Third Grade Sight Words
The last Dolch level: 41 words — about, better, bring, carry, laugh, light, together — that complete the full 220. After this, sight word work ends and word-part work begins. Print the cards; the notes cover the handoff.
Third Grade Sight Words — Dolch Third Grade (41 words)
The end of one list, the start of another kind
The third-grade Dolch words — about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm — are noticeably more word-like than the primer list. Most are one and two syllables with regular spellings; several (draw, pick, hot, ten) are frankly decodable. That is not a flaw: by third grade, the strategy is morphing from memorize-the-word to read-the-word-parts, and these words are the transition material.
Finishing all 220 Dolch words closes the early-reading chapter. What replaces the list is bigger and never ends: multi-syllable decoding, prefixes and suffixes, and the content vocabulary of science and social studies, where third graders officially cross from learning-to-read to reading-to-learn. If a third grader still has holes in the earlier lists, close those first — the 220 are load-bearing.
Teaching tips
Sort by syllables, not alphabet
Third grade words reward chunking: to-geth-er, my-self, laugh is one beat. Sorting the cards by syllable count is a five-minute activity that teaches the decoding habit that replaces sight words.
Hunt prefixes and suffixes
myself (my + self), together, "hotter" thinking with the -er from this list's better. Word parts generalize; whole-word memory does not. This is the pivot year.
Close holes in earlier lists first
A shaky primer word hurts a third grader more than a missing one here — earlier words are higher-frequency. Re-run the K and 1st card piles once as a diagnostic before drilling this list.
Read-to-learn is the new game
After Dolch ends, vocabulary grows from content: science units, social studies chapters. Keep a personal word wall for those — the sight word habit transfers directly.
Frequently asked questions
How many Dolch sight words are there in total?
220 across five levels: 40 pre-primer, 52 primer, 41 first grade, 46 second grade and 41 third grade. Finishing the list is the end of formal sight word instruction — from here, word parts and content vocabulary take over.
What are the third grade Dolch words?
The 41 words on this sheet: about, better, bring, carry, clean, cut, done, draw, drink, eight, fall, far, full, got, grow, hold, hot, hurt, if, keep, kind, laugh, light, long, much, myself, never, only, own, pick, seven, shall, show, six, small, start, ten, today, together, try, warm.
What comes after the 220 Dolch words?
The Fry lists continue (third hundred through ninth hundred), but the real third-grade shift is structural: decoding multi-syllable words, prefixes and suffixes, and absorbing vocabulary from science and social studies reading.
Why do some third grade words look easy to sound out?
Because they are — draw, hot, ten follow the phonics patterns third graders have mastered. Later Dolch levels include plenty of decodable words; by this point the strategy is shifting from whole-word memory to word-part reading, and the easy words are the bridge.