Sight Words All 3rd Grade Students Need to Know

A student that is well educated in sight words will have a much easier time not only reading any type of text, but also with spelling the sometimes tricky words. After all, many of the sight words can’t be deciphered using phonics skills. 

One of the toughest words for a child learning to read through decoding skills is the word “the”. It is a simple three-letter word. But you can’t break it apart through phonics. Students just have to learn to know it by sight. Same with the words are, they, said, again, and numerous more simply because the early phonics lessons don’t really pertain to these types of words. 

3rd Grade Sight Words

For students in 3rd grade, it would be wise to have a number of lessons dealing with sight words. Again, not just reading them, but spelling the words as well. 

In the past, the Dolch list was the primary sight words list that teachers had their students learning. But for the last several decades, there is a more up-to-date list for educators and children. 

Fry’s Instant Sight Words is a list of words created by Dr. Edward Fry in an effort to help students learn the most commonly used words in text. For instance, his research revealed that the first 25 words on this list make up one-third of all written material regardless if it is in textbooks, newspapers, novels, or comic books. 

The first 100 words on the Fry List make up half of all written material regardless of the age level of the text. Furthermore, the first 300 words make up 65 percent of all written material. 

As you can see, knowing the words on Fry’s Instant Sight Words list could be a game-changer for students that are struggling with their literacy skills. And there are plenty of ways on how to teach sight words. You are only limited by your creativity!

With that in mind, start with the first 300 words and once they are mastered, started adding another ten words a week. There are 1,000 total words on Fry’s Instant Sight Words list, so an educator can compose quite a number of lessons around this material. 

The First Hundred Words (Words 1-100) 

List 1	List 2	List 3	List 4
the	or	will	number
of	one	up	no
and	had	other	way
a	by	about	could
to	words	out	people
in	but	many	my
is	not	then	than
you	what	them	first
that	all	these	water
it	were	so	been
he	we	some	called
was	when	her	who
for	your	would	am
on	can	make	its
are	said	like	now
as	there	him	find
with	use	into	long
his	an	time	down
they	each	has	day
I	which	look	did
at	she	two	get
be	do	more	come
this	how	write	made
have	their	go	may
from	if	see	part

Second Hundred (Words 101 – 200) 

List 1	List 2	List 3	List 4
over	say	set	try
new	great	put	kind
sound	where	end	hand
take	help	does	picture
only	through	another	again
little	much	well	change
work	before	large	off
know	line	must	play
place	right	big	spell
years	too	even	air
live	means	such	away
me	old	because	animal
back	any	turn	house
give	same	here	point
most	tell	why	page
very	boy	ask	letter
after	follow	went	mother
things	came	men	answer
our	want	read	found
just	show	need	study
name	also	land	still
good	around	different	learn
sentence	form	home	should
man	three	us	America
think	small	move	world

Third Hundred (Words 201 – 300)

List 1	List 2	List 3	List 4
high	saw	important	miss
every	left	until	idea
near	don’t	children	enough
add	few	side	eat
food	while	feet	face
between	along	car	watch
own	might	mile	far
below	close	night	Indian
country	something	walk	real
plant	seem	white	almost
last	next	sea	let
school	hard	began	above
father	open	grow	girl
keep	example	took	sometimes
tree	begin	river	mountains
never	life	four	cut
start	always	carry	young
city	those	state	talk
earth	both	once	soon
eyes	paper	book	list
light	together	hear	song
thought	got	stop	being
head	group	without	leave
under	often	second	family
story	run	late	it’s

Put the New Vocabulary to Work

Make certain the students are using the new words they are learning. This can be done by giving them extra reading time every day and having them write their own stories as well.

LightSail is a comprehensive online literacy platform that enables students instant access to thousands of books. But that is not all! LightSail also allows students to publish their own writing on the LightSail platform for all to read. In fact, educators can create lessons through LightSail where they assign individual books to read for their students and then can have the students publish their summary of the book, too. With all of the extra sight words they are learning, this is the perfect opportunity for them to put their new literacy skills to the test.