Color by Sight Word (Free Printable PDFs)

A color by sight word page hides a mystery picture inside the word practice. Your child reads the word in each box, colors it to match the key, and a picture slowly appears. This free printable PDF has four Halloween pages for kindergarten. The pictures are a pumpkin, a black cat, a ghost and a bat. The four pages cover 20 sight words, with all four answer keys sharing one page at the end. You don’t need a signup or an email.

What’s on each page

Each page uses five words and five crayons. Here is the full list, page by page:

Page	Picture	Words
1	Pumpkin	the, and, is, you, of
2	Black cat	see, can, go, like, we
3	Ghost	to, a, me, it, in
4	Bat	up, my, look, said, big
5	Answer keys for all four

Kindergarteners meet a lot of these words first. Most of them are on our kindergarten sight words list, and a few, like the, you and said, are heart words. Those have a tricky part your child learns by heart.

How to use a color by sight word page

1. Read the key together first. Point to each crayon box and read its word out loud. Have your child color the little key box with the matching crayon, so the key becomes their own reference.
2. Pick one word at a time. “Let’s find every the.” Hunting for one word keeps your child reading instead of just scanning for shapes.
3. Say the word before coloring the box. Every box, every time. The coloring is the reward. The reading is the practice.
4. Stop when it stops being fun. A 10 by 10 grid is 100 boxes. Two short sittings beat one long one.

The picture does the pulling. Halfway in, a pumpkin face or a pair of cat ears shows up, and most children want to keep going to see the rest.

Why every word shows up at least four times

A color by code page always uses one word for the background. Here that word fills 34 to 50 boxes, so your child reads it again and again.

The smaller words become the eyes, cheeks, stems and stars, and those are easy to shortchange. We drew every picture so each word appears at least four times, which is enough for your child to meet it, forget it and meet it again. When your child stumbles on a smaller word, a second and third try wait a few rows down.

The point is that repetition. Sight words stick after your child has read them many times in many places. Our guide on how to teach sight words explains why, and what to do before a page like this.

Tips for printing and coloring

• Print in color if you can. The key only works if your child can match the crayon to the swatch. If you only have black ink, color the key boxes yourself before you hand the page over.
• Only need the puzzles? Print pages 1 to 4. Page 5 is the answer keys.
• “White” means leave it blank. The ghost and the bat’s fangs are white. Your child still has to read a and big to know which boxes to skip.
• Crayons or colored pencils work best. Markers can bleed through and cover the word before your child has read it.
• In a classroom, these work well as a morning table job or a quiet fall center. Early finishers can check their own picture against the answer key.

Which age is this for?

Most kindergarteners can handle color by sight words pages, and so can some older preschoolers who already know a handful of words. If your child is just starting out, try the ghost or the pumpkin first. Their words are the shortest. The bat has look and said, which are a little harder.

Sit with a younger child and read the words together. The page still works as shared reading, and you can try it again in a few weeks when more of the words are familiar. The preschool sight words list is a gentler place to start.

Quick takeaways

• Four Halloween pages, 20 sight words, and the answer keys on the last page.
• Read the word out loud before coloring the box. That’s the practice.
• Every word shows up at least four times, so your child meets it again and again.
• Print pages 1 to 4 for the puzzles and page 5 only if you want the keys.

Want more sight word practice? Our sight word board game is a roll-and-read game for two to four players, and our reading games practice the same early words on screen. You’ll find the rest of our free sheets in the printables library.

Common questions

Are these the same as sight word coloring pages? Yes. Color by sight word pages are sight word coloring pages with a hidden picture: the key tells your child which color goes with which word.

Do we need special crayons? No. Each page uses five everyday colors, like orange, black, green, pink and purple. Lavender can be any light purple.

My child colored a box the wrong color. Does it matter? Not really. The picture will look a little off, which is a nice, low-stakes way to find the mistake together. Look for the odd box, read its word again, and move on.

Can I use these after Halloween? Yes. The season changes the pictures. The words stay the same. A pumpkin in November is still good reading practice.