Continuing the Pre-K progression
List 3 continues from List 2, covering the next batch of Pre-K's sight words. By this point in the sequence, a child has usually built real momentum and familiarity with the overall pattern of practicing a new small batch at a time.
What the Pre-K list is building toward
The Dolch Pre-Primer list is the very first set of sight words most reading programs introduce, and it's deliberately made up of words a beginning reader can't easily sound out phonetically — words like "the," "was," and "said" don't follow regular spelling patterns, so they're taught by sight instead. These 40 words also happen to make up a huge share of the words in beginning picture books, so recognizing them instantly gives an early reader a real head start on actually reading whole sentences rather than sounding out every word one letter at a time.
Using this worksheet effectively
Occasionally revisiting List 1 and List 2 alongside this one helps confirm earlier words are staying solid, not just the newest ones. Every worksheet here downloads as a free, print-ready PDF with no account required.