Sight words make up roughly 50 to 75 percent of all written English. Let that sink in for a moment — more than half of every page your child will ever read is built from a relatively small pool of words. If your child can recognise these words instantly, without pausing to sound them out, reading fluency improves dramatically. I noticed this firsthand when my daughter started K2: the moment "the", "and", "is" stopped tripping her up, whole sentences just clicked. This guide gives you complete sight word lists for K1 and K2 levels, explains how they fit into the Singapore curriculum, and shares practical strategies we have actually tried at home.

TL;DR: Complete sight word lists for K1 and K2 in Singapore. Includes the most common words, practice strategies, and how to build reading fluency at home.

What Are Sight Words?

Sight words are common English words that children learn to recognise on sight — instantly, without decoding. They fall into two categories:

1. Irregular words that do not follow standard phonics rules:

• "the" (you cannot sound out t-h-e and get "the")
• "said" (s-a-i-d does not produce "sed")
• "was", "one", "come", "have", "does"

These must be memorised because phonics alone cannot decode them.

2. High-frequency regular words that appear so often that instant recognition speeds up reading:

• "and", "is", "in", "it", "can", "not"

These can be decoded with phonics, but recognising them instantly saves cognitive effort. Instead of sounding out every single word on a page, your child can focus mental energy on understanding what they are reading. That shift — from decoding to comprehending — is where real reading begins.

Sight Words in the Singapore Curriculum

Here is something many parents do not realise: the MOE does not publish an official sight word list. There is no government-mandated set of words. Instead, most Singapore kindergartens draw from two well-established sources:

The Dolch Sight Word List — 220 words compiled by Edward William Dolch in the 1930s-40s, still widely used today. Organised into levels from Pre-Primer to Third Grade.

The Fry Sight Word List — 1,000 words compiled by Edward Fry in the 1950s (updated in 1980), organised by frequency. The first 100 Fry words alone account for approximately 50% of all written English.

Most Singapore kindergartens pick a subset of these lists appropriate for K1 and K2 levels, sometimes adding words relevant to local context (like "Singapore" or even "kopitiam"). So if your child's school list looks slightly different from what you see here, that is completely normal.

K1 Sight Words (Age 5)

The following 50 words are commonly taught at the K1 level in Singapore kindergartens. I stuck the first 10 of these on our fridge door so my daughter would see them every morning at breakfast — you would be surprised how quickly they stick with zero formal drilling.

Your child should be able to read all 50 by the end of K1:

Core Words (25 most essential)

• I, a, the, is, it
• in, on, at, to, up
• and, can, go, no, my
• we, he, me, am, do
• see, like, big, not, you

Extended K1 Words (25 additional)

• she, was, for, are, this
• with, his, her, has, had
• but, all, they, will, that
• one, two, said, have, come
• here, look, play, good, want

How to Use This List

Do not try to teach all 50 words at once — that is a fast track to tears (yours and theirs). Introduce 3-5 new words per week while looping back to review what your child already knows. A reasonable pace that works well for most families:

• Term 1: Focus on the first 15 core words
• Term 2: Complete the core 25 words
• Term 3: Begin extended K1 words
• Term 4: Consolidate all 50 words

K2 Sight Words (Age 6)

By K2, your child should know the 50 K1 words plus these additional 50 words. That brings the total to approximately 100 sight words by the end of K2 — which sounds like a lot until you realise many of them your child will pick up just from reading books together.

K2 Words (50 additional)

• an, as, be, by, if
• or, so, us, did, get
• him, let, may, new, now
• old, out, put, ran, run
• say, too, eat, who, why
• just, then, when, them, than
• very, some, what, were, been
• from, down, into, your, over
• much, many, only, also, made
• help, long, each, time, been

High-Frequency Phrases

Once your child knows individual sight words, the next step is getting comfortable with them in phrases. We turned this into a game at dinner — I would say a phrase and my daughter had to point to each word on a card. Simple, but she loved it.

• "I can see"
• "It is a"
• "He is in the"
• "She can go to"
• "They want to play"
• "I like to go to the"
• "We can see a big"
• "He said he will come"

Reading words in context — in phrases and sentences, not just isolation — is just as important as flashcard recognition. A child who can read "the" on a card but freezes when it appears mid-sentence has not truly mastered it yet.

8 Strategies to Teach Sight Words (Beyond Flashcards)

1. Read, Read, Read

Honestly, nothing beats this. Read with your child every day and point to words as you go. When you hit a sight word they are learning, pause and let them read it. Books do in ten minutes what drills take an hour to accomplish.

2. Word Wall

Create a "word wall" in your child's study area or bedroom. Write each sight word on a card and stick them up. Add new words as they are learned and review the wall together regularly. It sounds old-school, but there is something about seeing words displayed at eye level every day that makes them stick.

3. Rainbow Writing

Your child writes each sight word multiple times in different colours, tracing over the same word again and again. This combines visual and motor memory — two channels are better than one.

4. Sight Word Bingo

Make bingo cards with sight words. Call out words and your child marks them off. Got siblings or cousins visiting? This is instantly a group activity. Louder than flashcards, ten times more engaging.

5. Memory Match

Create pairs of sight word cards. Lay them face-down and play memory (concentration). The rule: when your child flips a card, they must read the word aloud before searching for the match. No reading, no keeping the pair.

6. Sentence Building

Give your child a set of sight word cards and ask them to build sentences. "Can you make a sentence using 'the', 'is', and 'big'?" This pushes beyond passive recognition into active use — a completely different cognitive skill.

7. Sight Word Hopscotch

Write sight words in chalk on the ground (or tape paper squares to the floor). Your child reads each word as they hop on it. Physical movement reinforces memory, and it gets them off the chair after a long school day.

8. Digital Practice with QuizKin

QuizKin includes sight word quizzes that adapt to your child's level. Words your child gets wrong appear more frequently until they are mastered. Questions are read aloud so your child hears and sees each word simultaneously, reinforcing the connection between written and spoken form. Progress is tracked automatically, so you can see at a glance which words still need work — no manual record-keeping required.

Common Challenges and Solutions

"My child can read sight words on flashcards but not in books"

This is called decontextualisation. Your child has memorised the card, not the word itself. The fix: always practise sight words in context — in sentences, in actual books, on signs, on menus. The word "the" looks different on a flashcard versus squeezed between two other words in a sentence, and your child needs reps with both.

"My child reads 'saw' as 'was' (or similar reversals)"

This is common in K1-K2 and not necessarily a red flag. Reversals are developmentally normal until around age 7. When the confusion happens, cover the word and reveal it one letter at a time, left to right. Say the sounds as each letter appears. You are building the habit of reading left to right, which is the real issue.

"My child loses interest after 2 minutes"

Short attention spans are completely normal for 4-6 year olds — you are not doing anything wrong. Keep sessions to 5-10 minutes maximum. Use games, not drills. And always end on a success: finish with a word they know well so they walk away feeling capable, not frustrated.

"Some words are just impossible for my child"

Some sight words are genuinely harder because they look similar ("was/saw", "on/no", "then/them") or sound irregular ("said", "does"). For these, put them in a dedicated "tricky words" pile and tackle them separately with extra repetition. Acknowledge to your child that yes, these words are tricky — it is not that they are slow, it is that the words themselves are strange.

How Sight Words and Phonics Work Together

A question I hear a lot from parents: should I focus on phonics or sight words? The answer is both, and here is why they are not competing approaches — they are two different tools for two different jobs.

• Phonics is the strategy for decoding new, unfamiliar words by sounding them out
• Sight words are the shortcut for the most common words, eliminating the need to decode them every single time

Think about a sentence like "The cat sat on the mat":

• "The" is a sight word (irregular, must be memorised)
• "cat", "sat", "mat" can be decoded with phonics (c-a-t, s-a-t, m-a-t)
• "on" is both a sight word and phonically regular

When your child has both tools available, reading fluency takes off. Phonics gives them independence with unfamiliar words. Sight words give them speed with common words. You need both for the whole system to work.

Tracking Progress

A simple traffic light system works well for monitoring which words your child has actually mastered versus which ones still need work:

• Green: Reads instantly (under 3 seconds) on 3 separate occasions
• Yellow: Reads correctly but slowly, or reads correctly some of the time
• Red: Cannot read, or consistently confuses with another word

Spend the most time on yellow words — these are on the verge of mastery and will respond quickly to a few more practice sessions. Red words need more intensive work with the strategies above. Do not just skip them and hope they sort themselves out.

QuizKin's parent dashboard tracks exactly this, showing which sight words your child has mastered, which are in progress, and which need more practice — without requiring you to maintain a spreadsheet yourself.

Summary

Sight words are the building blocks of reading fluency. By the end of K2, your child should recognise approximately 100 high-frequency words instantly. Mix flashcard-style practice with reading in context, games, writing, and daily read-alouds. Keep sessions short, frequent, and — if you can manage it — fun. Five minutes every day beats 30 minutes once a week, every single time.

For more ideas on incorporating sight word practice into play, see our 15 fun learning activities for preschoolers at home.

Sources

• Dolch Sight Words List — comprehensive reference for the 220 Dolch service words, compiled by Dr. Edward William Dolch
• Fry Sight Words List — the 1,000 Fry Instant Words organised by frequency, developed by Dr. Edward Fry
• Nurturing Early Learners (NEL) Framework — Ministry of Education, Singapore

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