Teaching With Terhune: SIGHT WORD FLASH CARDS FOR FRY WORD LISTS 100-600

What are Fry Sight Words?

In 1996, Dr. Edward Fry compiled a list of 1,000 “Instant Words.” These words, often referred to as the “Fry Sight Words,” are the most common words used in the English language. His list of words are arranged in the order of frequency in which they occur in printed material. They are also broken up into 10 groups. The first group contains the first 100 most common words, the second group contains the next 100 most common words and so on. Students who have mastered all 10 Fry lists will know 90% of all words they encounter in reading and writing.

It is recommended that:

The First 100 words be mastered by Grade 1.
The Second 100 words be mastered by Grade 2.
The Third 100 words be mastered by Grade 3.
The remaining lists be mastered in Fourth & Fifth Grades.

*Often kindergarten teachers will focus on the first 25 to 50 words.

Fry Words vs. Dolch Words

The Fry sight word lists are an expanded, updated list of sight words compared to the Dolch list of 220 sight words. The Dolch list of words was compiled by Edward Dolch in 1936 and has not been modified since.

Why are Sight Words Important?

Many of the sight words found on the Dolch and Fry lists do not follow the basic phonics principles, thus they cannot be “sounded out.” They are often also difficult to illustrate, so children can’t use illustrations in picture books to read these words. They are called “sight” words because the goal is for children to recognize these words instantly, at first sight.

Once children have learned and memorized these basic sight words, they read more fluently. They might also have:

MORE READING CONFIDENCE – since the first 100 sight words represent over 50% of text, a child who has mastered the list of sight words can already recognize at least half of a sentence. If a child begins to read a book and can already recognize half of the words, chances are they won’t feel discouraged.

BETTER READING COMPREHENSION – sight word mastery also helps promote good reading comprehension. Children will be able to concentrate more on what the text means instead of decoding the words.

Practicing Sight Words

Since sight words are a great way for students to begin building and improving their reading fluency I have many different sight word activities I like for my students to do. One of my literacy centers is dedicated to sight word practice. It might include a game, worksheet, or just these simple flash cards.

I made these color coded flash cards that align to Dr. Edward Fry’s Instant Word Lists 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600.

Each flash card set is color coded based on the Fry word list that it contains.

For example:

Yellow Set: 1st 100 Fry Words

Green Set: 2nd 100 Fry Words

Orange Set: 3rd 100 Fry Words

Blue Set: 4th 100 Fry Words

Pink Set: 5th 100 Fry Words

Purple Set: 6th 100 Fry Words

I start my first graders off with set 1. Some of my students continue to progress through the different sets throughout the school year.

There are so many different ways you can use these sight word sets in your classroom besides just at a literacy center…

you can use them as whole group practice during bathroom breaks, when there is extra class time, etc.
at guided reading groups
as a partner practice activity
in an early finisher tub
with students that need one-on-one help and/or RTI Interventions
these cards can also be easily sent home as homework or during the summer months for students to practice their sight words with.
....and so much more!

Place them in tubs or hang them up in your classroom with hooks!

They are simple to put together. Simply print, laminate, cut, hole punch, and attach the cards together using a book ring.

Sight Word Flash Cards and Sight Word Phrases and Short Sentences Flash Cards

Once I see my students mastering a set of sight word flash cards I like to step up their practice and include these sight word phrases and short sentences flash cards.

Each set of cards include either a phrase or a short sentence using the words from that Fry word list.

Many of the words are used multiple times in different sentences, which makes for great repeated practice.

The flash card sets also build on each other. For example, the green set (set 2) has words from the 1st and 2nd list of Fry sight words. The orange set (set 3) has words from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd list of sight words and so on.

You can read more about these flash cards by clicking HERE.