Word List
2nd Grade Sight Words
Fry words 101 to 200, sorted for a second grader: by the end of the year 78 of them follow patterns your child has been taught, and only 22 have to be learned by heart.
How many sight words should a second grader know?
The sources this site relies on give no second-grade number. Reading researcher Timothy Shanahan’s recommendation, in Sight Words for Kindergarten? Yes, But Not Too Many, stops at the 100 most frequent words by the end of first grade, which the kindergarten and 1st grade pages cover. He puts the 300 most frequent words at about three-quarters of the words a child meets in any text, so the words after the first hundred still repay the practice.
Treat this page as the next hundred to work through, not a target your child is behind on. How to teach sight words covers the routine.
Why these 100 words?
They are words 101 to 200 on the Fry list, Edward Fry’s ranking of the most common words in English. Fry did not assign grades, so giving the second hundred to second grade is our choice. Of the 100, 63 are also on the Dolch list.
Which of these words can your child sound out?
All but 22 of the 100 follow patterns taught by the end of second grade. That covers every pattern on these lists, so all 78 are reading practice, and the 22 heart words are where the repetition goes.
What if your school uses the Dolch list?
Every Dolch word is sorted too. The Dolch sight words page splits all 220, level by level, into the words to sound out and the heart words, with worksheets for each.
Which 2nd grade sight words can your child sound out?
All but 22 of the 100 follow patterns taught by the end of second grade, from two vowels that make one sound (need, play, right) and ou and ow (sound, found, house) to a vowel followed by r (turn, large) and longer words read one syllable at a time (an-i-mal, dif-fer-ent). Treat these 78 as reading practice: sound them out rather than memorizing them.
The 2nd grade spelling list practises the same patterns from the spelling side, with worksheets for each. On the sound boxes sheet, your child says each word and writes one spelling for each sound, so three fills three boxes.
- over
- new
- sound
- take
- little
- know
- place
- year
- me
- back
- most
- very
- after
- thing
- our
- just
- name
- good
- sentence
- man
- think
- say
- help
- much
- before
- line
- right
- too
- mean
- old
- same
- tell
- boy
- follow
- came
- show
- also
- around
- form
- three
- small
- set
- end
- well
- large
- must
- big
- even
- such
- turn
- here
- why
- ask
- went
- men
- read
- need
- land
- different
- home
- us
- try
- kind
- hand
- off
- play
- spell
- air
- away
- animal
- house
- point
- page
- letter
- found
- study
- still
- America
Printables for 2nd Grade Sight Words to Sound Out
- 2nd Grade Sight Words to Sound Out: Word Cards (PDF)40 cards · 4 pages
- 2nd Grade Sight Words to Sound Out: Sound Boxes (PDF)20 words · answer key included · 4 pages
- 2nd Grade Sight Words to Sound Out: Handwriting Practice (PDF)16 words · 2 pages
- 2nd Grade Sight Words to Sound Out: Read, Write, Match (PDF)4 words · answer key included · 2 pages
- 2nd Grade Sight Words to Sound Out: Sentence Completion (PDF)12 sentences · answer key included · 4 pages
Which 2nd grade sight words have to be learned by heart?
These 22 are heart words, words that break the usual spelling patterns and need to be learned by heart.
- only
- work
- live
- give
- great
- where
- through
- any
- want
- put
- does
- another
- because
- move
- picture
- again
- change
- mother
- answer
- learn
- should
- world