Dolch nouns sight word bingo cards
Dolch nouns: 95 nouns, which Dolch published as a separate list. A 5x5 card with a free center shows 24 of them (card 1 starts with "apple", "kitty" and "sun"), so a class of 30 gets 30 different cards; 36 words have 4 letters and 13 start with the letter B.
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
apple | kitty | sun | chicken | brother |
way | fish | cow | shoe | top |
watch | ring | FREE | toy | house |
door | milk | Christmas | flower | party |
grass | seed | garden | children | box |
Free: up to 30 different cards per set. Pro: up to 1,000.
Free sets stop at 30 different cards. Your 30 cards are ready to print or download now.
Pro ($19 one-time) opens soon: up to 1,000 different cards per set and 2 or 4 cards on a PDF page. No payment is taken now.
Edit words (95)
Cards update as you type. Long entries shrink to fit their square; a very long single word is split over two lines with a hyphen (up to 40 characters each). The PDF uses a built-in font: emoji and non-Latin scripts print best with Print cards.
Caller sheet
Every call in a shuffled order. Tick each one as you read it out; the same share link always gives the same order.
Updated
About this list: Dolch nouns
Dolch nouns is the full set of 95 Dolch nouns. Its 95 words average 4.7 letters, from "bed" to "Santa Claus", and 3 of them start with a vowel.
Dolch published the 95 nouns as a separate list without a grade level.
Source: Dolch's published lists, 220 service words and 95 nouns (Dolch, E. W. "A Basic Sight Vocabulary." The Elementary School Journal 36(6), 1936, pp. 456-460; Dolch, E. W. Problems in Reading. Garrard Press, 1948). The words are taken from revision 1094285022 (June 21, 2022) of the Wikipedia "Dolch word list" article, checked against those published totals on 2026-10-23.
All 95 words, A to Z
From "apple" to "wood", grouped by first letter (17 letters used); all 95 are loaded in the generator above.
- A: apple
- B: baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell, bird, birthday, boat, box, boy, bread, brother
- C: cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children, Christmas, coat, corn, cow
- D: day, dog, doll, door, duck
- E: egg, eye
- F: farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish, floor, flower
- G: game, garden, girl, good-bye, grass, ground
- H: hand, head, hill, home, horse, house
- K: kitty
- L: leg, letter
- M: man, men, milk, money, morning, mother
- N: name, nest, night
- P: paper, party, picture, pig
- R: rabbit, rain, ring, robin
- S: Santa Claus, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister, snow, song, squirrel, stick, street, sun
- T: table, thing, time, top, toy, tree
- W: watch, water, way, wind, window, wood
Word lengths in Dolch nouns
"bed" and 17 other 3-letter words are the easiest to spot; 36 of the 95 have 4 letters, and the longest, "Santa Claus", "Christmas", "squirrel" and "good-bye", are the ones to pre-teach.
| Letters | Words | Share | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 letters | 18 | 19% | bed, box, boy, car, cat, cow |
| 4 letters | 36 | 38% | baby, back, ball, bear, bell, bird |
| 5 letters | 19 | 20% | apple, bread, chair, floor, grass, horse |
| 6 letters | 12 | 13% | farmer, father, flower, garden, ground, letter |
| 7 letters | 4 | 4% | brother, chicken, morning, picture |
| 8 letters | 4 | 4% | birthday, children, good-bye, squirrel |
| 9 letters | 1 | 1% | Christmas |
| 11 letters | 1 | 1% | Santa Claus |
Most common first letters
"baby", "back", "ball" and "bear" all start with the letter B: call them far apart.
| First letter | Words | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| B | 13 | baby, back, ball, bear, bed, bell |
| S | 12 | Santa Claus, school, seed, sheep, shoe, sister |
| C | 10 | cake, car, cat, chair, chicken, children |
| F | 8 | farm, farmer, father, feet, fire, fish |
| G | 6 | game, garden, girl, good-bye, grass, ground |
| H | 6 | hand, head, hill, home, horse, house |
| M | 6 | man, men, milk, money, morning, mother |
| T | 6 | table, thing, time, top, toy, tree |
Dolch nouns sight word bingo at a glance
| Words | 95, from "apple" to "wood" in A-Z order |
|---|---|
| Grade | No grade level (often used Pre-K to Grade 3) |
| Card | 5x5 card with a free center: 24 of the 95 words |
| Different cards possible | about 1.21 × 10⁴⁶ (order matters) |
| Different word selections | about 1.96 × 10²² sets of 24 words |
| Average word length | 4.7 letters ("bed" to "Santa Claus") |
| Expected calls to fill one card | 92.2 of 95 |
Overlap with other lists
"apple" and 94 more of these words also appear in Complete Dolch list (220 words and 95 nouns). Every list that shares words with this one, largest share first:
| List | Shared words | Share of these 95 | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complete Dolch list (220 words and 95 nouns) | 95 | 100% | apple, baby, back, ball, bear |
| Dolch nouns: people, body and animals | 34 | 36% | baby, back, bear, bird, boy |
| Dolch nouns: home, food and toys | 34 | 36% | apple, ball, bed, bell, boat |
| Dolch nouns: nature, places and time | 27 | 28% | birthday, Christmas, day, farm, fire |
How long a round takes
150 shuffled orders of the 95 words, played on this set's first 30 cards. With 20 children the first line usually comes on call 28 ("birthday" in this set's order), about 7 minutes at one word every 15 seconds.
| Class size | First line (median) | First line, 80% of games | First full card (median) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 children | 33 calls | 25-42 | 87 calls |
| 20 children | 28 calls | 20-36 | 85 calls |
| 30 children | 26 calls | 18-33 | 83 calls |
How to play Dolch nouns sight word bingo
-
Pre-teach the long words
Read "Santa Claus", "Christmas", "squirrel" and "good-bye" together before the game; they are the longest of the 95.
-
Print one card per child
Card 1 starts with "apple", "kitty", "sun", "chicken" and "brother"; every other card mixes the 95 words differently, so no two children share a card.
-
Call, say and use each word
Say "garden", use it in a short sentence, then spell it if needed; this set continues with "children", "street", "home" and "door".
-
Check the winning line
With these calls, card 1 wins first on call 25 with the diagonal from the top right: "brother", "shoe", "milk" and "grass". Ask the winner to read the words back.
-
Review the words that were not called
When card 1 wins on call 25, 70 words are still uncalled, such as "baby", "bed" and "birthday"; read them together or put them on the next review list. 3 of the 95 start with a vowel ("apple", "egg" and "eye").
Other sight word lists
Most shared words
Frequently asked questions
How many words are in Dolch nouns?
95 nouns, no grade level, from "apple" to "wood". Each card uses 24, so 71 stay off every card; the shortest word is "bed" and the longest is "Santa Claus".
Are all Dolch nouns sight word bingo cards the same?
No. About 1.21 × 10⁴⁶ different cards are possible (about 1.96 × 10²² different selections of 24 words). Card 1 and card 2 of this set share 9 of their 24 words, and no card repeats inside one set.
How long does a round of Dolch nouns sight word bingo take?
With 20 children, Dolch nouns sight word bingo reaches its first line after about 28 calls (20-36 in 80% of simulated games), roughly 7 minutes at one word every 15 seconds; a full card takes about 85 of the 95 calls.
Can I print Dolch nouns sight word bingo cards for a whole class for free?
Yes. A free set prints up to 30 different cards from the 95 words, one per child for a class of 30: Print cards sends them to your printer and Download PDF saves one card per page (30 pages plus the caller sheet). With 30 children the first line comes after about 26 calls, with 10 after about 33.
Can I mix Dolch nouns with another list?
Yes: paste both lists into the generator and duplicates are removed automatically. Complete Dolch list (220 words and 95 nouns) is the closest match: it shares 95 of these 95 words (100%) and adds 220 new words, for 315 in total.
Related
More sight word lists
Bingo ideas for Pre-K to Grade 3
- ESL bingo ideas 127 themes to pair with Dolch nouns