Guest Author - Heidi Shelton Jenck
The Dolch Words are lists of words most commonly used in books for children based on frequency and reading level. The basic Dolch word vocabulary consists of 220 words referred to as service words (pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs). There is also a list of Dolch nouns.
Although these lists were compiled in the early 1900’s, they are still considered by many teachers to be important sight words for beginning readers. Children are often asked to master each list by memorizing the words, progressing to the next list as their reading skills improve.
Pre-Primer Level
a, I, me, to, up, we, my, go, in, is, it, for, see, the, red, run, you, not, one, and, two, can, big, away, blue, come, down, find, help, here, jump, look, make, play, said, three, where, yellow, funny, little
Primer Level
so, do, be, am, he, at, no, on, our, out, new, now, yes, ate, did, eat, but, all, get, ran, are, was, well, saw, who, will, too, say, she, came, four, good, have, into, like, they, want, went, what, this, with, must, ride, soon, that, black, brown, there, under, white, please, pretty
First Grade Level
an, of, as, by, any, ask, had, has, her, him, his, fly, let, put, how, may, old, just, once, know, open, some, stop, take, live, them, when, then, over, from, give, walk, were, could, every, thank, think, after, again, round, giving
Second Grade Level
or, us, use, buy, why, its, call, off, pull, tell, sit, been, best, both, cold, wish, does, don't, fast, sing, work, five, gave, your, made, upon, very, wash, many, read, goes, first, green, right, sleep, their, these, those, write, which, before, would, found, always, around, because
Third Grade Level
if, six, far, got, try, full, cut, ten, own, hot, fall, warm, done, show, pick, grow, kind, hold, hurt, keep, draw, long, much, about, small, bring, carry, clean, drink, eight, laugh, light, better, never, only, seven, shall, start, today, myself, together
The list of Dolch nouns (below) are based on frequency of use back in the early 1990's when the list was compiled. Many of these words are still relevant, but some are not used with the same frequency anymore. The nouns listed below are not always included in practice lists.
Nouns
apple
baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, bread, brother
cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, Christmas, coat, corn, cow
day, dog, doll, door, duck
egg, eye
farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower
game, garden, girl, good-bye, grass, ground
hand, head, hill, home, horse, house
kitty
leg, letter
man, men, milk, money, morning, mother
name, nest, night
paper, party, picture, pig
rabbit, rain, ring, robin
Santa Claus, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun
table, thing, time, top, toy, tree
watch, water, way, wind, window, wood
Amazon.com offers activity books for practicing the Dolch Word lists:
