This post is all about preschool sight words.
Preschool Sight Words
Learning to read is such an exciting time for children. It opens up a whole new world for them. Preschool Age (3-4) is a perfect time to start implementing some fundamentals that are helpful with learning to read. This will help your child to excel when they reach kindergarten. Preschool sight words are a great place to start!
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What are Preschool Sight Words?
Simply put, preschool sight words are words that are frequently seen in English text and can be recognized at first glance. When you look at books for preschoolers, you’ll often find that they are anywhere from 60%-80% sight words. While there are many different philosophies when it comes to learning, it is commonly thought that it is more effective for children to learn to recognize sight words ahead of time, rather than trying to teach them while reading a story. That’s why so many preschools focus so heavily on the introduction of sight words.
Benefits of Learning Sight Words
The benefits of your preschooler learning sight words is clear, and very intentional. To make them stronger readers! When a child has a strong sight word foundation, they don’t have to pause and think so hard on as many words in a book. This allows them to focus more of their mental energy on the more challenging words, that they aren’t so familiar with. Your child will also start to understand the connections between the sight words over time, helping them to more clearly understand the sentences that they’re reading.
Dolch Sight Word List
The Dolch Sight Word List was created back in 1936 by Edward William Dolch, Ph. D. The light includes 220 of the most frequently used words in the English language. The list is divided into different academic levels. So when determining where to start for preschool sight words, you should focus on the Preprimer words.
What Sight Words Should a Preschooler Know?
As stated above, the Preprimer category from the Dolch Sight Word List would be a great place to focus for preschool sight words. Those preschool sight words are listed below:
How To Teach Preschool Sight Words
When it comes to teaching preschool sight words, repetition is key! It’s also very helpful to make it fun, so your child is not only willing to participate, but EXCITED to participate. My little one will ALWAYS ask me to play one of the sight word games with her, and it’s been so fun to see her improvement week after week. Believe it or not, she also loves doing sight word worksheets! With the worksheets, sometimes we’ll “play school”, and she’ll complete a worksheet, and then I’ll grade it as the teacher, and give her a sticker on her paper. It’s so simple, but she thinks it’s fun, and she’s learning at the same time. It’s a win-win in my book!
Preschool Sight Word Flashcards
Flashcards are a great tool when teaching your preschooler sight words. You can utilize the Flash Cards to play a number of fun games to help your child get exposure to preschool sight word repetition.
Tips For Our Preschool Sight Word Flash Cards:
- Grab these Laminating Sheets from Amazon. No laminating machine required, and super simple to use! Also super affordable. The pack comes with 100 sheets, so you can use them for a bunch of other projects as well. (Check out our Printable Shop which has tons of great printable resources for moms, toddlers, and preschoolers! We are working to add even more resources!)
- For the match game, I recommend either using thicker printer paper, or simply put a piece of construction paper on the backside, prior to laminating. This is just so you can’t see through the paper when they’re turned upside down)
- You can print the Flashcard pages more than once to accommodate any game you want to play. For the below game examples we recommend 2 copies for Match Game and Scavenger Hunt, and 3-4 copies for Go Fish.
Here are some ideas for games that you can play using Preschool Sight Word Flash Cards:
Match Game
To play, mix the cards up, and arrange them face down. Take turns trying to make a match. The person with the most matches at the end of the game wins! Since this is a lot of sight words at once, you may want to start by just working with sets of 10-12 at a time.
Scavenger Hunt (indoor or outdoor)
Hide each sight word in an area of your house, or yard. (You could even bring this to the park to play!) Then, you draw one sight word at a time, and show your child, and have them read the sight word, then they need to go find that sight word and bring it back to you.
Go Fish
All of these games are open to your own customizations. I usually just work with 10-15 sight words at a time, so we don’t have too many cards. It also helps make it less overwhelming if you little one is just starting out on their sight word journey. Then, I deal out 5-7 cards each, depending on how many people are playing, and how many sight words we’re including. Then, just follow the basic Go Fish rules.
More Preschool Sight Word Printable Games
Preschool Sight Word Bingo
Call out a sight word, and put a token on the square if you have that sight word on your Bingo Card. The first one to get a full vertical or horizontal line wins!
Tip: Use the laminating sheets for the Bingo Cards and the Bingo Tokens to keep them in good shape, so you don’t have to re-print them next time you want to play.
Preschool Sight Word Word Search
This one might be a little more challenging for our preschoolers who are just starting their sight word journey, since there is a lot going on with all the letters. But once they start getting a grasp for their sight words, this would be a great level up game!
Tip: Use the laminating sheets and dry erase markers, so you can re-use them as many times as you’d like, and un-do mistakes.
Roll A Sight Word
Roll the dice, and write the corresponding sight word. My daughter likes playing it “Bingo Style”, and the first person who fills a whole line (vertically or horizontally) wins. A lot times she wants to play until the first person fill their whole board, just so she can play for longer. This is a great preschool sight word game because not only are they reading/looking at the sight words, they are also WRITING them.
Tip: Use the laminating sheets and dry erase markers, so you can re-use them as many times as you’d like, and un-do mistakes.
I Spy Sight Words
Find and color in the corresponding sight word. Simple as that!
Sight Word Tic-Tac-Toe
Each player has an assigned sight word from the sight word list. Standard tic-tac-toe rules except instead of writing “X” or “O”, you write your assigned sight word.
Tip: Use the laminating sheets and dry erase markers, so you can re-use them as many times as you’d like, and un-do mistakes.
Preschool Sight Word Worksheets
Grab the Preschool Sight Word printable bundle. In addition to the flash cards, and games, it includes a worksheet for each preschool sight word!
Bear Tracks Sight Word Game
Help your little learner master sight words with this bear-themed sight word printable game! This engaging sight word activities set is designed to make learning fun as kids progress through three exciting phases—Baby Bear, Growing Bear, and Big Bear.
What’s Included:
-Sight word printables across three levels
-Fun sight word games like the Honey Pot Matching Game
-“Read It, Build It, Write It” activity sheets
-Sight word cut-outs for hands-on learning
-Blank cut-outs to add custom words
This resource covers the first 100 sight words, making it a great addition for teachers, homeschoolers, and parents looking to boost literacy skills.
Preschool Sight Word Games From Amazon
Wooden Magnetic Fishing Sight Words Game
- 220 Sight Words Fishing Game Set: Learning Sight words can be fun with Coogam Sight-words fishing game. The excellent value toy set comes with 220…
- Premium Quality Material: The multi-shapes wooden Sight-word fish and sturdy fishing rods are durable, well-sanded with harmless paint based, smooth,…
- Color-Coded With Five Levels: Each sight word level is a different color and has a diverse fish shape. With red for pre-k level, yellow for…
Sight Word Swat
- SWAT A SIGHT WORD GAME: Build reading, spelling and vocabulary skills through playful competition with up to 4 players. The element of speed promotes…
- GAMES FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS: The sight-word flies are color-coded by level: Blue for Pre-Primer; Red for Primer; Green for First Grade; Orange…
- EASY & FUN WAY TO LEARN SIGHT WORDS:: After one of the 220 Dolch sight words is called out, use your swatter to swat the word on the matching fly.
Dry Erase Flash Cards
- Learn Sight Words with Sentences: This Sight word learning flash card set has 5 different levels of difficulty, each level has 50 words with related…
- Develop Vocabulary and Handwriting Easily: Designed for different ages of kids ( from pre-kindergarten to 3rd grade) to practice handwriting and build…
- Colorful Pictures with Vibrant Color: Each card has Colorful and fun illustrations on both sides. Vibrant pictures catch kids’ attention easily,…
tOP SELLING PRESCHOOL SIGHT WORDS GAMES
- 54 total cards: Includes 50 sight word cards and 4 activity cards.
- First 100 Fry words: Essential for building reading fluency.
- Double-sided design: Maximizes learning with vibrant colors.
- SWAT A SIGHT WORD GAME: Build reading, spelling and vocabulary skills through playful competition with up to 4 players. The element of speed promotes confidence and fluency in reading.
- GAMES FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS: The sight-word flies are color-coded by level: Blue for Pre-Primer; Red for Primer; Green for First Grade; Orange for Second Grade; and Purple for Third Grade.
- EASY & FUN WAY TO LEARN SIGHT WORDS:: After one of the 220 Dolch sight words is called out, use your swatter to swat the word on the matching fly.
- Spot It, Stomp It, Win It!: Kids spot the sight word, stomp their dino, and build elementary language skills as they race to collect the most cards!
- Learn Language Essentials: As they stomp away, kids will learn 220 Dolch sight words in five challenge levels—the basis for kindergarten reading!
- Multiple Ways to Play: Designed for 1-4 players, this language game for kids supports solo play, head-to-head challenges, and group games!
- YOUR CHILD WILL MASTER 108 HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS – Recognize, Read and Spell Common Sight Words; Supercharge their Reading Progress and Literacy
- SIGHT WORDS BINGO MADE TO LAST – Thick Long Lasting Premium Cards; Die-cut with Rounded Corners and Waterproof Coating; Strong and Resistant to Grubby hands
- A WINNING GIFT FOR 4-8 YEAR OLDS BOYS AND GIRLS – The Blue Level 1 Game has 54 of the Most Common Words to Read for Pre K and Kindergarteners; The Red Level 2 Game has 54 Sight Words from Dolch Fry Word List for Kindergarten and First Graders
- Wooden CVC Word Flash Cards Set: Package includes 50 double-sided phonics flash cards (one side is the word, and the other is the picture), 53 wooden lowercase letter blocks (12 pcs red vowels and 41 pcs blue consonants. The letters q, y, and z are not included because the words of the card do not use these three letters), 5 wooden spelling boards and 1 sturdy storage box.
- Preschool & Kindergarten Classroom Must Haves: This spelling and reading kit can be used as an excellent teaching tool for class and homeschool. It will also be great learning materials and resources for preschoolers, kindergartners & first graders who have learned letter sounds and are beginning to learn how to read cut words.
- Fun Learning Activity Games: This CVC word flash cards set is an interactive learning game for 3 4 5 6 year old boys & girls. The colors and pictures can catch the kid’s eyes and keep their attention, which can help them have fun while learning reading, spelling and phonics skills.
- 72 Zingo! Sight Words Tiles
- 6 Double-sided Zingo! Cards
- 1 Zingo! Zinger
- EVERY SHOUT OF “BINGO” IS LEARNING MADE FUN – The game you remember, made even more enjoyable! This title helps build reading and vocabulary skills with a review of 46 common and useful words that don’t follow the usual spelling and phonics rules
- A SCHOOL FAVORITE, ALSO GREAT FOR HOME. The unique 2 x 4 grid and 6-way-play format allows everyone, young and old, to compete! Includes handy calling cards and mat to direct the game, and ample chips and cards for many rounds
- RESEARCH BASED, CLASSROOM PROVEN – Words from the “Dolch” & “Fry” most-frequently-used vocabulary lists. Clear, easy-to-read type. Many words represent concepts & verb tenses not easily represented with pictures yet essential to English language
- Each correct matchup creates a fun-filled picture from which children may learn how to spell a word
- For ages 3 and above
- Sets of three
- Teaches 100 high-frequency words for reading success
- Easy and engaging activities introduce and repeat each word to promote instant word recognition
- Develops reading and writing skills through puzzles, games, stories, and more
- Access code for Golden Scholar Club free online gift
- 53 Picture Word cards
- Game Card and Reference Card for extra help
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