Reading is a complex skill that takes many years to develop. Children will have to learn how to put letters together and make sense of their phonics before understanding the word. As your child begins reading more books from kindergarten to class-1, they will come across more words with increasing complexity. Some of the first words that children will have to learn to recognise are sight words. In this article, we have put together a list of sight words for 1st graders, their importance, and teaching methodologies to help them recognise and remember the sight words.
What Are Sight Words?
Sight words, as the name suggests, are words that can be recognised at first glance. These words make up 50 to 70% of the words in the books of lower-grade students. Learning sight words is an important aspect of phonics learning for children. Once they are familiar with sight words, children won’t have to read these words out loud as they go through sentences and paragraphs. Sight words lay down the foundation of reading and comprehension skills in children.
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What Are The Benefits Of Learning Sight Words For First Graders?
Learning sight words has several benefits for your kids. For starters, these are the basic words essential for building their reading, comprehension, and writing skills. Children can become confident readers by learning more sight words and stressing less about reading. They can read faster and enjoy reading all their favourite books by themselves. Their progress eventually builds their self-esteem.
How Many Sight Words Should 1st Graders Know?
By the time your child reaches first grade, it’s good if they know 100 or more sight words. The larger their vocabulary, the better their reading and comprehension skills will be. If they don’t struggle with the first hundred, they are ready to move to the next level and learn more sight words.
List of Sight Words For Class-1 Kids
Now that you understand sight words and their importance, here’s a list of sight words for 1st graders.
Dolch Sight Words List For 1st Graders
The most common sight words we use daily were compiled as lists decades ago. Dr Edward Dolch produced the Dolch sight words for children from Pre-K to Grade-3. The list, which has more than 200 words, is still used in schools today.
| after | just | then |
| live | some | an |
| every | has | old |
| thank | give | his |
| over | put | again |
| know | think | may |
| stop | any | fly |
| her | once | them |
| by | going | how |
| round | walk | were |
| when | of | take |
| as | from | him |
| open | ask | could |
| had | let | ran |
| sleep | try | fall |
Fry Sight Words List For 1st Grader
As your child goes to higher grades, they will encounter the Fry sight words. Expanded by Dr Edward Fry on the previous lists, there are more than 1,000 of these sight words your child will learn by the time they are in high school. Here’s a list of Fry sight words your child can learn by class-1:
| a | about | all |
| been | but | by |
| down | each | find |
| have | he | her |
| is | it | its |
| more | my | no |
| other | out | part |
| that | the | their |
| to | two | up |
| when | which | who |
| am | an | and |
| called | can | come |
| first | for | from |
| him | his | how |
| like | long | look |
| not | now | number |
| people | said | see |
| them | then | there |
| use | was | water |
| will | with | words |
| are | as | at |
| could | day | did |
| get | go | had |
| I | if | in |
| made | make | many |
| of | on | one |
| she | so | some |
| these | they | this |
| way | we | were |
| would | write | you |
| be | into | than |
| do | may | time |
| has | or | what |
| your |
Sentences With Sight Words For Class-1
Here are some examples of sentences with sight words for first grade:
- I don’t want to play there anymore.
- I drive to school every day.
- It would be nice to play in the rain.
- It is a long drive in the countryside.
- I may not be able to attend the event tomorrow.
- I asked my dad if we could go to the party.
- That dessert has cream in it.
Games And Activities That Will Help Your 1st Grader To Learn Sight Words
The task of teaching sight words to first graders can be tricky as there are so many of them. Here are some activities that involve sight words for class-1, which would make it easy for kids to learn and recall.
1. Sight Word Stick Notes
Write new sight words for the day on special stick notes, and quiz kids on those sight words at the end of the day or at the beginning of the next day. You can also encourage them to jump, skip or jog whenever they remember a word.
2. The Question Game
Question and answers are a natural part of children’s learning process, so make use of it to create a fun learning game. Take turns asking questions on sight words and allow children to ask the same number of questions to keep the game fair and fun.
3. Sight Word Chocolate Game
Anything that involves chocolates or treats will swiftly get your child’s attention. For this game, you will have to write down sight words on paper. Say the sight word out loud and ask the child to place a chocolate or candy on the right paper. The more sight words they get right, the more candy they earn!
4. Flashcards
Make a flashcard of sight words and test your child on it. You can use a timer to allow them to move on to the next word to avoid frustration. Once they gain confidence with a small set of flashcards, they can carry out the same activity with more complex sight words.
5. Start with Letter Game
For this fun game, you can ask your child to say one sight word that starts with each letter of the alphabet. For example, the sight words that have the letter ‘H’ as their first letter are his, her, had, he, etc., and the sight words that start with the letter ‘T’ are this, that, them, etc.
As mentioned earlier, sight words are essential words that make up most of the written text in books for lower grades. Learning those words will help children advance their reading skills faster, and also assist them in forming and understanding complex sentences in the higher classes.
