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Dolch Word List - Grade One

From 50-75% of all words used in school books, library books, newspapers, and magazines are in the Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary of 220 words (preschool thru Grade 3). The Dolch word list is made up of "service words" (pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs) which cannot be learned through the use of pictures.

In this section I've included a series of flashcards that can be printed and used to reinforce learning, the complete list of preschool words (see table) and some activity ideas for using the flashcards.

Complete Grade One List

after	again	an	any
as	ask	by	could
every	fly	from	give
giving	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

Ideas for Using the Flashcards:

The flashcards can simply be held up, giving the child the opportunity to read each one. But if you're looking for a more engaging activity, try combining the Dolch flashcards with the noun picture flashcards for a variety of activities (I've listed some suggestions here from simplest to hardest). If you're printing the cards for one of the higher grades, you should consider printing the ones for previous grades as well -- the Dolch words are cummulative and you'll be able to make more complex sentences.

ACTIVITY ONE:
- have an adult arrange the flashcards to form a sentence.
- Read the sentence with/to the child
- Remove one of the dolch words from the sentence and put it back in the pile (you may want to make the pile smaller in the beginning to make the activity easier).
- Give the pile to the child and have them find the correct card to place back in the sentence.
- Re-read the sentence.
ACTIVITY TWO:
- have an adult arrange the flashcards to form a sentence, leaving one card out.
- read the incomplete sentence with/to the child.
- present between 2 and 5 cards to the child (one of them should make the sentence complete)
- have the child chose which is the correct card
- re-read the sentence with the card chosen. Talk about whether it makes sense or not.
ACTIVITY THREE:
- provide the child with all or part of the pile of flashcards
- allow them to create their own sentences using the cards
- read the sentences with them and talk about what they've created.
- OPTIONAL: Have them glue their completed sentence to the bottom of a piece of construction paper and draw a picture of their sentence on the top. (author/illustrator of their own story).

Leanne Guenther

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