Fry Word Checklists

Use these Fry Word checklists to assess student sight word mastery in your classroom.

These Fry Word checklists will make tracking sight word mastery easier in your classroom.

If you are new to sight word instruction in your classroom, begin by reading about What Sight Words Are & Why Sight Word Instruction is Important. You will also be able to learn about the difference between Fry Words and Dolch Words.

If you have decided on a Fry Word focus for your sight word instruction, the checklists found below will help you in tracking growth.

How do I get started?

First, it is important to know the general breakdown for which sight words should be mastered in each grade level:

Kindergarten Sight Words	Fry Words 1 – 50
1st Grade Sight Words	Fry Words 1 – 100
2nd Grade Sight Words	Fry Words 101 – 200
3rd Grade Sight Words	Fry Words 201 – 300
4th – 5th Grade Sight Words	Fry Words 301 – 1,000

For most students, you would begin assessing children on the word list you would like them to master by the end of the year.

Many kindergarten teachers will not begin the year by checking sight word mastery. Instead, they might do a check on letter and number ID. It is possible you have a child who is already reading and you are curious how many words they know. You might decide to test just this child for your own documentation.

In first grade, many will begin by checking the first 100 words. In 2nd grade, many will begin by checking the second 200 words.

Completing a Check

While it might be important that you are checking sight word mastery in order to gather data and then be able to document growth. You do not want a sight word check to become a point of frustration for any child.

Some teachers feel that is important to have a child attempt every word on the list you are checking. I always felt like this could really crush a child’s confidence.

If you are working with a second grader who can’t read the first 10 words on the 2nd word list, imagine how they are going to feel struggling through all 100 words. Instead of pushing through the list, I will pull out the 1st word list. If a child is still struggling, I try to get through the first column on the list as my starting point.

In cases when I was working with a second grader who couldn’t read Fry Words 1 – 10, I would try to take a moment to find a few words that the child could read. I might write the word red in a red marker or the child’s name. I never wanted to end an assessment with a child feeling like they were not capable

The checklists I have created have all 1,000 Fry Words.

While many children working beyond the 3rd or 4th Fry list will not be completing Fry Word checks, I wanted to provide a full set. I do know that sometimes the additional lists can be helpful for students learning English.

I’ve also had students in the past who were already excellent readers but wanted to have their own set of sight words to work on. They were incredibly motivated to work on lists beyond what was expected in 2nd grade.

Each list of 100 words is divided into groups of 25. You will have four columns at the top so you can track the date you are assessing.

At the beginning of the year I would sit with my kids and have them work through the appropriate list with me. I would place a check mark next to each word they knew. I liked a check mark for correct words instead of an x for incorrect words but that is up to you.

For my kids who mastering sight words was a focus, I would do quick checks every week to track growth.

These were not always formal checks – sometimes they would happen at the door as students entered the classroom or during lunch in the classroom. This doesn’t mean that I checked an entire list of 100 words each week. If I knew that the week before a child had focused on a group of words, we would just go over that section. I realize that squeezing in this extra time can be a challenge!

You can download these Fry Word Checklists here:

Word Checks for Sight Words

You might also be interested in our Fry Word Lists & Checkboxes.