Kindergarten sight words, in the order to teach them

Kindergarten lists vary by school, but most use the Dolch pre-primer and primer lists, so that's what this page uses. The difference from the two list pages is the order. A list in alphabetical order tells you nothing about what to teach in October. This one is sorted by the lesson where each word becomes readable, either as a heart word or by sound.

Read it from the top. The first words are heart words taught in the first weeks (a, the, I, is) and short-vowel words a student can sound out early (am, at, in, it). Further down are words that only become decodable with patterns most kindergartners haven't met yet, such as silent e (make, ride) and vowel teams (see, play). There's no rush on those. Teach them when the pattern arrives, and they'll be decodable instead of memorized.

A realistic kindergarten goal is the top half of this list by spring. Students who also read some of the later words are ahead of the phonics, which is fine, but don't hold a student back from books because they can't read yellow yet.

1. Start at the top of the table and move down in order; skip words the student already reads.
2. Each week, add one or two heart words and let the decodable words come from your phonics lessons.
3. Keep a small review set of the heart words in play and read them every day in phrases.
4. Once a word is read in a second on three days, retire it from the daily set and check it monthly.

• Can you see a big brown cat on the wall?
• She said we must play in the yard.
• They came to my red tent.
• Who ate the yellow cake?
• Where are the white socks?
• Look, the man ran down the road.
• I like to jump and run with you.

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.