Words TowerThe Dolch Primer list52 words
Tap a word to hear it. The voices are AI-generated recordings that ship with the game — nothing is sent anywhere when you play them.
Dolch Primer — 52 words. Printed from https://vocabularygames.org/sight-word-games/dolch-primer/
About this list
The Primer list adds 52 words to the first 40. This is where sentences start to sound like real ones: «they went out», «she said this», «who are you». Most of them are irregular, and several look very like words the child has just learned, which is exactly why they need their own practice.
Play any word to hear it in a natural voice, and read it aloud with your child before they read it alone. The same list is built into the game under “Learn to read”.
What trips children up here
- «was» and «saw» are the same three letters in the other order — the most common mix-up on this list.
- «that», «this», «they», «there» and «then» all begin with th and are told apart only by looking to the end of the word.
- «please» and «pretty» start alike; «please» also carries a silent e.
- «four» and «our» rhyme with nothing you would expect from their spelling.
How to work through it
Put look-alike pairs side by side on purpose — was / saw, this / that — and ask which one you just said.
Read a short book together and hunt for today’s words on the page; sight words are everywhere, which is the point of them.
Write the six hardest words on cards and shuffle them each evening. Two minutes is enough.
The same list, as a game
In Words Tower the word is said aloud and your child walks into the door that carries it, on a tower that turns as they climb. Choose 🔤 Learn to read → Dolch Primer when you pick the words, and the tower is built from this list. A word that was missed comes back sooner; a word that is known comes back rarely. There are no ads, no sign-up and no timers, and progress stays in the browser on your own device.
Questions
Should we finish Pre-Primer first?
Yes, in general. The Primer list assumes the first 40 words are recognised at a glance. If a few of them are still slow, keep them in the practice as you add new ones.
Why are these words not sounded out?
Most of them break the rules a child has just been taught, so trying to decode them teaches the wrong lesson. They are learned as whole shapes, by seeing and hearing them often.
What comes after this list?
The Dolch first grade list of 41 words. The Dolch nouns — 97 naming words with pictures behind many of them — can be practised at any point alongside the graded lists.
Do we have to pay for anything?
No. The lists, the recordings and the game are free, there are no ads and no sign-up, and progress stays in the browser on your own device.
Can I print this list?
Yes. Print the page and you get the list on paper, without the buttons and without the rest of the site — one sheet to put on the fridge or hand out in class.
The other lists
Before this: Dolch Pre-Primer. Next: Dolch First Grade. All of them on the sight word games page.