What is on this flashcards
Grade 2 is the first Dolch list where the words get physically longer. Because, before, around and always all carry two syllables, and a child who has only met short words can stall on them simply because of length. The list also groups three words that behave alike in their, these and those, and it introduces the only contraction in the whole Dolch collection, don't. Words for describing arrive here too, including cold, fast, green and best.
How to use it
Print the 46 Grade 2 sight word card sheets and cut along the lines. Perfect for independent reading practice and word memory games.
Three ways to practice
Break the long words into chunks
Cover half of because so only be shows, read it, then reveal cause and put the two together. Do the same with be-fore, a-round and al-ways. Children who freeze at a long word are usually reacting to its length rather than its difficulty, and chunking removes that hurdle in a few seconds.
Point with their, these and those
Hold up these and those and use them with real objects at different distances: these shoes here, those shoes over there. The two words are almost impossible to define but instantly clear when the child is pointing, and separating them physically stops the two from blurring together.
Ask questions with why and which
Use why, which and does to build genuine questions about something your child cares about: which one do you want, why does it work. Question words are used constantly in classroom instructions, so reading them without hesitating pays off well beyond this list.
A tip worth knowing
Focus on multi syllable words like because and before. Break them into smaller sound chunks if needed.
Printing this sheet
Press Print this sheet and only the cards reach the paper, with the site menus and buttons stripped out. Cards print twelve to a page with dashed cut lines, so the 46 cards in this Grade 2 pack come out on 4 sheets. The layout fills either US Letter or A4 in portrait, meaning the same file works on both paper sizes without resizing or scaling. Ordinary paper is fine for a deck you expect to replace, while 65lb cardstock or a pass through a laminator gives cards that survive a term in a classroom center.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this list feel harder than the earlier ones?
Length is the main reason. Up to now nearly every Dolch word has been three or four letters, and because is seven. The words themselves are not more irregular than before, so a child who has managed the earlier lists can manage these once they stop being thrown by the size of the word.
Should my child be spelling these words as well as reading them?
Reading comes first. Recognizing a word on sight and writing it from memory are different skills, and reading is the one that unlocks books. Spelling these words usually follows during second and third grade, and pushing for it too early tends to slow the reading practice down for no real gain.
How should we handle don't, the only word with an apostrophe?
Treat it as one word rather than a puzzle. Point out once that it is a short way of writing do not and that the apostrophe stands in for the missing o, then move on. It is worth a single explanation because contractions are everywhere in the books a second grader reads.