About this activity
Fifty-two Dolch primer sight words — all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good and the rest. The primer list follows the pre-primer one and contains more irregular spellings: are, do, four and came all defy the rules a first-year reader has been taught.
How to use it in a session
Split the fifty-two into sets of eight or ten and take one set to fluency before adding another. Speed is the measure rather than accuracy — a word that is read correctly after three seconds of sounding out has not become a sight word. Sort each set into decodable and irregular as you go, since the two need different strategies and children benefit from knowing which is which.
What to listen for
Watch the irregular words specifically. Are, do, four and came cannot be decoded correctly by a beginning reader, and a child who keeps trying is applying a good strategy to a word that defeats it. Notice which words are confused: ate and at, came and come, but and put recur across most students.
Carrying it home
Short and frequent beats long and occasional. Ten cards flashed twice a day builds automaticity in a way that one long session a week does not — and stopping while the child is still succeeding is what makes them willing to do it again tomorrow.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Kindergarten through second, following the pre-primer list.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all fifty-two cards play free.
- How is the primer list different from pre-primer?
- It is the next set of high-frequency words, and it contains more irregular spellings — are, do, four, came — which cannot be worked out by decoding.