Dolch Sight Words — free AI generator

Why the Dolch list still works in 2026

English function words - 'the', 'and', 'of', 'to', 'is' - haven't changed in frequency since Dolch published. His list of 220 sight words plus 95 nouns still accounts for the majority of words in children's books, because function words are stable across decades. A student who has automatized the Dolch list frees up working memory for comprehension instead of decoding every word.

• Pre-primer: 40 words (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)

• Primer: 52 words (all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will, with, yes)

• 1st grade: 41 words

• 2nd grade: 46 words

• 3rd grade: 41 words

• Nouns: 95 additional words

Practice worksheets for each level

The spelling worksheet generator above has a Dolch preset that lets you pick a level (pre-primer through 3rd) and a practice format (trace, write, find-in-sentence, flashcards). That means one tool covers the entire scope-and-sequence - no hunting for 5 different teacher-supply websites.

Classroom use across K-3

Kindergarten: master pre-primer and primer. 1st grade: master 1st grade list by winter, 2nd grade list by spring. 2nd grade: master 2nd grade list and review. 3rd grade: master 3rd grade list and ensure full 220-word fluency. Most teachers assess Dolch mastery with a timed 'read 30 in 30 seconds' task rather than a written test - Dolch words are primarily about instant visual recognition.