Sight Words for Kindergarten
Kindergarten · English · Study Guide
Learn common words that you can recognize right away without sounding them out.
Sight words are words that we see a lot when we read. They are so common that good readers learn to recognize them right away, without having to sound them out letter by letter.
Some sight words are hard to sound out because they do not follow the normal spelling rules. For example, the word 'the' has a special sound that is hard to guess just from the letters. That is why we practice these words until we know them by sight!
Common kindergarten sight words include: the, a, I, is, it, in, at, am, an, and, can, do, go, he, me, my, no, of, on, see, so, to, up, we, big, but, come, for, get, got, had, has, have, him, his, how, its, let, like, look, make, new, now, old, our, out, put, said, she, sit, them, then, they, this, too, was, went, what, who, yes, you.
Practice your sight words by reading them on flashcards, finding them in books, or writing them. The more you practice, the faster you will recognize them when you read!
Key terms
- sight word
- A word you recognize immediately without sounding it out
- recognize
- To know what something is right away when you see it
- fluency
- Reading smoothly and quickly because you know many words
- high-frequency word
- A word that appears very often in books and writing
- memorize
- To learn something so well you know it without looking it up
Flashcards
- the
- One of the most common words in English — used before nouns (the dog, the sun)
- and
- A joining word — connects two things (cat and dog)
- said
- Past tense of 'say' — She said hello.
- is
- A helping word — The sky is blue.
- you
- Refers to the person being talked to — I see you.
- they
- Refers to a group of people or things — They are playing.
- was
- Past tense of 'is' — It was sunny yesterday.
- have
- To own or hold — I have a book.
Questions
What is a sight word?
- A very long word
- A word you recognize right away without sounding it out
- A word that rhymes with another word
- A word only found in math books
Show answer
Answer: A word you recognize right away without sounding it out
Sight words are recognized instantly without needing to sound them out letter by letter.
The word 'the' is a common kindergarten sight word.
Show answer
Answer: True
'The' is one of the most frequently used words in English and is a core kindergarten sight word.
Sight words help us read faster because we know them by ___.
Show answer
Answer: sight
We know sight words by sight, meaning we recognize them immediately when we see them.
Which of these is a sight word?
- elephant
- said
- jumping
- caterpillar
Show answer
Answer: said
'Said' is a common sight word. The other choices are longer, less common words.
You have to sound out every letter in a sight word each time you read it.
Show answer
Answer: False
The whole point of sight words is that you recognize them instantly without sounding out each letter.
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