Words preschoolers should know: Preschool Dolch sight words Learning to read

Top 100 Sight Words and How to Teach Them

Sight words is a common term in reading that  has a variety of meanings. When it is applied to early reading instruction, it typically refers to the set of about 100 words that keeps reappearing on almost any page of text. “Who, the, he, were, does, their, me, be” are a few examples.

In addition to their being very frequent, many of these words cannot be “sounded out.” Children are expected to learn them by sight (that is, by looking at them and recognizing them, without any attempt to sound them out.)

Unfortunately, this means minimal teaching. Often, little is done other than to show the word and tell the child what it is “saying.” For many children, this is not enough, with the result that their reading of these critical words is laden with error.

What does this mean for parents who are helping their children master reading? Basically it means spending some time in truly teaching these words so that your child gains real mastery of them. The key to achieving this goal is accurate writing (spelling)—via memory. That is, the child writes the word when the model is not in view.

You can do this by creating simple sentences that the child reads. (By using sentences, you will automatically be using many “sight words.” In addition, you will be giving your child the opportunity to deal with words in context—a key to meaningful reading) After showing the sentence and having your child read it, turn it over and then dictate the sentence. If there is an error, you immediately stop your child and take away the paper. Then you show the model again and repeat the process. In other words, the writing of the sentence has to be fully accurate, starting with the first word.

If you want a list of those words to help guide your efforts, here is the top 100 according to the American Heritage Word Frequency Book by John B. Carroll.

A: a, an, at, are, as, at, and, all, about, after

B: be, by, but, been

C: can, could, called

D: did, down, do

E: each

F: from, first, find, for

H: he, his, had, how, has, her, have, him

I: in, I, if, into, is, it, its

J: just

K: know

L: like, long, little

M: my, made, may, make, more, many, most,

N: not, no, now

O: or, one, of, out, other, over, only, on

P: people

S: said, she,  some, so, see

T: the, to, they, this, there, them, then, these, two, time, than, that, their

U: up, use

V: very

W: was, with, what, were, when, we, which, will, would, words, where, water, who, way

Y: you, your

Click here to download our Recommended Top 100 Sight Words.

Literacy and reading expert, Dr. Marion Blank

Dr. Marion Blank is answering your questions about reading and learning. If you have a question for Dr. Marion, visit the Reading Kingdom Facebook Page and let us know how we can help.

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Sight Words for 5 year Olds (PreKindergarten & Kindergarten)

Do you have a child ready to enter kindergarten? If so, you might be looking for sight words for 5-year-olds. You’ve come to the right place! Kindergarten sight words are going to be a huge priority for your child and learning them now is so important in helping your child learn to read fluently as they become a confident reader.  

The beginning sight words that your child is going to learn first are some of the most common sight words that your child will encounter in his reading.   They are taught as prekindergarten sight words and Kindergarten sight words.

Practice these words daily. Practice these high-frequency words often in order to help your child memorize their Dolch sight words, one by one. Keep up the hard work and soon enough your little one will be reading like a pro.

What are sight words?

Sight words are the most commonly used terms that appear on almost any page of text. These common, key words usually refer to a list from which children learn all or some of these important phrases during their first year in kindergarten.

As a child play therapist and teacher, I understand how important it is to understand what sight words are, as well as understanding which activities, games, and apps are best to use to teach them.

Why are they so important?

To become a great reader, children must master their list of sight words. Once they have mastered these items to continue practicing them so that it becomes second nature for the child when looking at text and reading aloud.  

In fact, between 50-75% of your child’s text will include sight words from pre-primer to primer Dolch word lists.

Sight words are important so that your child can read fast enough and know what word to read without sounding out every letter. If they can’t, then they’ll have a hard time understanding what they’re reading.

The ability to recognize words helps your child in so many areas, including comprehension (understanding what you are reading) because the child is not trying to “sound out” the word, but instead, the focus is on the content.

If your child’s comprehension is limited, that will affect them when they move on to difficult texts like those found in science textbooks.

Sight Words for 5 year old’s

When a child can read the 52 most common words in kindergarten level books, it makes reading easier and more fluent. Soon, they will move on to the top 100 sight words that they will be expected to learn.

These sight words include:
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.

Download the Sight Word list for FREE here.

How to Teach Sight Words to 5 Year Old Children

To begin, simply introduce your child to the list:

• Write the words on index cards to use as flash cards
• Play sight word games (like Sight Word Bingo)
• Order the Sight Word Bundle (created by a reading specialist) and use the sight word flashcards, read and write worksheets, and lesson plans.
• Hang the words up and go over them daily.
• Play other sight word games found in the Kindergarten Bundle pack.

Remember to read every word on this list once a day and explain that he will be learning one new vocabulary word per day. Be excited about it! 

On his first day, ask him if he knows any of these words already by putting a sticker next to each one they do recognize. This will help you know which words need more focus & which ones can simply be reviewed each day.

Throughout the day, talk about that word and go back to it on the wall. You can even have your child “tap” the words on the paper as you leave the room.

Practice using the words that you are working on in sentences and practice otherwise saying/showing what these words mean.

I keep our words in our pantry so anytime someone eats a snack they see the words.

From then on you can just review the words every few days until all of your child’s sight words are mastered!

As more days pass, your child will begin to find those words everywhere around in daily life (in books , signs nearby etc..) This is when the fun really begins…

Find more awesome ways to introduce, practice, and learn sight words here.

The words in this Kindergarten Sight Word bundle include the most common sight words your child will encounter during his reading.

These are important because they help build a foundation for learning to read and help your child to understand what is being said in sentences (because they put less attention & focus on sounding out words & more attention & focus on the story).  

Don’t forget to practice! Practice makes perfect, so stick with it and soon enough your child will be reading like a pro.

If you need some extra help along the way or want to buy our bundle of sight word activities (which includes over 100+ commonly used words), click here!

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What a 5-6 year old child should know and be able to do. Checklist for Parents

Preschoolers are transitioning from an early age into a new world of exploration and formal learning. Many of them have started school or will just enter preschool and will complete this period of development by entering school.

In one of the articles we have already written about what a child of 3-4 years old should know and be able to do.

Preschoolers are even more open to learning numbers, letters, reading and simple math. This is also the optimal period for studying music. They improve gross and fine motor skills, which encourages them to be interested in arts, crafts and all kinds of riding toys (vans, scooters, bicycles, etc.). They also develop athletic skills, leading to participation in a variety of sports towards the end of this developmental period.

The most important way of learning during this period is play. Games of all kinds arouse curiosity and promote the development of language, socialization and creativity. Interest in the study of the environment contributes to an early interest in science. They also enjoy building things around the house, as well as building sets like Lego, Kinex, blocks, and more.

So, let’s consider what a child of 5-6 years old should know and be able to do, depending on the area of ​​development.

Speech development

• At this age, children talk a lot, sometimes even when no one is in the room.
• The child answers questions with sufficiently precise short or detailed answers.
• The ability to evaluate the statements and answers of comrades, to supplement, correct errors is developing.
• In the sixth year of life, the child can quite consistently and clearly compose descriptive and plot stories on the proposed topics.
• A child correctly pronounces all sounds, closer to six years old is able to distinguish the first sound from a word, is capable of sound analysis of words.
• In simple sentences, he correctly agrees parts of speech by gender, tense and cases, but in complex sentences he can still make similar mistakes.
• In general, the vocabulary is significantly enriched. The child is able to generalize some groups of objects that are often found in everyday life.
• The child knows more antonyms and synonyms.
• A sense of humor begins to form, understands jokes, anecdotes, and invents his own.

Physical or motor development

The first few years of a child’s life are critical to their physical development. This is the time when his body constitution develops most actively. Pay attention to the following milestones in your 5-year-old’s physical development:

• Five-year-olds are more coordinated and love to demonstrate new physical skills, often accompanied by words like, “Look at me!”
• The child’s ability to run, jump or jump over becomes better because his balance improves by this age.
• The child’s fine motor skills are better developed, he can unbutton his shirt and tie his shoelaces.
• A child can learn to ride a bicycle, jump rope, balance on one leg for a short period of time, walk up stairs without holding a hand, jump and catch a big ball. Many six year olds will also be interested in team sports such as football, hockey, etc.

Social and emotional development

Social and emotional development can help a child make new friends. This helps him understand his feelings and the feelings of others. He will be able to sympathize or, for example, share his problems with friends. This makes his personality complete.

At this age, the child is able to express his feelings, although he may need help and time to identify and discuss difficult emotions, such as disappointment or jealousy. The baby is often much more in control of his feelings and unexpected outbursts of anger and sadness are much less common.

The child’s growing understanding of the world around him may cause some fears. For example, some children may fear the supernatural (such as ghosts), criticism, trials, failure, physical harm, or threats.

We also list the characteristic features of the development of a child at the age of 5-6 years:

• By the age of 6, children become more and more independent from their parents. They will try to show how “adult” they are.
• Peer acceptance becomes more important than before. Children learn to collaborate and share.
• Boys will play with boys and girls with girls.
• Parents should allow children to choose their own sports and toys. Make a wide range of examples available.
• As their language skills develop, children become better and better at describing what happened, how they feel and what they think.
• At this age, some lies and deceit are to be expected. Children find out where the boundaries are, which, however, is quite acceptable.
• A child distinguishes reality from fantasy.

Cognitive development

Cognitive development means the development of thinking, reasoning and problem-solving skills. Cognitive development ensures that the child grows both mentally and emotionally. Child aged 5-6:

• Child can participate in imaginative play (for example, planning a trip to the moon)
• He can understand the concept of rules and even follow them, distinguish between “right” and “wrong”.
• Knows the alphabet and begins to read syllables.
• Can write letters and numbers.
• Counts up to 10, familiar with numbers up to 100.
• Knows the concepts of “equality”, “subtraction”, “addition”.
• Can remember your phone number and home address.

Helping your child develop at age 5-6

Here are a few simple things you can do to help your child develop at this age:

• Encourage movement: play sports and activities together. It teaches social skills such as taking turns, cooperation, negotiation, fair play and good sports.
• Involve your child in simple household chores: setting the table or helping you clean your clothes develops movement and thinking skills, and teaches cooperation and responsibility. These skills are very important for the school.
• Set aside time for free play: Even if your child has already started school and other structured activities, play is still very important at this age. Let your child choose how to spend this “free” play time.
• Play with your child every day, even if it only takes 10 minutes. Playing together gives you the opportunity to enter your child’s world and learn about his thoughts and feelings. It also shows your child that you care about him and want to spend time together.
• Practice behavior in the classroom: for example, you can give your child small tasks that require attention, or follow simple rules or instructions. Talk about your child’s favorite animal or sport and encourage them to listen, respond, and ask questions. All this helps to prepare for school.
• Get Together: Spending time with other children, especially if they go to the same school, helps develop social skills and helps your child get used to being apart from you.
• Talk about feelings: You can help your child understand why he feels something and help him put those feelings into words. This will help him form friendships and show empathy.
• Talk to your child about how to treat both boys and girls with equal respect.

What else is important in raising a child of school age

As a parent, you are always learning. It’s okay to feel confident in your knowledge. And it’s also okay to admit that you don’t know something and ask questions or get help.

It is important to note that when you focus on caring for your child, you may forget or miss taking care of yourself. But taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally will help your child grow and develop.

You may sometimes feel frustrated, upset, or depressed. And it’s okay to take a break until you feel better.

How a small child learns new words – Child Development

Preschoolers have a hard time learning new words. They hear unfamiliar words in a new environment. How do children learn what exactly an unfamiliar word means?

Although a new word can mean almost anything, children learn new words surprisingly well. Shortly after a child speaks his first words, he builds up his vocabulary at an astonishing rate, absorbing the new words like a sponge.

How does he do it? This question has been wrestling with learning and development scientists for many years. Such progress in mastering new words seems so huge that it is like magic.

However, modern technologies allow us to take a different look at the process of speech improvement of children. It would be easier to understand this progress in the speech development of children if we could look at the world around us from the point of view of a child: having the same features of the body, undeveloped motor skills and limited mobility.

This can be achieved by putting a mini camera on the child’s head and leaving it on for a while. Thanks to this, it is possible to see the world around him through his eyes.

American researchers, using such a camera, came to interesting conclusions. It turned out that the child’s world was very dynamic and changeable. Many objects remained in the child’s field of vision for only a second or a fraction of a second. But against the background of such dynamics, episodes stood out that were not like the rest. There was only one object in the child’s field of vision, which was closer to the child and, accordingly, visually larger than the others.

In connection with this, researchers have a question: are the episodes when certain objects are close to the child optimal for memorizing the names of these objects?

To answer this question, scientists conducted an experiment. They created several fired clay objects that the children had definitely not encountered before. In total, 6 items of unique shape and texture were created. Then the objects were colored in pairs in blue, red and green. Next, the items were randomly assigned names: “zibi”, “theme”, “dodi”, “hubl”, “wawa” and “mapu”.

After that, preschool children (average age 1.5 years) were invited to the research laboratory. They were invited to sit opposite each other at a small white table in a white room with a white floor. Parents were given the names of six items, and the items were placed in small boxes. On the sides of the boxes were pictures of items and their names.

Parents encouraged children to interact with new objects. Then parents and children played with new items. The playing time was 4 periods of two minutes, in each of the periods the children were allowed to play with three toys.

The rules did not require parents to teach children the names of objects. Parents were also not told that they would later test the children’s ability to remember the names of objects. The entire part of the experiment, during which the children played with the objects, was videotaped.

This was followed by a test of how well the children remembered the new names. They were shown 3 objects of different colors, after which they were asked to point to an object with a particular name. During testing, children in most cases correctly found the right items. Some of them correctly named all 6 items.

After that, the scientists carefully studied the videos of the experiment, as a result of which they found a pattern. At the moments when the parents called the child a new object, it was often in the child’s field of vision and was closer than the other objects. If this condition was met, the child memorized the name of the object.

Videos have shown that parents prefer to name an object to their child when the child sees and touches it. The more the child’s visual attention is focused on an object, the more likely it is that the baby will remember its name.

Looking at the world through the eyes of a child, we can learn how he compares objects with words. It is important that at the moment of naming there is only one object in front of the child, and the child understands that this particular object is being called to him.

Trying to see the world through the eyes of a child will help us explain another phenomenon of child development. Why do children learn to walk? Why, when they have mastered a certain mode of transportation, do they move on to a more difficult and sometimes painful task?

It is important to understand that a child sees objects differently when walking than when crawling. Videos of children who were still crawling were very different from those of children who had already begun to walk.