Sight words
Kindergarten sight words
The words most kindergarten classrooms cover are the Dolch pre-primer and primer lists — 92 high-frequency words. Here they are in full. But before you reach for flashcards: most of them are decodable, and the few that aren't are best taught as heart words.
Word lists
Dolch pre-primer · 40 words
Dolch primer · 52 words
Don't memorize them — map them.
Most words on this list are decodable with regular phonics (can, go, red, up, see) — they should be sounded out, not memorized by shape. Only the genuinely irregular ones (the, said, you, was) need special handling, and the Science-of-Reading way to teach those is as heart words: decode the regular letters, flag the irregular part to "know by heart," and let repeated reading bond the word through orthographic mapping.
Full method on the sight words hub, and the science behind it in the Science of Reading guide.
More sight word lists
Frequently asked
Kindergarten sight words: questions.
How many sight words should a kindergartner know?
A common benchmark is the 40 Dolch pre-primer words by mid-kindergarten and the 52 primer words by the end of the year — about 90 high-frequency words. But the more useful goal is that regular words (go, see, can, up) get decoded automatically and the genuinely irregular ones (the, said, you) are mapped as heart words.
How do I teach kindergarten sight words?
Sort each word first. If it's regular (cat, go, red, up), have your child sound it out — no memorizing needed. If it's irregular (the, said, was), use the heart-word routine: say it, tap the sounds, flag the tricky letter to know 'by heart,' write it while saying the sounds, then read it in a decodable book.
Turn the list into real reading.
Storytime AI tags heart words in every decodable book, models the irregular part, and scores them as students read — the Science-of-Reading way. Free classroom, no credit card.