• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The Measured Mom

Education resources for parents and teachers

  • About
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • SOR Resources
    • Science of Reading Course
    • Science of Reading Book List
    • Science of Reading Podcast Index
    • Science of Reading Blog & Article Index
    • Science of Reading Fact Sheets
  • Freebies
  • Shop
  • Become a Member
    • Member Login
Home
  • Shop
  • Blog
    • Alphabet
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Math
    • Book Lists
  • Podcast
  • Subscriber Freebies
  • About
  • Membership
  • Contact
  • Alphabet
  • Reading
    • Structured literacy
    • Printable Books
    • Pre-Reading
    • Phonics
    • Sight Words
    • Comprehension
    • Fluency
    • Vocabulary
  • Writing
    • Grammar
    • Handwriting
    • Spelling
    • Writing in Pre-K
    • Writing in K-3
  • Math
    • Counting
    • Number Recognition
    • Addition & Subtraction
    • Colors, Shapes & Patterns
    • Visual Discrimination
    • Time, Money & Measurement
    • Place Value
    • Graphs
    • Multiplication & Division
    • Fractions
    • Problem Solving
  • Book Lists
    • Letter of the Week
    • Early Childhood Themes
    • Pre-Reading Skills
    • Math Concepts
    • Writing Mentor Texts
    • Versions of Familiar Tales
    • Holidays and Seasonal
    • History

PSPKK123Leave a Comment

The best kindergarten sight words

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sharing is caring!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Have you been following along with our sight word series? We’ve talked about what sight words are, how to teach them, and why it’s important to integrate sight word teaching with phonics. Today we’ll tackle kindergarten sight words.

Many schools require kindergarten teachers to teach a long list of sight words to their kindergartners.

Unfortunately, lists of kindergarten sight words are often problematic.

To understand why, we need to remember WHAT sight words are and HOW we learn to read them.

A quick review … what are sight words?

Even though I use the term “sight words” throughout this series to refer to high frequency words that children need to learn, it’s important to remember the true definition.

A sight word is a word that is instantly and effortlessly recalled from memory, regardless of whether it is phonically regular or irregular. A sight-word vocabulary refers to the pool of words a student can effortless recognize.

David A. Kilpatrick, PhD

Our goal, then, is to turn high frequency words (words that appear often in print) INTO sight words – words our students recognize automatically without needing to sound out or guess.

Why memorizing sight words isn’t a good long term strategy

While we may teach our students to memorize a handful of words to get them going, our goal is NOT to teach our students to memorize sight words as wholes.

They can only do this for so long – the brain is not able to memorize an unending number of words, because that’s not how the brain learns to read.

We learn to read by matching the sounds to the letters (sounding out words). When we do this enough times, we orthographically map the word into our brains so that when we see it in the future, we recognize it automatically.

We cannot orthographically map words unless we pay attention to the letters and their sounds.

Conclusion = teach sight words by calling attention to their letters and sounds. Learn more in this post: How to teach sight words.

How to choose kindergarten sight words

If I could banish the Dolch grade level sight word lists, I would!

While I do think that the Dolch and Fry word lists are helpful because they give us the most common high frequency words, the grade level lists are just ridiculous.

(Case in point: the CVC words cut and got are on the third grade list. Huh??)

So let’s just agree that the Dolch kindergarten list is not any kind of authority for choosing kindergarten sight words.

Instead, you need to consider two things when choosing your sight words:

  1. Choose high frequency words that are decodable, and teach them when you teach the corresponding phonics skill.
  2. Choose high frequency words that students will encounter in their decodable books.

YOU’LL LOVE THIS PRACTICAL BOOK!

Looking for an easy-to-read guide to help you reach all readers? If you teach kindergarten through third grade, this is the book for you. Get practical ideas and lesson plan templates that you can implement tomorrow!

GET YOUR COPY TODAY!

Decodable sight words for kindergarten

When I look at my own scope and sequence for teaching phonics skills, I consider the following to be appropriate phonics skills to teach in kindergarten. (Depending on the setting, teachers may not have time to address the later skills in this list.)

  • VC words (if, it, etc.)
  • CVC words (can, bat, etc.)
  • Words with beginning and ending digraphs (th, sh, ch, etc.)
  • Words with beginning blends (fr, st, sl, etc.)
  • Words with ending blends (-st, -mp, etc.)
  • Words that end with -ng and -nk
  • The -ild, -old, -ind, -olt and -ost word families
  • Open syllable one-syllable words (he, she, be, etc.)

Knowing that, let’s look at words from the Dolch and Fry lists that fit these patterns. You can teach these words WITHIN your phonics lessons.

While you WILL need to teach some of these words before you teach the phonics skill (so kids can read their decodable books), most of the following words should not be taught as whole words to memorize.

VC and CVC high frequency words

  • am
  • an
  • as
  • at
  • big
  • but
  • can
  • cut
  • did
  • get
  • got
  • had
  • has*
  • him
  • his
  • hot
  • if
  • in
  • is*
  • it
  • let
  • not
  • off
  • oin
  • ran
  • red
  • run
  • sit
  • six
  • tell**
  • ten
  • up
  • us
  • well**
  • will
  • yes

*Teach your students that “s” can represent the /z/ sound.

**Technically not CVC, but students easily learn that two identical letters in a row represent a single sound.

High frequency words with digraphs

  • much
  • pick
  • shall
  • such
  • that
  • them
  • thin
  • this
  • when
  • which
  • wish
  • with

High frequency words with blends

  • and
  • ask
  • best
  • black
  • bring
  • fast
  • help
  • its
  • jump
  • just
  • must
  • stop
  • went

High frequency words that end with -ng or -nk

  • drink
  • long
  • sing
  • thank
  • thing
  • think

High frequency words in the -ind, -old, and -ost families

  • find
  • kind
  • cold
  • hold
  • old
  • most

High frequency open syllable words

  • a
  • be
  • by
  • fly
  • go
  • he
  • I
  • me
  • my
  • no
  • she
  • so
  • try
  • we

WOW! That’s a LOT of words that we can teach right within our phonics lessons … no memorization necessary!

And yet … you SHOULD teach some of these words before you get to their appropriate phonics lesson. For example, kids will obviously need to read “a” and “I” from the very beginning.

Other decodable high frequency words that you will probably want to teach early on include and, go, he, she, and we.

I also don’t want to give the impression that practice isn’t incorporate. Kids need to read these words over and over again to orthographically map them.

I recommend using editable reading word games so you can type in the words you want your students to practice.

Check out our editable reading games!

Editable Reading Games for Every Season – MEGA PACK!

$24.00

You’ll get a variety of editable games for every season. Just type in the words you want your students to practice, and print!

Buy Now

What about irregular kindergarten sight words?

There are a fair number of high frequency words that we can’t sound out (or at least we can’t sound out all the parts).

Which ones should we teach in kindergarten?

This is a tough call. There is NO perfect list.

My recommendation is to teach the words kids are most likely to encounter in the decodable books they’re reading within their phonics lessons and for reading practice.

(Notice:I did NOT say “the words they are encountering in their leveled books. If you are using leveled books in kindergarten, I get it. I did this in first grade for years. But now I understand the problem with this approach. Check out my podcast, Should you use leveled or decodable books? for more information.)

A possible kindergarten list of irregular high frequency words

  • the
  • is (technically not irregular, because “s” often represents /z/)
  • to
  • are
  • does
  • from
  • of
  • one
  • said
  • they
  • two
  • was
  • were
  • what
  • who
  • you
  • your
  • give
  • have
  • has (technically not irregular, because “s” often represents /z/)

Well, look at that! That list looks pretty manageable. It’s not complete – students need to learn decodable high frequency words as well – but when you have a systematic approach to phonics instruction, they’ll be learning those words as you go.

YOU’LL LOVE THIS PRACTICAL BOOK!

Looking for an easy-to-read guide to help you reach all readers? If you teach kindergarten through third grade, this is the book for you. Get practical ideas and lesson plan templates that you can implement tomorrow!

GET YOUR COPY TODAY!

 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

 

Free phonics assessment

Looking for a free phonics assessment to help you gauge where your students are at with their phonics knowledge? We've got you covered with this comprehensive, yet easy-to-use resource! One teacher wrote, "I've used many phonics assessments and lot of them are very good, but this is the best I've seen!"

Sharing is caring!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Phonics, Sight words, Science of reading Tagged With: kindergarten

You May Also Enjoy These Posts:

6 strategies for reading multisyllable words What I wish I’d known about dyslexia What is sound-symbol association in a structured literacy classroom?
The most important thing to remember when teaching sight words
Sight word worksheets – based on the science of reading!

Reader Interactions

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Grade Level Key

  • PS Preschool (ages 2-3 years)
  • PK Pre-K (ages 4-5 years)
  • K Kindergarten
  • 1 1st grade
  • 2 2nd grade
  • 3 3rd grade

Get my book!

Hello, I’m Anna!

Welcome to The Measured Mom. I’m so glad you’re here!

Meet Our Team

Free phonics assessment

Looking for a free phonics assessment to help you gauge where your students are at with their phonics knowledge? We've got you covered with this comprehensive, yet easy-to-use resource! One teacher wrote, "I've used many phonics assessments and lot of them are very good, but this is the best I've seen!"

Shop these popular reading resources!

Editable Reading Games for Every Season – MEGA PACK!

$24.00

Private: Phonics Books & Games – Complete Set

$49.00

Reading response sheets & Early chapter book lists

$24.00

Shop All Resources

Members get more!

The Measured Mom Plus is the perfect online membership for Pre-K to third grade educators.

Learn More

Love Freebies?

Subscribing to our email newsletter is completely free. And when you do, you'll get access to our library of subscriber freebies! Sign up below to get access to a wonderful variety of math and literacy resources.

Listen and subscribe on iTunes and Spotify

Check out these recent podcast episodes:

  • What to say to your child’s teacher when your child is struggling with learning to read – with Michelle Henderson
  • “There’s research for that!” – with Dr. Heidi Anne Mesmer & Dr. Katie Hilden
  • What do students need to learn, and what do only teachers need to know? – with Dr. Devin Kearns
More Episodes

Science of Reading Resources

  • Science of Reading Course
  • Podcast Index
  • Science of Reading Book List
  • Fast Fact Sheets

Popular Freebies

  • Decodable Books
  • Nonfiction Decodable Books
  • Phonics Assessment
  • Phonics Scope & Sequence

Membership

Get instant access to science of reading workshops and over 2000 printable resources!

Become a Member

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” –Matthew 6:33

Copyright © 2025 The Measured Mom •  All rights reserved  •  Privacy & Disclosure Statement  •  Site Design by Emily White Designs