used words in children's books. They make a great place to start with for young kids who are just beginning to learn written words. As gradually a child is able to recognize simple words, then short sentences and so read simple stories in books...it is just magical.
We’ve created neat flash cards containing all 220 ‘service words’ and 95 common nouns to use for word activities. 220 words are often sorted by grade but they don’t need to be used strictly like this of course. Just have them around – preschoolers can enjoy playing with the cards without trying too hard to memorise or spell them.
Fun game ideas using Dolch sight words cards
Mix all the cards and then let everyone pull out a few each. After picking the cards, you have to say a sentence including all the words on your cards. This is a simple and fun game. 1 or 2 cards are easy for younger children and you can increase the number of cards as you play to make it more challenging. For example, if you picked ‘many’ and ‘us’, you could say ‘please give us many cookies!’ etc.
For a more complicated game, pull out between 10 and 20 cards. Then you have to create a meaningful connection using the words on the cards and you’ll get points for the number of words used.
Say, you have 10 random cards : ‘for, is, jump, one, you, bear, he, like, please, around’ . If you create ‘ Please jump’, you’ll get 2 points. Or if you create ‘You like bear’ = 3 points. ‘One bear for you’ = 4 points. Get it? It’s fun! The sillier the phrases, the bigger the laughs. Create a chart to record the phrases and scores.
(Changing ‘jump’ to ‘jumps’ or ‘jumped’ can be allowed if you want to make the game easier or grammatically correct.)
We’re sure you’ll have many more fun uses. Please share tips for others in the comments below. Thanks!
More info about Dolch sight words
Edward William Dolch first published the Dolch sight words list in his book ‘Problems in Reading’ in 1948. He researched and compiled the list of 220 most frequently used words in children’s books, together with 95 of the most common nouns. He thought recognising these words by sight (rather than by sounding them out) could help fluency in children’s reading skills.
See all our printable flash cards for more fun learning ideas.