Dolch third grade sight words

The third grade list is the clearest proof that most sight words aren't irregular. Forty of the 41 words follow patterns a student learns in a full phonics sequence: closed syllables (cut, hot, if), vowel teams (clean, keep, grow), r-controlled vowels (far, start, hurt) and two-syllable words (better, carry, seven).

Laugh is the exception. The l is regular. The augh, which spells /af/ here, matches no taught pattern, so four of the five letters are the heart part. Eight is decodable but late: eigh is one of the last vowel spellings in the sequence.

If a third grader can't read most of this list, the fix is usually phonics, not memorizing 41 more words. Look at which words they miss. If it's clean, keep and light, they need vowel teams. If it's better and together, they need two-syllable words.

1. Give the list as a quick phonics check: have the student read all 41 and sort the misses by pattern.
2. Teach laugh as a heart word. Spell it aloud with the student and point to the augh.
3. Pair eight with weigh and neigh if the student is ready; otherwise teach it by heart for now.
4. Read the practice sentences in pairs, with one partner reading and the other following along.

• Bring a warm jacket if it is cold.
• We will pick six of them today.
• Shall we draw together?
• I never laugh when you fall.
• Hold it with both hands, it is hot.
• My own small plant will grow tall.
• It is about ten miles, not too far.
• Try to keep the light on when I start.

Every word comes from the public-domain Dolch lists (Dolch, 1936 and 1948). We do not use the Fry list. Each word was run through our decodability engine, which checks the word's spelling units against a pronouncing dictionary and against the lesson in which each spelling and sound is taught.

"Readable by sound from" is the earliest lesson at which every part of the word has been taught. "Heart word at" is the lesson where the sequence teaches it as a heart word. Irregular letters are the ones whose spelling and sound the sequence never teaches. Contractions and words missing from our lexicon are marked to check by hand.