100 kindergarten sight words: the complete parent guide

Last updated 2026-07-09

What are the 100 kindergarten sight words?

Sight words are words children learn to recognize instantly, without sounding out each letter. The 100 kindergarten sight words most teachers use come from two research-based lists: the Dolch word lists (Edward Dolch, 1948) and the Fry word list (Edward Fry, 1957, updated in 1980). The first 100 Fry words and the combined Dolch Pre-Primer and Primer lists overlap heavily, so you'll see both sets called the "first 100 sight words" depending on which curriculum your school uses. ^[1][2]

Here is the full list of 100 words, organized by approximate difficulty tier.

a	and	away	big	blue
can	come	down	find	for
funny	go	help	here	I
in	is	it	jump	little
look	make	me	my	not
one	play	red	run	said
see	the	three	to	two
up	we	where	yellow	you

Tier 1: Dolch Pre-Primer (40 words)

a	all	am	are	at
ate	be	black	brown	but
came	did	do	eat	four
get	good	have	he	into
like	must	new	no	now
on	our	out	please	pretty
ran	ride	saw	say	she
so	soon	that	there	they
this	too	under	want	was
well	went	what	white	who
will	with	yes

Tier 2: Dolch Primer (about 52 additional words)

Note: Some words appear in both the Dolch and Fry lists. The total unique words across both Pre-Primer and Primer comes to roughly 85 to 95 words depending on the source edition. Many schools round to 100 by adding the most frequent Fry words not already covered.

Why does this matter? Fry found that his first 100 words account for about 50% of all words in typical printed text, and the first 300 cover about 65% ^[2]. A child who reads these 100 words automatically is already halfway through almost anything she picks up.

Dolch vs. Fry: which list should you use?

It barely matters which list you pick. What matters is picking one and staying with it. That's the honest answer to a question parents ask constantly.

The Dolch list has 220 service words plus 95 nouns, split into five grade-based groups from Pre-Primer through Grade 3. It was built from the most common words in children's books of the 1940s. The Fry list has 1,000 words ranked strictly by frequency in a much larger body of general printed text, updated in 1980. For kindergarten, the Fry first 100 and the Dolch Pre-Primer plus Primer overlap at roughly 70 to 75 words. ^[1][2]

Your school almost certainly uses one or the other. Ask your child's teacher which list they follow. If you're supplementing at home, use the same list. Mixing lists isn't harmful, but it can muddy your tracking. You don't want to drill words your child will be tested on under a different grouping.

For more on the Dolch list specifically, see our breakdown of dolch sight words.

One practical difference: Dolch groups words by grade, which makes kindergarten-specific goals easy to set. Fry ranks by raw frequency, which helps if you want to prioritize the words your child will see most. At the kindergarten level the words themselves are nearly identical.

How many sight words should a kindergartner know by the end of the year?

Most kindergarten benchmarks land in a predictable range: 40 to 50 words by June for on-grade-level readers. Common Core State Standards don't specify a sight word count, but state literacy frameworks and major curriculum programs give clearer targets. ^[3]

Here's what typical grade-level benchmarks look like:

Time of year	Low end	Grade-level	High end
Beginning of K	0-5 words	5-10 words	10-20 words
Mid-year K	10-20 words	25-35 words	40-50 words
End of K	20-30 words	40-50 words	75-100 words

These ranges come from common district benchmarks and kindergarten literacy frameworks. There is no single federally mandated number. If your child's school uses a specific program like Fountas and Pinnell or SIPPS, the targets may differ slightly.

A child who knows fewer than 20 words by the end of kindergarten isn't necessarily in crisis. But it's a signal worth watching. Slow sight word acquisition is one of several early indicators that a child may need extra phonics support or a dyslexia test. Intervention before third grade produces significantly better outcomes than waiting. ^[4]

Why can't some kids memorize sight words no matter how much you practice?

Parents ask this after weeks of flashcard drilling with nothing to show for it. The answer matters.

Some children struggle with sight words because they haven't yet built the phonological awareness and letter knowledge that makes word memory stick. Pure memorization without phonics grounding is harder for the brain than it sounds. Work by cognitive scientist Linnea Ehri shows that children store sight words best when they can connect letter sequences to sounds, even for irregular words. Strip out that phonics scaffolding and words won't stick no matter how many times you drill. ^[5]

For children with dyslexia, the problem runs deeper. Dyslexia is a phonological processing disorder. The brain struggles to map letters to sounds efficiently. A child with dyslexia may need to see a word hundreds of times more than a typical reader before it becomes automatic. If your child has practiced the same 10 words for two months with almost no retention, escalate.

The signs of dyslexia in kindergarten are often quiet: difficulty rhyming, trouble segmenting syllables, slow letter-sound learning, and poor sight word retention despite consistent practice. A school-based evaluation or a private learning disability test can clarify whether something structural is going on.

One distinction matters here. Slow sight word learning is not low intelligence. Many kids with dyslexia are highly verbal and conceptually sharp. The reading system is just wired differently.

What does reading science say about teaching sight words?

The science shifted meaningfully in the past two decades, and the shift changes how you should teach your child. Drilling words as pure pictures is out. Anchoring them to phonics is in.

The older view held that "irregular" sight words (like 'said', 'was', 'the') had to be memorized as whole visual units, essentially photographed by the brain. That's where the name "sight words" came from. But David Share and Linnea Ehri have shown that this is not how the brain stores words. The brain builds what Ehri calls "orthographic mapping." It bonds the letter sequence to the phonemes it represents, even when the spelling is irregular. ^[5]

What this means in practice: flashcards treated as pure visual shapes work less well than pairing each word with a bit of phonics. For 'said', point out that 'ai' usually says /ay/ but here it says /eh/, and the 'd' is regular. That tiny explanation gives the brain something to hook the memory onto.

The National Reading Panel (2000) named phonemic awareness and phonics as two of the five core components of reading instruction, alongside fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. ^[6] Sight words don't live apart from phonics. They're learned faster and held longer when phonics instruction runs beside them.

This is why structured literacy programs (like Orton-Gillingham based curricula) teach high-frequency words with explicit phonics anchors instead of raw memorization. If your school uses a balanced literacy program that treats sight words as visual memorization only, raise it with the teacher.

How to teach the 100 sight words at home: what actually works

Start with frequency, not the alphabet. The most important words to learn first are the ones that show up most: 'the', 'a', 'and', 'is', 'it', 'in', 'was', 'that', 'he', 'she'. They appear so constantly that recognizing them automatically frees up mental space for the harder words on the page.

Here's a home routine that holds up.

Five-minute daily review, not hour-long sessions. Retention research consistently shows short frequent practice beats long infrequent practice. Ten minutes split into two five-minute blocks beats one thirty-minute flashcard marathon. ^[7]

Keep the active stack small. Work on 5 to 10 words at a time. Once a child reads a word correctly three days running without hesitation, it moves to a "mastered" pile. Bring it back for review once a week. That's spaced repetition, and it works.

Use multiple modalities. Say the word, trace it in sand, write it with a finger on the child's back, stamp it, build it with letter tiles. More sensory channels means a stronger memory trace. This helps kids with dyslexia and other learning disabilities especially.

Read it in context. After practicing a word alone, find it in a real book and point to it. Context reminds the child that reading is about meaning, more than word recall.

Don't reward guessing. If your child hesitates or guesses wrong, give the correct word right away and move on. Letting a child grind through repeated wrong guesses builds in the wrong response. For sight words, quick correction beats extended prompting.

Sight word flashcards are one of the simplest tools, and they work fine with the spaced repetition approach above. You can also find sight words worksheets that pair writing with reading, adding a motor memory component that helps some kids.

ReadFlare's free reading tools include printable word sorts and a spaced-repetition tracker built around the Fry first 100 list, which you can run alongside whatever flashcard system you already have.

What's the right order to introduce sight words?

Go by frequency first, then by visual distinctiveness. The most frequent words get learned first because the child meets them immediately in any real text. But inside a frequency band, choose words that look different from each other.

The classic teaching mistake is introducing look-alike words together: 'was' and 'saw', 'on' and 'no', 'there' and 'three' and 'where'. They share letters and short lengths, and they cause enormous confusion when taught side by side. Spread them apart by at least two to three weeks.

A reasonable order for the first 20 kindergarten sight words: 1. the 2. a 3. I 4. and 5. is 6. it 7. in 8. see 9. we 10. my 11. like 12. he 13. go 14. can 15. up 16. said 17. look 18. you 19. do 20. come

This order front-loads frequency, spreads out visual confusables, and mixes short-vowel words (which kids may partly decode) with truly irregular ones.

For children moving into first grade, see our first grade sight words guide, which picks up where this list ends.

What if my kindergartner is really struggling: when to ask for a school evaluation?

If your child has been in kindergarten four or more months, gets regular sight word instruction, and still can't hold more than 5 to 10 words despite consistent practice at home and school, that's a fair threshold to raise the conversation with the teacher.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), school districts must identify and evaluate children suspected of having a disability, at no cost to parents. The law guarantees that a "free appropriate public education" must be available to all eligible children. ^[8] You don't have to wait for the school to suggest an evaluation. You can request one in writing.

Here's the practical path: 1. Put the request in writing (email is fine, keep a copy). 2. Address it to the school principal and the special education coordinator. 3. The district then has a set timeline, typically 60 days under federal law, though states may set shorter windows, to complete the evaluation. 4. If the evaluation finds an eligible disability, the school must build an Individualized Education Program (IEP) with the child's parents. ^[8]

Sight word difficulty alone won't trigger an IEP. But paired with other reading gaps, phonological awareness difficulties, and documented lack of response to intervention, it can. Schools use a process called Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) or Response to Intervention (RTI) to track kids who aren't responding to typical instruction. ^[9]

If your child is already in this process, or you're weighing formal testing, our guide on learning disability test options walks through what evaluations cover and what to ask.

Are sight words taught differently for kids with dyslexia?

Yes, and the difference matters. Standard visual memorization (show the card, say the word, repeat) is especially weak for a child with dyslexia, because dyslexia affects the phonological processing that makes orthographic mapping possible in the first place. The dyslexic brain doesn't automatically bond letter sequences to sounds the way a typical reader's does.

Structured literacy instruction, the approach backed by the International Dyslexia Association, teaches high-frequency words with explicit phonics first. For a word like 'was', a structured literacy teacher isolates the decodable part (the 'w' and the 's' are regular) and then names the irregular vowel ('a' is saying /uh/ here, a common pattern in unstressed syllables). The child says the word, spells it aloud, writes it, and reads it in a sentence. This multisensory sequence is sometimes called the Orton-Gillingham approach. ^[10]

The International Dyslexia Association defines structured literacy as instruction that is "explicit, systematic, sequential, and diagnostic." Their 2018 fact sheet reports that this approach produces significantly better outcomes for students with dyslexia than programs that rely on context cues or visual memorization. ^[10]

Kids with phonological dyslexia struggle specifically with phoneme-grapheme matching, which is why sight word memorization without phonics scaffolding is so hard for them. Kids with surface dyslexia, by contrast, may sound out words reasonably well but can't remember irregular sight words, because they lean too heavily on phonics and can't store the exceptions. The two need different emphases in instruction.

How do schools assess sight word knowledge in kindergarten?

Most kindergarten classrooms assess sight words through timed or untimed oral reading of word lists. A teacher holds up a card or shows a list and asks the child to read each word. The teacher notes which words the child reads correctly within a second or two (automatic recognition) versus which ones the child sounds out or stalls on.

Common formal screeners used in kindergarten include DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) and AIMSWEB, both of which include sight word reading subtests. ^[11] The DIBELS Next benchmark for kindergarten includes a Letter Sound Fluency measure and a Nonsense Word Fluency measure. Sight word reading is often assessed through Oral Reading Fluency probes that contain high-frequency words.

Some schools use informal assessments tied directly to their curriculum list. Ask for your child's current sight word score (usually reported as number of words read correctly per minute, or simply number known out of total tested). That gives you a concrete number to track.

To assess at home, print the Fry first 100 list and go through it in two or three short sessions. Note which words your child reads in under two seconds (automatic), which take longer (known but slow), and which are wrong or unknown. That's your working inventory to guide practice. For structured printable options, see our sight words flash cards resources.

Do sight words replace phonics, or do they work together?

They work together, and any program that treats sight words as a substitute for phonics is failing kids. Phonics builds the decoding engine. Sight word fluency lets that engine run faster.

The Simple View of Reading, a research model from Philip Gough and William Tunmer (1986), frames reading comprehension as the product of decoding ability and language comprehension. ^[12] Decoding, converting print to sound, is built through phonics. Sight word fluency supports decoding speed: when a child recognizes 'the', 'and', and 'in' instantly, she has more mental bandwidth for the harder words on the page.

But if sight word teaching crowds out phonics time, kids end up with a fragile reading system. They recognize a few dozen familiar words and guess the rest from pictures or context. That works tolerably through first grade and collapses by second or third grade, when text gets denser and the pictures disappear. This pattern is sometimes called the "fourth grade slump."

The National Reading Panel's 2000 report, the largest federal review of reading research to date, found that systematic phonics instruction produced significantly greater gains in word reading and spelling than non-systematic or no phonics instruction, across all socioeconomic groups and for children with learning difficulties. ^[6] Sight words and phonics are not rivals. They're partners.

Frequently asked questions

What are the first 100 sight words in order?

The Fry first 100 words in frequency order begin: the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it, he, was, for, on, are, as, with, his, they, I, at, be, this, have, from, or, one, had, by, words, but, not, what, all, were, we, when, your, can, said, there, use, an, each, which, she, do, how, their, if. The remaining 50 continue in frequency order from that point. ^[2]

How many sight words should my kindergartner know by the end of the year?

Most grade-level benchmarks set the target at 40 to 50 words by the end of kindergarten, with strong readers knowing 75 to 100. Children who know fewer than 20 by June may benefit from added phonics support or a screening for reading difficulties. There is no single federal standard. Your district likely has its own benchmark tied to the curriculum it uses.

What is the difference between Dolch and Fry sight words?

Dolch (1948) lists 220 service words plus 95 nouns, grouped by grade level from Pre-Primer through Grade 3. Fry (1957, updated 1980) ranks 1,000 words by frequency in a larger body of general text. At the kindergarten level they overlap about 70 to 75%. Both are research-based. Your school uses one or the other. Ask the teacher which list guides their assessments and match it at home. ^[1][2]

Why does my child keep forgetting sight words we've already practiced?

Forgetting is usually one of three things: the practice sessions run too long and too far apart (try shorter daily review instead of weekly drilling), the child is guessing by word shape rather than letter sequence, or there's an underlying phonological processing difficulty. If a word disappears after two or three days consistently, and that pattern holds across many words, ask the school to check phonological awareness skills.

Are sight words the same as high-frequency words?

The terms get used interchangeably but they mean slightly different things. High-frequency words are simply the words that appear most often in text, regardless of whether they're phonetically regular. Sight words, in the strict sense, are words taught to be recognized on sight without decoding. About half of high-frequency words are phonetically irregular; the other half can actually be sounded out with basic phonics rules. ^[5]

How long does it take to teach 100 sight words?

For a typical kindergartner getting good instruction, the full year. A child learning 5 new words per week (a common classroom pace) could cover 100 words in 20 weeks, but mastery, meaning automatic recall under any conditions, takes longer than initial learning. Realistic expectations: 40 to 50 words mastered by year's end for on-grade-level learners, 20 to 30 for children progressing more slowly.

Can I use games to teach sight words instead of flashcards?

Yes, and games work especially well for kids who shut down with traditional flashcard drills. Memory match, bingo, Go Fish with word cards, and simple board games where landing on a space requires reading a word all work. The key is that the child actually reads the word aloud on every exposure. Passive looking at a word without saying it does almost nothing for retention.

What should I do if the school says my child just needs more time but I'm worried about dyslexia?

You have the legal right to request a formal evaluation in writing under IDEA, whether or not the school agrees testing is needed. The school cannot legally refuse a written evaluation request without giving you a Prior Written Notice explaining why. Put your request in writing, keep a copy, and note the date. The district typically has 60 days to complete the evaluation. ^[8] A diagnosis isn't required before you request evaluation.

Should I teach all 100 words before my child starts first grade?

Covering all 100 before first grade is a fine goal but not a hard requirement. First grade instruction reinforces and extends the kindergarten list while adding the Dolch First Grade words (41 additional words) or Fry words 101 to 200. More important than hitting 100 exactly is making sure the words your child does know are genuinely automatic, readable under any condition without hesitation.

Are there sight words specific to kindergarten that first grade doesn't cover?

No. Sight word lists are cumulative. The kindergarten 100 words are a subset of a larger sequence that runs through first, second, and third grade. The Dolch kindergarten words are called 'Pre-Primer' and 'Primer,' and the first grade words are labeled 'First Grade.' Fry's list simply continues numerically: words 1 to 100 for early K, 101 to 200 for late K and first grade, and so on. ^[1][2]

Do sight words need to be in a specific font to be easier to read?

Standard fonts work fine for most children. For children with dyslexia, some parents try specially designed typefaces, but the evidence that specific dyslexia-friendly fonts improve reading speed is mixed and modest. More important is a reasonable font size (at least 14pt for beginning readers) and adequate spacing. See our breakdown of dyslexia font options if your child finds certain type styles genuinely harder to parse.

Can apps replace flashcard practice for kindergarten sight words?

Apps can supplement but shouldn't fully replace read-aloud practice with a parent or teacher. The main limitation is that apps often provide audio support (the app says the word), which reduces how much the child has to independently retrieve it. Look for apps that require the child to read the word aloud before any feedback. Parent interaction during practice also builds comprehension and vocabulary alongside word recognition.

What is orthographic mapping and why does it matter for sight words?

Orthographic mapping is the process the brain uses to permanently store a word's spelling, pronunciation, and meaning as a linked unit. Linnea Ehri's work shows this happens when readers connect letter sequences to phonemes, even for irregular words. Children who lack solid phonemic awareness or letter-sound knowledge cannot map words efficiently, which is why they forget sight words despite repetition. This is the core mechanism explaining why phonics and sight word instruction must run together. ^[5]

Sources

1. Florida Center for Reading Research, Dolch Word Lists overview: Dolch (1948) organized 220 high-frequency service words plus 95 nouns into grade-level groups from Pre-Primer through Grade 3
2. Fry, E. (1980). The New Instant Word List. The Reading Teacher, 34(3), 284-289. Cited via International Literacy Association: Fry's first 100 words account for approximately 50% of all words in typical printed text; first 300 cover about 65%
3. Common Core State Standards Initiative, English Language Arts Standards: Common Core does not specify a sight word count for kindergarten; state literacy frameworks and curriculum programs set benchmarks
4. National Institute for Literacy, Developing Early Literacy: Report of the National Early Literacy Panel (2008): Early literacy intervention before third grade produces significantly better outcomes than later intervention for children at risk for reading difficulties
5. Ehri, L.C. (2005). Learning to Read Words: Theory, Findings, and Issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9(2), 167-188: Children store sight words best through orthographic mapping, bonding letter sequences to phonemes, not through pure visual memorization
6. National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: Systematic phonics instruction produces significantly greater gains in word reading and spelling than non-systematic or no phonics instruction; five core components of reading identified
7. Kornell, N., & Bjork, R.A. (2008). Learning concepts and categories. Psychological Science, 19(6), 585-592: Spaced, short practice sessions produce better long-term retention than massed practice of equivalent total time
8. U.S. Department of Education, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.: IDEA requires school districts to identify, locate, and evaluate all children suspected of having a disability and provide a free appropriate public education at no cost to parents; districts typically have 60 days to complete evaluations after written parental request
9. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, What Works Clearinghouse: Multi-Tiered System of Supports and Response to Intervention are used to identify and support students who do not respond to typical classroom instruction
10. International Dyslexia Association, Structured Literacy: Effective Instruction for Students with Dyslexia and Related Reading Difficulties (2018 fact sheet): Structured literacy instruction is explicit, systematic, sequential, and diagnostic; produces significantly better outcomes for students with dyslexia than programs relying on context cues or visual memorization
11. University of Oregon, DIBELS Data System, DIBELS Next Benchmark Goals: DIBELS Next is a widely used kindergarten literacy screener that includes Letter Sound Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, and Oral Reading Fluency subtests to assess foundational reading skills
12. Gough, P.B., & Tunmer, W.E. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7(1), 6-10: The Simple View of Reading frames reading comprehension as the product of decoding ability and language comprehension; foundational model for understanding the role of phonics alongside sight word fluency