This Sight Words Game is a Match & Memory Game!

My son who is now 11 needed no help whatsoever with reading. He was the kid reading Harry Potter in Grade 3 and would burn through chapter books in one or two days. Much to my surprise, my other son was different.

My second child (…who I also call my heart-attack child, anyone relate?) needed some encouragement, guidance, and more practice. He just did not take to reading as quickly or easily as my first. And that’s okay!

One of the very first things kids are required to know in Grade 1 are sight words.

What exactly are Sight Words?

Well, someone has taken it upon themselves to extract the most frequently used and repeated words from general reading texts. As an example, some of the words that we use the most are “the, a, is, of, to, in, and, I, you, and that.”

They are called “sight” words because the goal is for your child to recognize these words instantly, at first sight. (speechbuddy.com)

The thing with sight words is that many of them cannot be phonetically “sounded out”. Their pronunciation needs to be memorized.

As it stands, there are two main word lists that have been compiled and that most schools reference – The Dolch Word lists and the Fry Sight Words List.

The Dolch Word list was created in the 1930s-40s by an educator named Dr. Edward William Dolch. He studied the most frequently occurring words in children’s books during his time.

The list contains 220 “service words” plus 95 high-frequency nouns.

– sightwords.com

There are six Dolch Sight Word lists, Pre-K (40 words), Kindergarten (52 words), First Grade (41 words), Second Grade (46 words), Third Grade (41 words), and a Nouns List with 95 words.

The Fry Sights Words Lists, on the other hand, are all compiled in lists of one hundred words. These lists were created beginning with the most common in reading materials used in Grades 3-9.

Learning all 1,000 words in the Fry list would equip a child to read about 90% of the words in a typical book, newspaper, or website.

-sightwords.com

Here is an example of the 1st 100 Fry Sight word list:

(#1-100)

a, about, all, an, and, are, as, at, be, been, but, by, called, can, come, could, day, did, do, down, each, find, first, for, from, get, go, had, has, have, he, her, him, his, how, I, if, in, into, is, it, like, long, look, made, make, many, may, more, my, no, not, now, number, of, oil, on, one, or, other, out, part, people, said, see, she, sit, so, some, than, that, the, their, them, then, there, these, they, this, time, to, two, up, use, was, water, way, we, were, what, when, which, who, will, with, words, would, write, you, your

Why are sight words so important?

Because sight words make up 75% of most children’s books and reading material, they are the foundation that your kids need to learn to read. The nice thing about the Dolch word lists is that they are split according to grade level and built on the previous word lists. For example, if your child learns the word “me” in the Pre-K list, odds are greater that they will be able to learn “he” and “she” in the Kindergarten list easier. This makes for a much more confident (and happy) reader. Once your child can start building on the high-frequency and recognition of these words, you will notice that they enjoy reading and are so proud of themselves!

There are so many resources out there when it comes to sight words.

Here are a few that have really helped us:

1. Bob’s Books- When I was looking for something very basic and beginner, these were the best. I found a lot of the other “beginner” books were still too hard and used vocabulary that was not a beginner level.

2. The Wipe Clean Workbook Uppercase Alphabet by Roger Priddy. We had this exact same one and I loved how they had it set up. Kids can “Look at the letter, trace the letter, draw inside the letter” before they do it on their own. They also have one for Sight Words!

3. For your Star Wars Fans! This is a step up, but we loved getting into these Level 1 readers. This set includes 6 books and aside from the names of the Star Wars characters and Star Wars jargon, most words really are level 1.

For example, ” The First Order was looking for a map. The map would help lead to a lost Jedi Knight.”

So who doesn’t want a game that’s both fun and educational?

You may just want something fun to do at home that’s both easy and in your hands right away. I can help you with that!

I have created a multi-page .pdf game full of SIGHT WORDS!

I give you the Primer Sight Words Match & Memory Game!

This list is based on the Kindergarten List, but it is perfect for any kid learning from about ages 3-7. And I’ve created it with multiple ways to use!

How to Use:

Method #1: You can print off all four pages and use them for colours and shapes only!

Method #2: You can print 2 copies of each page and use it to play Memory!
My son and I played it this morning with two copies each of pages 3 & 4 just to give you an idea from the image above.

There you have it!

I sincerely hope you enjoy your printable and please don’t forget to tag me on