8 FREE Sight Word Coloring Pages for Early Readers

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Being able to instantly identify and read high-frequency words can help improve your child’s reading fluency and comprehension. These FREE sight word coloring pages are a fun way to get in some extra practice!

When we first began homeschooling, a worry of mine was teaching my kids to read. Algebra and Calculus? Bring it on. But reading? I had never taught anyone to read before, and wasn’t sure where to start.

Luckily, a friend shared a great curriculum with me, and I’ve used it with all of my kids so far. It has given us a great base in the phonetic structure of words, and has also helped my kids learn which words they can’t sound out because they don’t follow the “rules”.

Memorizing rule-breaking words like this is important for kids as they move towards becoming fluent in their reading. Even if they can sound out a word, being able to simply recognize that word on sight will help improve their overall reading and comprehension ability.

If you’re looking for some sight word activities to help your kids instantly identify and read high-frequency words, add these sight word coloring pages to your arsenal!

What Are Sight Words?

A “sight word” is really any word that you can read immediately. If you are a fluent reader, most of the words in this post are probably sight words for you because you immediately recognize them and don’t have to stop and sound them out.

Sight word lists are common resources parents might use to find words to practice with their kids, or have them memorize. Once a word becomes a “sight word” for your kids, reading is so much easier because no effort has to be given to decode a word. Fluency improves, and so does overall reading comprehension.

You may have heard of both Dolch and Fry sight words lists. These are lists of words that have a high frequency in written material, so they are words that we might want to become more automatic for our kids to recognize.

The Dolch list was developed in the 1930’s by Dr. Edward William Dolch, who studied the most frequently occurring words in kids books at that time. The Fry list is more modern, and contains 1000 words grouped by frequency in sets of 100 (so the first 100 on the list are the 100 most frequently occurring words).

Many of the words on these lists could be sounded out phonetically, but I think it’s important to work on practicing high-frequency words until they get to that point of automaticity. Just like we practice addition and subtraction facts with our kids so they can more easily do higher level math problems, having more words committed to memory (or being able to read them immediately) will help our kids with their reading as they grow.

Using the Sight Word Coloring Pages

These sight word coloring pages are a great way to get in that extra practice, make learning fun, and break out of the boredom of flashcards!

There are a total of 8 pages, and include 52 words. I used a mixture from both Dolch’s 1st grade list and Fry’s 1-100 words for these sight word coloring pages. While they’re great for first grade students, you can really use them with any child who is ready for them.

Each picture has a school supply theme, and a color key for each word at the top.

My sight word coloring sheets are great for reviewing high-frequency words during the homeschool year, or even as extra practice for young children over the summer. Simply print them out, grab a box of crayons or markers, and you’re ready to go!

For Extra Sight Word Practice

Some kids will quickly add more sight words to their personal inventory, while others will take more time. Every child is different! Just be consistent and keep practicing.

Here are some other ways you can work on sight words with your kids using the words from my printable, or any other common words you’d like to practice:

• Begin by working on one Color by Sight Word sheet a week and focus on those specific words for the week.
• Create flash cards for the sight words you are working on that week. Practice having your kids read the word and then spell it back to you. You might also have them write it down (will count as handwriting practice, too!), or see if they can write down the word as you say it (without seeing the flashcard).
• Write out some simple sentences with blanks, and have your kids choose which sight word fits best.
• Read sight word books.
• Go on a sight word scavenger hunt! Give your kids an old magazine and have them search it for sight words. Let them highlight or circle the words they find.
• Play sight word games. I share a lot of great options in this post: 15 Ways to Help Your Kids Learn Sight Words.
• Play hangman with their sight words.

Free Color by Sight Word Printables

By helping your kids master high-frequency words, they’ll be on their way to improved fluency and reading comprehension!

Download these sight word coloring pages today by subscribing to my newsletter list below. Don’t worry – I won’t spam you, and you can unsubscribe anytime (but I hope you won’t!).

Enjoy practicing sight words with your kids – I hope this resource is a blessing to your homeschool!

What are some ways you have practiced sight words with your kids? What has worked well for you? Leave a comment below!

Related Posts

• 15 Ways to Help Your Kids Learn Sight Words
• Why Visual Perceptual Skills are Important for Your Kids
• Free Printable Game to Help Teach Your Kids Contractions

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