Sight Word Flash — Pre-Primer
Dolch pre-primer sight word flashcards.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Run them fast and keep the deck small. Sight words are about automatic recognition, so a word that takes three seconds to sound out has not been learned yet even when the answer is right. Split the forty into sets of eight and work one set to fluency before adding the next — forty at once produces recognition of none. Eight minutes covers a set with several passes.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentShow the word and wait 3 seconds for the student to read it.Log as correct
- First soundCover all but the first letter and let them try again.Log as cued
- Two choicesSay two words and let the student pick the one on the card.Log as cued
- ModelRead the word; the student reads it after you and traces it once.Log as cued
Adjust it
Work on 5 words at a time, mixing 3 known with 2 new.
Read the words in short sentences, or spell them from memory.
Matching IEP goal
Given sight word cards, such as 'and' and 'away', Student will read the words in 8 of 10 opportunities within 3 seconds each, across 3 consecutive sessions.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Forty Dolch pre-primer sight words — a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in and the rest. These are the highest-frequency words in early text, and several of them cannot be decoded by the rules a beginning reader has learned, which is why they are taught by sight.
What to listen for
Watch for decoding rather than recognition. A child who sounds out c-o-m-e is reading, which is good, and has not yet made it a sight word — and come is one that decoding will get wrong anyway. Notice which words are confused with each other: here and where, come and some, for and from are the pairs that recur.
Carrying it home
Sight words are worth five minutes rather than twenty. A set of eight cards flashed quickly, twice a day, does more than a long session once a week — frequency matters more than duration for automaticity.
What's in this activity
- a
- and
- away
- big
- blue
- can
- come
- down
- find
- for
- funny
- go
- help
- here
- I
- in
- is
- it
- jump
- little
- look
- make
- me
- my
- not
- one
- play
- red
- run
- said
- see
- the
- three
- to
- two
- up
- we
- where
- yellow
- you
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Kindergarten and first grade, at the beginning of reading.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all forty cards play with no account and no card.
- Why teach these by sight rather than decoding?
- Because several of them do not follow the rules a beginning reader knows — come, one, they — and because they appear so often that automatic recognition frees attention for the rest of the sentence.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.