Dolch Sight Word Tracing and Writing Cards

My newly minted first grade son is working on sight words this year. Since he is still a beginning reader, he needs much practice with reading and spelling these more challenging words.

I needed a daily way for him to practice sight words without getting overwhelmed, so I made a set of Sight Word tracing and writing cards.

I have printed out the Pre-Primer Dolch word cards in this packet for us to work on between now and the Christmas break. I plan for us to work on the Primer set during the second half of first grade.

Keep reading for how I plan to use these sight word tracing and writing cards in our homeschool!

Dolch Sight Word Tracing and Writing Cards

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Dolch Sight Word Cards

There are a few standard sets of sight words to which reading teachers turn, and the set used in this packet are from the Dolch list.

Sight word lists contain those more challenging yet common words that make up the English language. They are often difficult for young readers since they don’t follow phonics rules as readily as other words.

There are 220 Dolch cards included in this writing and tracing packet, utilizing all of the Dolch words in the Pre-Primer, Primer, First Grade, Second Grade, and Third Grade sets.

I’ll publish a separate set at a later date for the fourth and fifth grade Dolch writing sets.

I created this packet for my son and me to work on each day. My intention for him is to choose one word each day, practice writing the day’s sight word, and then reading the sentence on the card.

We will continue to read words for previous days as we go through the stack.

I am storing these cards in a pencil container with a freshly sharpened pencil, just to make it seem different from his other pencil-and-paper work that we do each day.

My son will trace the word two times as indicated on the top line, and then he will write the words two times without tracing lines on the second row of the paper.

I plan for us to do only one word per day since I need his writing stamina to last long enough for other written work I have planned.

I will also use this opportunity to reinforce grammar or phonics concepts.

Here is an example for ‘My two pens are yellow.’

We will talk about the word ‘pens’ and that it is plural, and that you often only have to add an ‘s’ to make a word plural.

We will talk about the word ‘my’ and that this is the “sometimes y” that we recite when saying the vowels – a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.

If I still have his attention (he is only 6 after all!), I will mention the vowel team of ow at the end of the word ‘yellow’. We have talked minimally about vowel teams, so he might not be ready for that yet. I’ll just play it by ear.

Other Ways to Use Dolch Sight Word Cards

There are several other ways you can use these cards, if you so choose:

— Hole punch the cards and place them on a ring. You can laminate and use with a dry erase marker to make these last longer and for multiple uses.

— You could also laminate these and place them in a pencil box as I did in the picture above. Just replace the pencil with a dry erase marker, and you have an instant activity for a reading center in a traditional classroom.

— Do not cut the cards and leave the sheet intact. Place the papers in a 3-ring-binder and use during your morning calendar notebook time.

All Access Pass members can download this entire writing packet in the All Access Pass area.

After you log in, choose the Phonics and Reading page and scroll down until you see this particular worksheet packet. Then just click and your download will start immediately.