Sight Words Worksheets for Preschool & Kindergarten

What are sight words?

Sight words are the words children meet most often in books, such as the, and, you and said. Children learn to recognize them at a glance, which makes early reading smoother, because they do not have to sound out every word. Many sight words do not follow simple phonics rules, so children learn them by looking, reading and writing them again and again.

The five Dolch sight word lists

This generator uses the Dolch lists, a classic set of 220 common words grouped by grade level. The grade levels are a traditional guide, and schools vary, so follow your child’s reading level more than the label. You can read every word of the five lists in our Dolch sight words list guide.

The Dolch noun list is not included. If your teacher sends a different list, type those words in the box and the worksheets will use them instead.

Choose a worksheet type

• Trace and write: each word is shown once in dark letters and then as dotted (or solid gray) letters to trace, with an empty line to write it alone.
• Find the word: your child reads a word and circles the same word among look-alike words, which trains careful looking.
• Missing letter: one letter is missing from the word, and your child circles the correct letter.
• Look and write: your child reads the word, covers it and writes one letter in each box.
• Mixed: all four types on the same worksheet, for a quick review.

How to use the generator

1. Choose a worksheet type and one or more Dolch lists, or type your own words.
2. Choose how many words you want, and whether they come in list order or at random.
3. Pick dotted or solid tracing, a font and the letter case.
4. Check the preview, then press Print or Save as PDF. Turn on the answer key page if you need one.

Tips for teaching sight words

• Start small. Work on three to five new words at a time and review the old ones often.
• Read the words in sentences. After tracing, read a short sentence or a simple book that uses the new words.
• Say, trace, cover, write. Ask your child to say the word, trace it, cover it and then write it from memory.
• Keep sessions short. Ten minutes a day works better than one long session.
• Celebrate progress. Keep a list of the words your child can read and tick them off together.

For words that can be sounded out, such as cat and sun, try our CVC words worksheets. To practice any word list with tracing, use word tracing worksheets, and for names use name tracing. Our beginning sounds worksheets help children link letters and sounds before they read whole words.