Sight Words for Pre-K: The Complete 40-Word Starter List

What you'll need

• Index cards or paper cut into cards, and a thick marker pen
• 4 envelopes or a pocket chart, labeled Phase 1 to Phase 4
• A ball, toy cars, a fly swatter, a magnifying glass (for the games)
• Magnetic letters or playdough (optional, for word-building)
• A kitchen timer for the 5-minute routine

How to do it

1. 1

   How the sequence works. Phase 1: the 10 easiest, most useful words (the, I, a, is…). Phase 2: sentence builders (to, in, can, not). Phase 3: early-reader words (play, look, come). Phase 4: the trickiest spellings (said, funny, away) plus number and color words. Review weeks follow Phase 2 and Phase 4; nothing moves on until the checkpoint is met. Slow is the point: one word learned deeply beats ten learned shallowly.

   
2. 2

   Phase 1 — weeks 1–2, the easy wins. The words: the, I, a, is, my, me, we, you, go, see. Games: Say it and do it (show go, race across the room); treasure hunt (find face-down cards, flip and read to keep); ball toss read (whoever catches reads the top card). Checkpoint: reads all 10 without hesitation on two different days, and inside a tiny sentence like "I see you."

   
3. 3

   Phase 2 — weeks 3–4, the sentence builders. The words: to, in, it, and, up, can, not, red, big, run. Games: Word parking lot (drive a toy car to the named face-down card — "park on can!" — flip and read); fly swatter splat (splat the called word, read it aloud); sentence parking (build two- and three-word sentences in the pocket chart). Checkpoint: reads at least 8 of 10 instantly, plus two short sentences like "I can run" and "We go up."

   
4. 4

   Phase 3 — weeks 5–6, reading real sentences. The words: play, look, come, here, down, where, help, find, make, jump. Games: Word detective (hide cards; clue with the words: "The jump card is down low — can you find it?"); word fishing (magnetic rod; read each catch); action charades (act the card — jump! look! play! — then read it). Checkpoint: reads a sentence card like "Come and play with me" smoothly, without getting stuck.

   
5. 5

   Phase 4 — weeks 7–8, the tricky ones. The words: said, funny, away, little, blue, yellow, one, two, three, for. Games: Word basketball (toss a beanbag at the called face-down card on the wall, then read it); color and count hunt ("Find something blue — now read the card!"); silly sentence factory (build silly sentences from all four phases; read in your silliest voice). Checkpoint: reads all 40 end to end at a calm pace; the odd wobble on said or funny is normal.

   
6. 6

   The 5-minute daily routine. Same shape daily: minute 1, warm up with 3 old words — fast, fun, all praise. Minutes 2–3, one phase game; new words enter here, two or three at a time. Minute 4, build and read one sentence together, finger tracking under the words. Minute 5, celebration — your child's pick. End while they still want more. Timer visible; when it dings, practice ends, even mid-game.

   
7. 7

   Game bank for any phase. Rotate freely — novelty fuels repetition: memory match (two copies face-down; flip two, read both, keep pairs); hopscotch words (hop to the called word); bath words (bath crayons — read, then wash away, supervised); window words (markers on a low window); flashlight find (shine, read, collect); sand tray write (trace, then read); silly voice read (robot, whisper, opera); word of the day (one card on the fridge).

   
8. 8

   Review weeks without pressure. After Phase 2 and after Phase 4, take a week with no new words — just games with the whole collection. Pulling a word from memory during play (retrieval practice) is what locks it into long-term memory. A wobbly word rejoins the daily game; nothing is "failed." Keep it pressure-free: the moment practice feels like a test, learning slows.

   
9. 9

   When to move beyond the 40. When all 40 are read instantly — on cards and spotted in beginner books — move to the kindergarten list (the 52-word Dolch primer set). Our sight words for kindergarten guide continues the same phased approach. Meanwhile: point words out in picture books, borrow decodable readers, let your child "read" a familiar book to a stuffed animal.

   
10. 10

    What to avoid. Drills past 5 minutes — the timer is sacred. Tricky words first — teaching said early convinces a four-year-old that reading is hard. Quiz energy — narrate and celebrate instead of interrogating. New words before old ones are solid — trust the checkpoints. Comparing to siblings or classmates. Skipping the games — the games aren't the reward; they are the learning.

    

Other ways to play it

• Car ride: keep the current phase's cards in the glove box for red-light reading.
• Bath time: bath crayons on the tub, supervised.
• Outside: chalk the words big on the driveway and hop to each one.
• Big-kid teacher: an older sibling "teaching" the words is practice in disguise — for both.

How it changes by age

• Written for 4–5-year-olds — children who know most letter names or sounds and are starting to notice words in the world. Eager threes can try just the first 5 words of Phase 1, or start with our guide to the first 10 sight words. Fives and sixes who already read these 40 easily should move to the kindergarten list. No deadline: finishing solid at five-and-a-half beats rushing at four.

What they're learning

High-frequency word recognition (these 40 words make up a huge share of early-reader text), left-to-right tracking, reading words inside sentences, retrieval and recall — and the belief that reading is something they can do. Each phase also sneaks in turn-taking, listening, and following multi-step game rules. The same playful approach powers our phonics activities for preschoolers, which build the sounding-out side of early reading.

Questions parents ask