Word List
1st Grade Sight Words
Fry words 26 to 100, the next 75 most common words in English, sorted for a first grader: 54 to sound out and only 21 to learn by heart, with worksheets for both.
How many sight words should a first grader know?
There is no required number, but there is a well-known recommendation. Reading researcher Timothy Shanahan suggests the 100 most frequent words by the end of first grade. This page and the kindergarten sight words make that hundred between them: 25 there and 75 here.
In a Reading Rockets column, Shanahan puts those hundred words at about half the words a child meets in any text, which is why they repay the effort. How to teach sight words covers how to practice them, and what to do if your school’s list is longer, and sight word games has nine ways to practice the heart words without flashcards. Our guide to what sight words are puts every grade side by side.
Which list are these words from?
They are words 26 to 100 on the Fry list, Edward Fry’s ranking of the most common words in English, which assigns no grades, so giving them to first grade is our choice. If your school uses the Dolch list instead, its first grade level is sorted the same way on our Dolch page.
Which of these words can your child sound out?
All but 21 of the 75 follow regular spelling patterns, so they are phonics practice rather than memory work. The sort assumes what a first grader can do by the end of the year: letter sounds, the two-letter sounds in words with th and in sh, ch and wh, a doubled letter, and the silent e in silent-e words. Twenty of the 54 use a pattern that comes a little later, and the section below names it.
The sort is by reading, not spelling. A word can be easy to read and still awkward to spell, which is why the 1st grade spelling list has rule-breakers of its own.
Which 1st grade sight words can your child sound out?
These 54 can be sounded out. Of those, 34 follow patterns a first grader is taught by the end of the year: letter sounds, two letters that make one sound (sh, ch, th, wh, ck, ng), a doubled letter, a silent e, a vowel that says its name at the end of a word, y as a vowel, s that says /z/, and all. The other 20 use a pattern that comes after first grade, such as ou in out, ee in see or or in more: read those together and name the pattern until it has been taught. The 2nd grade spelling list teaches those patterns from the spelling side.
On the sound boxes sheet, your child says a word, counts its sounds and writes one spelling in each box, so she fills two boxes and which fills three.
- or
- had
- by
- but
- not
- all
- we
- when
- can
- use
- an
- each
- which
- she
- how
- if
- will
- up
- about
- out
- then
- them
- these
- so
- her
- make
- like
- him
- time
- has
- look
- more
- write
- go
- see
- number
- no
- way
- my
- than
- first
- call
- oil
- its
- now
- find
- long
- down
- day
- did
- get
- made
- may
- part
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Printables for 1st Grade Sight Words to Sound Out
- 1st Grade Sight Words to Sound Out: Word Cards (PDF)40 cards · 4 pages
Preview page 1Preview
- 1st Grade Sight Words to Sound Out: Trace and Write (PDF)16 words · 2 pages
Preview page 1Preview
Which 1st grade sight words have to be learned by heart?
These 21 are heart words, words that break the usual spelling patterns and need to be learned by heart. Our heart words guide shows which part of each one to learn by heart.
- one
- word
- what
- were
- your
- said
- there
- do
- their
- other
- many
- some
- would
- into
- two
- could
- people
- water
- been
- who
- come
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Printables for 1st Grade Heart Words
- 1st Grade Heart Word Cards (PDF)21 cards · 3 pages
Preview page 1Preview
- 1st Grade Heart Word Bingo (PDF)21 words · 8 pages
Preview page 1Preview
- 1st Grade Heart Words: Trace and Write (PDF)20 words · 3 pages
Preview page 1Preview
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