Printing Dolch sight word cards one list at a time, not all 220

Our kindergarten teacher sends home a list of ten sight words every other Friday. The card pack we owned had all 220 Dolch words under one rubber band, and finding the ten we needed took longer than practicing them. Printing the list we need, and nothing else, fixed that.

What the sheet looks like

The sight words flashcard generator starts from a Dolch list: Pre-K (40 words), Kindergarten (52), Grade 1 (41), Grade 2 (46), Grade 3 (41), or the Dolch Nouns (95). You can also paste your own list, up to 60 words. Cards come Large (4 per page), Medium (6) or Small (9).

The Style setting matters more than it looks. Solid prints the word in black for reading. Outline prints hollow letters the child traces with a finger or a marker. Case is lowercase, Title case or UPPERCASE; I keep ours lowercase because that is how the words appear in books.

Why it works

• Many Dolch words can't be sounded out. "Said" and "was" break the phonics rules a kindergartner just learned, so they have to be seen enough times to be recognized whole. Cards make the repetitions cheap.
• Tracing an outline card ties the shape of the word to the hand. For a child who keeps reading "was" as "saw," the finger remembers the direction.
• Pasting the teacher's list means what is on the fridge matches what is on the test.

Who it suits

The Pre-K list in Outline style suits a four-year-old who can hold a marker and wants to be doing what an older sibling does. Grade 3 words like "laugh" and "together" keep the cards useful for eight-year-olds. The Dolch Nouns list fills the gap for a child who reads the function words fine but stalls on apple and chicken. Once the words are solid on their own, the sight word phrases sheet puts them into three-word phrases, which is the next step toward real sentences.

Print on card stock if your printer will take it. Paper cards curl inside a week.