For grown-ups

What sight words are

Sight words are the words a reader should know at a glance, without stopping to sound them out. They turn up in almost every sentence of a picture book, and many of them break the usual phonics rules: said, was, come. Once these words are automatic, a young reader can spend their effort on the new words in a sentence.

The best-known list comes from Edward Dolch, who in 1936 gathered the 220 "service words" that fill the books children read. The first two parts of his list, the pre-primer and primer words, are the ones most kindergartens teach, and they are what these ten packs cover.

How to use it with your child

1. Pick a pack together.Each pack has a picture and a number, so your child can find their place again next time. A pack holds 7 to 10 words and takes a few minutes.
2. Your child reads the word.Each card shows one word in big, clear letters. A few also show a small picture: a dot of the color for each color word, dots for one to four, arrows for up and down, and a check and a cross for yes and no.
3. Check it together.Let your child try each word first, so you can see what they know on sight. If a word is stuck, tap the play button under it: the narrator reads the word slowly while a bar sweeps under it.
4. Go at your child's pace.The arrow keys, the Space bar, a swipe or the big buttons move to the next card or back to the last one. Cards stay in list order unless you mix them up in the settings.
5. Finish the pack.After the last card comes a short celebration, and the pack earns a star on the pack screen.

Short, frequent sessions work better than long ones. A pack or two a day is plenty, and coming back to an old pack is as useful as starting a new one. Nothing is scored or timed, and there is no wrong answer.

The gear on the pack screen opens the settings for grown-ups. Two extras start off: "Read each word aloud," where a narrator says each word as its card appears, and "Tap a card to see a picture story," where a card turns over to a short scene and a sentence that uses the word, read aloud. The settings also cover sound, reduced motion, mixing up the cards and bigger text.

Where the words come from

The words are the Dolch pre-primer list (40 words) and primer list (52 words), as published at sightwords.com, whose counts match the lists most teachers print. In the picture stories, each sentence is short, uses easy words and names only what the picture shows, so a child can follow the whole sentence.

More grades are on the way: the rest of the Dolch lists for first through third grade, and harder words from the Fry lists for older readers.

How progress is saved

Progress stays in this browser on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere, and there are no accounts. Each finished pack earns a star.

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