Dolch Nouns Sight Words
- K–3rd grade
- 95 words
- Common Core RF.K.3c
Besides his five grade lists, Edward Dolch made a list of 95 common nouns: everyday naming words like apple, ball, cat, house and tree. They're easy to picture, which makes them a great place for young readers to practice.
The 95 Dolch nouns
Grouped by topic. Pictures show the words kids can match to an object. Teachers often present these words in lowercase, the way they appear in books, except for names like Christmas and Santa Claus.
People
- 👶 baby
- boy
- brother
- children
- farmer
- father
- girl
- man
- men
- mother
- Santa Claus
- sister
Animals
- 🐻 bear
- 🐦 bird
- 🐱 cat
- 🐔 chicken
- 🐄 cow
- 🐶 dog
- 🦆 duck
- 🐟 fish
- 🐴 horse
- kitty
- 🐷 pig
- 🐰 rabbit
- robin
- 🐑 sheep
- 🐿️ squirrel
Food
- 🍎 apple
- 🍞 bread
- 🍰 cake
- 🌽 corn
- 🥚 egg
- 🥛 milk
- water
Home and things
- ⚽ ball
- 🛏️ bed
- 🔔 bell
- 📦 box
- 🪑 chair
- 🧥 coat
- 🪆 doll
- 🚪 door
- floor
- ✉️ letter
- 💵 money
- paper
- 🖼️ picture
- 💍 ring
- 👟 shoe
- stick
- table
- thing
- top
- 🧸 toy
- ⌚ watch
- 🪟 window
Body
- back
- 👁️ eye
- 🦶 feet
- ✋ hand
- head
- leg
Outdoors
- ⛵ boat
- 🚗 car
- farm
- 🔥 fire
- 🌸 flower
- garden
- grass
- ground
- hill
- home
- 🏠 house
- nest
- 🌧️ rain
- 🏫 school
- seed
- ❄️ snow
- street
- ☀️ sun
- 🌳 tree
- wind
- wood
Time and events
- birthday
- Christmas
- day
- game
- goodbye
- morning
- name
- 🌙 night
- party
- song
- time
- way
About the Dolch nouns list
Dolch kept these nouns separate from his main 220-word list because he felt they were easy to learn from pictures and context. They're still worth practicing. Children see words like mother, school, water and morning in book after book.
Most of the nouns can be sounded out: cat, dog, bed, box, pig, sun use short vowels, and cake, home, tree, feet, rain use long vowel patterns. A few are tricky, like eye, children, money and squirrel.
The list is a little old-fashioned. It includes Santa Claus and Christmas, and words like kitty and robin. Swap in words from your own family's life if you like. The point is practice with common, picturable words.
Heart words in this list
These words have a part that doesn't follow the sounds your child knows yet. Sound out the rest, then draw a heart over the tricky part and learn it by heart. See what are sight words? for the 5-step method.
| Word | The tricky part |
|---|---|
| eye | sounds like the letter I |
| children | ch-il-dren; i is short |
| money | o says short u; ey says long e |
| mother | o says short u |
| brother | o says short u |
| water | a says ah |
| squirrel | squ-ir-rel; ir says er |
| door | oor says or |
| floor | oor says or |
| watch | a says ah |
Words to sound out instead of memorizing: cat, dog, bed, box, pig, sun, egg, hill, hand, leg, men, nest, top, duck, fish, cake, home, tree, feet, rain, boat, seed, sheep, night. If your child knows the phonics pattern, teach these with phonics. It's faster, and the same skill works on thousands of other words.
Sentences to read
Every sentence below uses words from this list or earlier lists. Read them together, or let your child read them on their own once the words are familiar.
- The cat sat on the chair.
- My mother and father work on a farm.
- A bird is in the nest.
- The children play ball at school.
- I eat an apple and bread.
- The dog ran to the door.
- We have a party on my birthday.
- A rabbit is in the garden.
- Look at the snow on the tree.
- My sister has a red coat.
How to practice the nouns list
- Pick five words a week. At five a week, the whole list takes about 19 weeks. Mix one or two heart words with easier ones.
- Sound out first. For regular words, have your child blend the sounds. For heart words, sound out the regular parts and point to the tricky part.
- Flash daily. Use the flashcards from the PDF for one minute a day. A word counts as known when your child reads it in under three seconds, three days in a row.
- Find them in books. Before reading a book together, ask your child to spot this week's words on a page.
- Write them. Spelling a word out loud while writing it makes it stick much faster than reading alone.
Keep a "know it" pile and a "still learning" pile. Kids love watching the "know it" pile grow, and it shows you exactly which words need more practice.
Quiz: Dolch nouns
Look at each picture and tap the word that goes with it.
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1.Which word goes with 🍎?
Show answer
apple.
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2.Which word goes with 🐱?
Show answer
cat.
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3.Which word goes with 🌳?
Show answer
tree.
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4.Which word goes with 🐦?
Show answer
bird.
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5.Which word goes with 🏠?
Show answer
house.
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6.Which word goes with ☀️?
Show answer
sun.
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7.Which word goes with 👟?
Show answer
shoe.
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8.Which word goes with 🐟?
Show answer
fish.
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9.Which word goes with 🦆?
Show answer
duck.
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10.Which word goes with 🍰?
Show answer
cake.
Printable list and flashcards
The free PDF has 9 US Letter pages: a checklist of all 95 words with a box to tick for each word your child knows, and 8 pages of large flashcards to cut out, 12 to a page. Print on card stock if you can.
More sight word lists
See every list, the 1,000 most common words and how sight words fit with phonics on the sight words page. For the skills around this list, see the kindergarten page and the matching phonics: short vowels.
Last reviewed: November 11, 2026
Questions parents ask
How many Dolch nouns are there?
95 nouns, from apple, baby and back to window, wind and wood.
What grade are the Dolch nouns for?
They're usually taught alongside the grade lists from kindergarten to 3rd grade.
Why are the nouns a separate list?
Dolch felt nouns were easier to learn from pictures and context, so he kept them apart from the 220 service words.
How many Dolch words are there in total?
220 words across the five grade lists, plus these 95 nouns: 315 in all.
Are the Dolch words still used?
Yes. Many US schools still use the Dolch lists, often alongside the Fry lists, to choose which common words to practice first.