Dolch Sight Words Teaching Resources

Help students quickly learn the Dolch Sight Words list with a range of teacher-created literacy resources for primary school students. This collection includes sight word games and flashcards, reading rotation activities, printable Dolch sight word worksheets, digital learning resources, and more that have undergone rigorous review by our expert teacher team to ensure they’re ready for your readers!

New to teaching sight words? Explore a quick primer from the reading teachers at Teach Starter to get started on your lesson plans!

What Are Dolch Sight Words?

Dolch sight words are words used in teaching young children to read. This list includes high-frequency words which commonly appear in children’s books. The Dolch sight words are named for Professor Edward William Dolch, who compiled the first list of words and published them in Problems in Reading in 1948.

They’re called 'sight words' because children are taught to memorise this list of words in order to recognise them on sight as many cannot be sounded out easily.

How Many Dolch Sight Words Are There?

The Dolch Sight Word list includes the 220 most common words and 95 additional nouns from children’s books. The words are listed in alphabetical order on the sight word list, although they are not necessarily taught in that order in the classroom.

Who Was Edward Dolch?

Curious about the man whose name is on your students’ sight words list? Professor Edward William Dolch was a researcher and educator in the field of reading education. He is best known for his work on sight word vocabulary development and of course his Dolch Word Lists. Dolch was a professor of education at the University of Illinois and also served as the director of the university’s reading clinic.