Setting up sight word bingo
The cards are ready to print: the 40 Dolch pre-primer words, 30 cards (a class set plus spares), 4×4 squares and two cards per page. Every card holds 16 of the 40 words in its own arrangement, so children sitting next to each other can’t copy. Two cards per page gives squares about an inch wide on US Letter; for small hands or chunky markers, choose 1 per page for squares of about 1.7 inches.
Change the list, card size or number of cards before you print, and use the arrows under the preview to check a few cards. Print a caller sheet too: for word games it adds cut-out calling slips, so you can draw words from a cup instead of using a screen.
Calling the words
Open Call the game on the classroom screen and press Call next for each word. The word appears in large type, the last six calls stay visible, and the board lists every word, lighting up the ones called so far. Read calls aloud says each word with your device’s own voice, which helps when you’re walking around the room.
How much you show decides what children practice. Showing and saying the word is visual matching, fine for the first games. Saying it without showing it makes children connect the sound to the printed word, which is the reading skill itself. When a child calls bingo, ask them to read the words in their line aloud before you check the card: the win is also a short reading check.
With 25 children playing, our simulations put the first line at about the 11th word called and a full card at about the 34th of 40. On 3×3 cards with the free space turned off, the first line comes after about 8 words, which suits preschool attention spans (leave the free space on and it’s only about 4); on 5×5 cards with a free center, after about 12.
Where the Dolch words come from
Edward W. Dolch published his list in 1936 in The Elementary School Journal (“A Basic Sight Vocabulary”). It holds 220 “service words”, the pronouns, verbs, prepositions and other words that aren’t nouns but turn up constantly in children’s reading, split into five levels: pre-primer (40 words), primer (52), first grade (41), second grade (46) and third grade (41). A separate list of 95 common nouns goes with it.
Many of these words can’t be sounded out by the usual rules (said, one, where), which is why children learn to recognize them on sight. The Common Core standards ask kindergarteners to “read common high-frequency words by sight” (RF.K.3c) and give the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do and does as examples. Five of those are on the pre-primer list, she, are and do are primer words, of is first grade and does is second grade, so the kindergarten standard already reaches beyond the first list.
To practice writing the same words, print handwriting paper or name tracing worksheets. To choose who reads the next word, spin the wheel spinner with your class list. For a first-day mixer, human bingo gets children talking to each other.
All five Dolch sight word lists
The cards above use the pre-primer list. To play another level, replace the words in the box with one of these lists (copy the line, then paste it: a single line separated by commas is split into words).
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
First grade (41 words)
after, again, an, any, as, ask, by, could, every, fly, from, give, going, had, has, her, him, his, how, just, know, let, live, may, of, old, once, open, over, put, round, some, stop, take, thank, them, then, think, walk, were, when
Second grade (46 words)
always, around, because, been, before, best, both, buy, call, cold, does, don't, fast, first, five, found, gave, goes, green, its, made, many, off, or, pull, read, right, sing, sit, sleep, tell, their, these, those, upon, us, use, very, wash, which, why, wish, work, would, write, your
Third grade (41 words)
about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm
When you reload, this page goes back to the set-up described here, with the same card set code, so printing again gives the same cards. The number of cards, the paper size and, where this page doesn’t set them, cards per page and color are remembered from the generator. To keep an edited list, use Share result, or start from the bingo card generator, which remembers everything.