Sight Word Flash — Pre-Primer — Spelling
Literacy · Grades K–1 · 38 cards
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
Split into small sets and spell the decodable ones by sound. Big, can, in, it and go can be built by segmenting; come, here, funny and away cannot, and those are the ones to learn as visual wholes. Sorting them into those two groups is itself instructive, since it tells the child which strategy to use rather than leaving them to guess.
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
Thirty-eight Dolch pre-primer words — and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, in, is, it and the rest — as a spelling task. Derived from the flashcard deck. Spelling a sight word is harder than reading one, because recognition can be visual and spelling has to be sequential.
What to listen for
Watch what the child does with the irregular words. Attempting to sound out come produces cum, which is a phonetically excellent answer and the wrong one — and a child who keeps doing that has not been told which words are exceptions. Notice the words with double letters, like funny, which are regular and still frequently misspelled.
Carrying it home
Spelling three or four sight words aloud takes a minute. The decodable ones can be sounded out; the irregular ones need to be seen, which makes writing them more useful than saying them.
What's in this activity
- and
- away
- big
- blue
- can
- come
- down
- find
- for
- funny
- go
- help
- here
- 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
- How is this different from the flashcards?
- Same words, built from letters. Spelling is the harder direction — recognition can be visual, and spelling has to be produced letter by letter.
- Is it free?
- Yes, no account needed.
- Should sight words be spelled or just recognised?
- Recognition first, since that is what reading needs. Spelling is worth adding for the words that turn up in the child's own writing, which is most of these.
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.