Dolch Word Games

Invented in 1948 by Dr. Edward W. Dolch, the Dolch Word List is a collection of 325 words that must be easily recognized in order to be fluent in the reading of English. Dolch compiled his list of 95 nouns and 220 “service words” by looking at words commonly found in children’s literature of the time. The idea behind this word list is to establish a list of words that children should be familiar with by the end of first grade if they want to be on track to become fluent readers and speakers of English.

The Dolch words are difficult in that they can’t be sounded out, and must instead be recognized by sight and memorized. That makes these words more difficult than other words that children can pick apart by their sounds. To make this list of words easier, word games have been invented.

Dolch Word Bingo

Since the purpose of Dolch word games is to make children familiar with the appearance of words, a bingo style game is a natural fit. Take a piece of paper and separate it into an even number of squares. In each square, place one of the Dolch words from the list your are teaching to students. Call out the Dolch words one by one, asking students to cover the word if it is on their card, bingo-style. As children become more familiar with the way the words look, they’ll learn the Dolch words while playing the game.

Online Dolch Word Games

My favorite way to teach kids the Dolch word list is by using free online word games built off the Dolch word list. An example of these games can be found here. I like to use these games to teach the Dolch words because it also teaches kids to use the Internet and computers at the same time. Another advantage of a game like the one linked above is that it uses sound and sight to teach the words, unlike worksheets which just use sight.

Dolch Flash Cards

Using flash cards to learn is an old trick I picked up in middle school that stayed with me all through college and grad school. Flash cards are portable, easy to create, and a wonderful teaching tool if used properly. Dolch word lists lend themselves to flash cards because there’s very little information needed to teach, just the word itself. Since there are just over 300 Dolch words, including the less common noun list, you can go a little overboard with the flash cards. Better to break the words up into groups, or just teach a certain list based on a student’s grade level.

The Dolch word list is a great way to find out what level a student’s reading ability is at and to reinforce reading ability. Using games rather than rote memorization keeps the work light-hearted and fun. Teaching through games is great because students may not even realize that they’re learning. A good resource for further information is the book A Funny Dolch Word Book #1 : Stories, Poems, Word Search Puzzles.