Sight word games for kids: Dolch lists and heart words
Peabody has 10 free games that ask sight words, including Deep Dig, Critter Farm and Dino Dash. It holds 220 sight words: the five Dolch lists, from pre-primer to third grade, plus heart words. Every answer is three boxes to tap. Free through the end of 2026, no sign-up.
| Game | Asks | From | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deep Dig | sight words | K | Read the word on the block to dig deeper. |
| Critter Farm | sight words | Pre-K | Plant, water and harvest by sounds and numbers. |
| Dino Dash | sight words | Pre-K | Hatch dinos, ride them through nine lands, chomp wrong eggs. |
| Astro Rescue | sight words | K | Jump through space and free the lost bots. |
| Temple Escape | sight words | Pre-K | Run eight temples on a companion you hatched, and take the arch with the right answer. |
| Cell Break | sight words | Pre-K | Dig out of jail: find letters, finish words, win your lunch. |
| Last Word | sight words | Pre-K | Give the zombies their words back. Survive the night. |
| Choose Your Own Adventure | sight words | K | Pick a story. Every choice changes how it ends. |
| Onslaught | sight words | K | Build a maze of towers. Hold back the Clankers! |
| Number Trails | sight words | K | Sail a map of numbers. Pick +10, ×2 or −1 to reach the treasure in the fewest moves! |
The arcade also has two action games with cartoon violence, Sniper and Doomcrawl. We leave them off these lists on purpose; every game is on the games page. A game's "From" grade is where it is made to start; its questions follow the grade a child says they are in.
Two word games sit outside the learning list: Word Rescue (catch falling letters to spell words from your story) and Word Blocks (hop on the word you hear).
Which grades work on sight words
The practice brain works on sight words for 1st grade and 2nd grade. It starts a child on the rung their grade puts them on, then moves up when answers are solid, so a child ahead of their grade is not held back.
The lists
| List | Words | A few of them |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-primer | 40 | the, and, a, to and I |
| Primer | 52 | all, am, are, at and ate |
| First grade | 41 | after, again, an, any and as |
| Second grade | 46 | always, around, because, been and before |
| Third grade | 41 | about, better, bring, carry and clean |
Peabody adds 133 heart words from the same lists, marked with the letters that do not sound out. See the kindergarten and first-grade sight words cheat sheet for the words themselves.
Other skills
- Counting games for kids
- Addition and subtraction games for kids
- Multiplication games for kids
- Number line and skip-counting games for kids
- Fraction and decimal games for kids
- Negative numbers and algebra games for kids
- Phonics games for kids
- Rhyming and first-sound games for kids
- Spelling games for kids
- Vocabulary games for kids
Questions parents ask
Do these games need typing?
No. Every answer is one of three big boxes, so a child who cannot type or read well yet can play, and a wrong answer costs a little time, never a life.
Do they ask the same questions every time?
No. Questions come from the same practice brain behind the lessons, which brings sight words back on a schedule and does not ask again what was answered right.
Is it free?
Yes, free through the end of 2026, with no sign-up. The games teach and review; Peabody is not a full curriculum and gives no test or score against other children.
Checked against how Peabody works on 18 October 2026. Written with help from AI, from Peabody's own code and library. Peabody is a learning app, not an assessment: if you're worried about your child's learning, talk to their teacher.