Box Elder School District
High Frequency Word List for
K-6 Language arts Core
Standard 4000-005 in the Utah K-6 Language Arts Core is Fluency. Standard 4000-0502 includes the “Indicator” that students read with automaticity a specific number of words at each grade level, as follows:
Grade Level # of Words
Kindergarten 25 words
First Grade 100 words
Second Grade 200 words
Third Grade 300 words
Fourth Grade 200 words
Fifth Grade 200 words
Sixth Grade 175 words
We add as Box Elder School District standards word lists for grades 4-6, also.
The words are taken from Rebecca Sitton’s “Spelling Sourcebook,” pages 77-82. It is a “cross-referenced compilation” of several massive word studies, including the American Heritage Word Frequency Study (Carroll, Davies, Richman), and several other studies, including the work of Gates, Horn, Rinsland, Greene and Loomer, Harris and Jacobsen.
The words are designed to grade levels in sequence as follows:
Grade # of Words From the Word List
Kindergarten 25 words Words 1-25
First Grade 100 words Words 26-125
Second Grade 200 words Words 126-325
Third Grade 300 words Words 326-625
Fourth Grade 200 words Words 626-825
Fifth Grade 200 words Words 826-1025
Sixth Grade 175 words Words 1026-1200
This results in direct instruction of the 1,200 highest frequency words during the course of Grades K through 6.