Name and sight words worksheet for a class

Many teachers hand out two things in the first weeks of school: a name sheet and a sight word list. This page combines them. The top of every page holds a child’s first name in large dotted letters, with a guide line underneath. Below it is a section labeled My words, which holds up to six sight words, each in a dotted model followed by two writing lines. The words are the same for every child; the name changes. A list of 24 names prints as 24 pages, one per child, in the order you type them. Nothing is uploaded: the class list stays in your browser tab.

Keep the list short. Six words give a child several chances to trace without turning the page into a test. For the earliest learners, start with words such as a, and, can, I, see, and the, which come from the first Dolch list. For later in kindergarten, try words such as are, good, have, like, saw, and want. The buttons load examples from the Dolch lists by grade, where the whole of each level is shown. Choose words you have already introduced orally, so that tracing is a way of fixing them in memory rather than a first encounter.

• First-week routine. A name and six words, done in ten minutes, gives you a quick look at every child’s pencil grip and letter formation.
• Literacy center. Place the pages in a folder. Children trace one word each day, and you check the others.
• Baseline and progress. Print the same page in September, January, and May, and keep each one in a portfolio.
• Take-home page. A single page with the child’s name and six words is easy for a family to support.
• Differentiated lists. Make one class run for the whole room, then a second run with fewer or harder words for children who need them.

The most useful information on the page is often not the correct spelling, but how the child holds the pencil, which direction they form each letter, and how they space the words. Notice whether the child traces the dotted name from left to right, whether they lift the pencil in the middle of a letter, and whether the copy line looks like the model. Write a short date on the page and file it. Compare it with earlier pages to see growth. Avoid grading a young child on neatness; use the pages as a record and a point of conversation.

The class list name sheet maker makes a ZIP of name tracing PDFs with more rows. The name tag template and crayon labels use the same class list. For a longer word list, the sight word tracing maker accepts up to 100 lines. A summary of all classroom tools is on the teachers page.

• Classroom tools for teachers
• Class list name sheets (ZIP of PDFs)
• Sight words by grade
• Sight word tracing maker
• Classroom name tags
• All about me worksheet

Personalized name tracing · All tracing worksheets · Printing help