According to sightwordsgame.com, there are ten words which make up 25% of the Oxford English Language. These words are found in high frequency in texts. The ten words are the, be, to, of, and, a, in, that, have, and I. This checklist of common sight words is a good start to building reading skills for kindergarten students. After time, students will automatically know these words and will be able to expand on them.
In the 1940's, Dr. Dolch created a sight word list defining the most common words and nouns in books read by children. It is a good reference for teachers and parents to build identification of words to improve reading skills and comprehension. At K12reader.com, you can find word lists broken down by grade, frequency, or alphabetically. Words on the list pertaining to kindergarten students include, what, was, there, can, am, went, and who.
In the 1990's, Dr. Edward Fry expanded on Dr. Dolch's sight word list to include more words. K-3 Teacher Resource website includes the list for Dr. Fry's sight words, which are divided into groups of the first hundred, second hundred and third hundred. Words in the first hundred include that, take, go, give, put, and said. In the second hundred, words listed are box, men, shall, and year. Finally, in the third hundred, sight words are more advanced, including every, jump, longer, second, and yesterday.
A kindergarten sight word list is posted on education.com website to assist teachers and parents with basic sight words for students. The list can be downloaded and cut out to make flash cards to help readers. Many of the sight words on the list can also be found on the Dolch and Fry sight word list. Words include me, my, so, up, for, do, have, and here. This list is a great start for students to learn how to identify words and read.