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30 Spelling Activities for ANY List of Words

• March 6, 2020

We work hard to teach our students the correct way to spell words.  We spend countless hours creating spelling practice activities that are fun and not just writing the word multiple times.  Are you ready to get some of those hours back?!  Take a look at these fabulous EDITABLE Spelling Activities we have created for your students to practice their word lists.

Our Spelling Activities are super simple to use!!!

• Enter your spelling list into the first page of the packet.
• Choose the activities you want to use that week.  (We have 150+ different pages  to choose from!)
• Print those activities.

These spelling activities can be sent home as homework, used in a word work center, or as independent practice. You can find all of our editable spelling activities, (general, seasonal, and holiday-themed) on Education to the Core Premium. Join today as a monthly or annual member for instant access to this resource and thousands more.

* Spelling Activity Line-Up *

1. spelling list.

This is the page where you will type in your spelling words (up to 15 words).  It can be sent home for students to study during the week, as well as for parents to cut apart and use as flashcards.

2. MAGIC WORDS

Write each spelling word in white crayon, then color over with a marker to watch them “magically” appear.

3. ALPHABETICAL ORDER

Write each spelling word in ABC order.

4. RAINBOW SPELLING

5. WRITE A SENTENCE

6. SECRET CODE

7. ROLL A SPELLING WORD

Roll the dice to see which way you are going to practice your spelling words.  Which number did you roll the most?

8. WORD ILLUSTRATIONS

Students choose 4 different spelling words to illustrate. As an extension, can they write a sentence to go with the picture?

9. TRACE WORDS

Practice each word as you trace it with different writing tools.

10. EMOJI SPELLING

11. PATTERN BLOCK SPELLING

12. VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

13. SCRABBLE SPELLING

14. SPIN IT — SPELL IT

15. SPELLING MAZE

16. SPELLING SPIRAL

17. SPELLING WORD SYLLABLES

Students practice separating their spelling words into syllables. Count on fingers, clap your hands, or stomp your feet to see how many syllables are in each word. Then circle the corresponding number.

18. SILLY WRITING

19. PYRAMID SPELLING

20. SPELLING RHYMES

21. SPELLING COLORS

22. WORD SEARCH

For your higher-level kiddos, this word search is great! They write their words either across, down, or as a challenge, diagonal on the grid. Then place random letters among the words. Share with a partner to see if they can find all of your “hidden” words!

23. WORD ART

24. CREATE A STORY

How many spelling words can your students include in a story? Write a short story that makes sense and illustrate it.

25. KEYBOARD WORDS

26. STAMPING SPELLING WORDS

Everybody loves dot markers! Grab a few different colors and stamp your spelling words as you read them.

27. SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS

For a more challenging activity, connect spelling practice with vocabulary work by finding a synonym and antonym for each spelling word.

28. SIGN LANGUAGE SPELLING

29. How Many Sounds

30. Tic-Tac-Toe Spelling

Perfect for partner spelling activities. Your students can each take a color and play tic-tac-toe with their spelling words.

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10 Simple Yet Engaging Spelling Practice Activities

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Finding creative spelling practice activities isn’t always easy, so I’m here to help with some out of the box ideas! I don’t know about you, but I think teaching spelling can be SO boring…which is why I’m providing you with a list of 10 engaging spelling practice activities to have on hand and break up the mundane practices that are often a part of spelling instruction!

Sending so many happy thoughts for this school year and spelling instruction your way!

Spelling Practice Activities

1. Word Search: An oldie, but a goodie – word searches are wonderful spelling practice activities to help encourage students to think about words and their correct spellings. You can create your own or find pre-made word searches online!

2. Chef Challenge: Have students pick out a recipe from a cookbook they have at home or that you provide and then write out the instructions for it on a recipe card. This spelling practice activity requires students to read and spell words found in a recipe while also having some fun making a recipe card to take home! To add in a little something extra, you could have them draw a picture of the food or meal on the back of the card!

3. Word Jumbles: Take common, grade-appropriate words and scramble them up. Students can work together or individually to unscramble the words and practice their spelling skills at the same time. This disguises spelling practice as a little game for students to mix things up!

4. Spell it Out: Have students use manipulative letters to spell out words on regular paper or overhead projector sheets. This is another one of my favorite group spelling practice activities that gets students up and moving around- plus, what student doesn’t love an opportunity to use the teacher’s projector?

5. Alphabet Soup: Have students fill a bowl with alphabet soup, then have them fish out the correct spelling of their assigned words. Spelling practice activities like this are great for getting students engaged in spelling practice while also having fun with something a little bit out of the box.

6. Word Chain: Create a word chain by beginning with one word and have students come up with additional words that either start or end in the same letter. This is a great game for introducing spelling patterns and being able to familiarize students with the spelling of multiple words. Allowing students to come up with words for the chain also saves some planning time for us teachers! Win!

7. Crosswords: Crossword puzzles are great spelling practice activities for reinforcing spelling skills as well as developing vocabulary. You can purchase pre-made crosswords or create your own using grade-appropriate words.

8. Spelling Bee: Have students compete against each other in a classic spelling bee competition. This will help them learn the correct spelling and pronunciation of new words while having fun with their classmates. You can even incorporate prizes as an incentive for studying the words to prepare!

9. Word Play: In this game, students will need to make as many words as possible using the letters of a given word. This is a great way to get kids thinking about how letter combinations create different words and their meanings. This is a great little finisher game to tack on to the end of a spelling lesson!

10. Word Association: This game requires students to think of different words that are related or associated to a provided spelling word. They will need to spell the words correctly in order for them to count. This can be done as a game, a worksheet, independently, or in groups!

2 FREE WEEKS OF SPELLING PRACTICE ACTIVITIES

Click on your grade level below to test drive my spelling curriculum for two weeks at no cost! All done-for-you by just printing and using right away!

Spicing up your spelling practice activities doesn’t mean you have to reinvent the wheel. I hope you’ve found some winners among this list to toss into your rotation of spelling activities. Engaging students isn’t always easy, but a little variety is always a great place to start. Happy teaching!

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Shelly Rees

Hi, I’m Shelly! Thank you for being here. I love helping third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers with fun and engaging activities that require no to little prep! Let me help you by taking some of the stress and work off your plate.

Hi, I'm Shelly

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Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans

Spelling Worksheets – 1st – 5th Grade Curriculum

K12Reader offers parents and teachers free spelling words curriculum for 1st through 5th grade. This teacher-developed curriculum can help students develop strong spelling and word recognition skills, and reinforces strong reading development. A comprehensive spelling program extends past the simple memorization of the letters that make up the individual words. Weekly word lists given for the purpose of improving each student’s spelling also provide an ideal opportunity to ensure that all students are being exposed to words that will reinforce their overall success in literacy. The 1st – 5th grade program includes:

• All 1,000 FRY sight words and Dolch sight words
• Grade level appropriate patterns for words, focusing on word families, prefixes/suffixes, and word roots/origins.
• A selection of academic vocabulary based on the science, social studies, mathematics, and language arts curriculum/standards for each specific grade level.
• Dictation sentences to remind students that the spelling words do not occur in isolation.

Click on the title below to view each spelling words  program

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40 Effective Spelling Activities for Kids

August 18, 2022 //  by  Jane Brooks

Some students dread math while another's anxiety skyrockets when you say it's spelling time. You can decrease the stress for students by moving away from rote learning and weekly spelling tests. By adding movement, hands-on and sensory activities, and gaming to your spelling lesson plans, you will increase engagement and relieve student anxiety. Below are 40 curated fun and creative spelling ideas for every grade level. From rainbow writing to peer editing, you will find the perfect match to get your students excited about spelling.

1. In My Name, Not in My Name

A great activity for kids who are learning their letters and name. Provide students with their names written on an index card or sheet of paper. Set up a station with letter manipulatives that the students will sort based on whether the letter appears in their name or not.

Learn more: Play to Learn Preschool

2. Sight Word Word Search

One of the many printable spelling activities available online, sight word searches allow young students to cipher out the real word from the letters jumbled around them. A classic way of gamifying learning. Make sure to model the first few times and assist struggling students.

Learn more: Education

3. Name or Word Necklaces

Craft it up with your students while getting in some spelling practice. You can use premade letter beads or make your own. Differentiate this lesson by creating letter bracelets for working on sounds or letter recognition. More advanced students can spell their names or their favorite sight word.

Learn more: We Are Teachers

4. Create Your Own Traceables

Invest in a laminator and create a myriad of activities for pre-K students. Several sites online have preschool sight word lists available. Choose a word and repeat the word at least three times. Laminate and have students trace. In the last row, they should try to write the word on their own.

Learn more: Time 4 Learning

5. Suds and Search

Combine cleanup time with letter learning. Create a station with tubs filled with water, soap foam, and letter manipulatives. Have students search for individual letters or have them find ones to spell out one of their sight words. This is a fun, engaging, and sensory approach to spelling.

Learn more: Parenting Chaos

6. Match the Letter to the Sound

Help students learn what sound goes with what letter. Provide students with letter manipulatives. Say a sound for them. Give students time to find the letter in their stack. You can do another variation of this with whiteboards. In this version, students would write the letter that represents the sound.

Learn more: Wordwall

7. Big-Small Match Up

Create letter flashcards with both upper and lowercase letters on separate cards. Have students match the lowercase letter to its uppercase version. You can also vary this and turn the letters upside down and play a game of memory.

Learn more: Reading Adventure

K-1st Grade

8. stamp and spell.

Use alphabet stamps to create fun hands-on spelling activities. Students can start stamping their names and move on from there to letters and sight words .

Learn more: Raising Little Superheroes

9. Spelling Memory

Turn your weekly spelling list into a fun board game. Use index cards or letter stock paper to create two sets of cards for your weekly list. Turn the cards over and have students play this memory game to help them grow their spelling skills. You can also find commercial versions for sale online.

Learn more: Amazon and Home Spelling Words

10. Rainbow Writing

Practice spelling and reinforce color names at the same time. Choose any editable spelling printable for the lesson. Call out the color of the marker or crayon. Let students trace the letter or word. Repeat this multiple times. For happier students, reward students by allowing them to call out the color.

Learn more: 4 Kinder Teachers

11. Sight Word Scavenger Hunt

Use sticky notes to post sight words around the room. Give your students a sheet of paper with the words listed on it. Have students say the word, then trace it on the paper. Modify by giving each student one or two words on their paper and place the sticky note on their paper.

Learn more: No Time for Flashcards

12. Pipe Cleaner Spelling

Hands-on learning meets spelling word practice. Use colorful pipe cleaners for sensory spelling learning. Students can shape their word lists into the correct letters using pipe cleaners.

Learn more: Teaching First

13. Online Spelling Programs

If you are in a 1-1 classroom, try some of the free online spelling programs which offer a variety of activities. Students gain meaningful spelling practice by exploring sight words and spelling patterns.

14. Playdough Spelling

For more hands-on spelling activities, use letter cookie cutters to cut out letters. This is a fun way to engage students with spelling instruction. If the student messes up, they can squish the words up, roll them out and redo.

Learn more: Kindergarten Connection

15. Teach Spelling Strategies

You can teach even young children all kinds of spelling strategies. Helping them learn the general spelling patterns in English early through engagement in a variety of activities ensures that they can play and make mistakes with spelling rules in low-stakes environments.

Learn more: Online Spellcheck

16. Excavate for Grade Level Spelling Words

Use a sandbox table to hide spelling words cut into blocks or written on pieces of paper. Combine this activity with a social studies level about discovering ancient civilizations. Your students will be immersed in a sensory activity that helps them gain practice in spelling and exposure to social studies content.

Learn more: Scholastic

17. Alphabet Clothespins

Write letters on the top of a wooden clothespin. Use flashcards of sight words. Have students match the clothespins to the top of the card in the correct order. Younger students can work on letter and word recognition, spelling, and hand-eye coordination.

Learn more: Creative Family Fun

18. Rhyming Wheels

Feeling crafty? You can make these rhyming wheels for students to help them practice sounding out words or recognizing sight words. Take the pressure off new word groups by turning learning into a game.

Learn more: Research Parent

19. Sidewalk Chalk ABCs

Get students outside and moving with this fun way to work on the ABCs. Make a grid with sidewalk chalk. Leave a few blank free spaces. Students start on A and have to hop through the alphabet. If they can't make it to the next letter in one hop, they can use a free space.

Learn more: Buggy and Buddy

2nd - 5th Grades

20. spelling fill-in the blank activities.

Options abound for this entertaining way of spelling instruction. You can do spelling printables, and use magnetic letters or letter manipulatives. Students have to use their spelling skills to complete the word. This is a quick and easy go-to activity for any day.

Learn more: Home Spelling Words

21. Save the Spelling Snowman from Melting

A new twist on one of the classic activities for spelling words, Spelling Snowman starts with you choosing a word. Draw the appropriate number of blank spots for each letter in the word and a snowman on the board. As students guess a letter, incorrect answers "melt" part of the snowman.

Learn more: Homer Blog

22. Spelling Words Pyramid Style

Assist your students with their writing skills and spelling practice by building the word. In this activity, students create a pyramid from the top down. The top of the pyramid is the first letter of the word. They add a letter for each layer of their pyramid until they have the whole word at the bottom.

Learn more: Twinkl

23. Unmix It Up Relay

Add movement to spelling time with this low-prep game. Use magnet letters or letter tiles to spell words. Divide students into teams. One at a time they will race to unscramble their word in one of the envelopes. When they have it correct they signal. Then, the next student attempts to unmix another envelope.

Learn more: Busy Teacher

24. Michelangelo Spelling

Flexible seating fans will love this engaging spelling practice. Allow students to tape white paper to the bottom of their desks or tables. Let them practice writing their spelling words by laying under their desks working like the Renaissance artist, Michelangelo! You can add some color by letting them use markers.

Learn more: All About 3rd Grade

25. Spelling Sparkle

Another fun spelling game, Sparkle begins with students standing. Call out a spelling word. The first student says the first letter of the word. Play moves on the next student. When the word is complete the next student yells "sparkle" and the student after them must sit. Wrong answers mean a student must sit also. The winner is the last student standing.

Learn more: Teaching Ideas

26. Spelling Packets

Several online sites have complete spelling packets available to download. These are tried and true spelling activities for use in class or homework practice. These printable options can be especially useful for sick days when students are with a substitute.

6th - 8th Grades

27. class spelling bee race.

Turn up the fun in class with a spelling bee race for teams. Have pre-marked spots on the floor. Call out a word from recent content for team one. The first student steps up to the line. If they spell the word correctly, the whole team moves up. If not, the student steps back into the team. The first team to cross the finish line wins.

Learn more: Spelling Words Well

28. Dictionary Race Game

This is another lively group game for middle school students. Set up a station with word cards. Assign one student as group leader. They flip the card and read it to their table mates. The other students search the dictionary to see who can find the word and definition first.

Learn more: Super Teacher Worksheets

29. Middle School Spelling Curriculum

Looking for a complete spelling curriculum or help with lesson planning? Check out this site that has word lists by grade along with lesson ideas, curated resources, and more.

30. Commonly Known Words by Grade Level

Create word walls and build these words into lessons and activities for maximum repetition. These are words that students are expected to have as part of their working vocabulary, especially by the end of that grade level.

31. Spelling Art

Provide students with six or so words from reading, math, or science. Have them create an art project using those words. You can create a rubric for required elements, but leave space for students to use their creativity freely.

Learn more: Your Dictionary

32. Digital Spelling Games

From Code Breaking to Word Scrambles and more, online platforms over gamified learning for your students. You can filter by grade level as well as content or lesson topic. If your school or homeschool coop doesn't have access to a program, there are plenty of free ones on the internet.

Learn more: Word Game Time

33. Spelling Workbooks

If you are looking for a week-long homework activity or something students can do each day as a bellringer, you can choose from a plethora of ready made workbooks.

34. Flipped Spelling Journal

Take the traditional spelling journal and turn it on its head. Rather than having students write sentences or definitions based on word lists, students keep a journal of words they find themselves misspelling or words they don't know. They can practice correct spelling and build their vocabulary with more ownership.

Learn more: Abe Books

35. Tally it Up

Provide word lists at the beginning of each week. Students get a tally mark as a reward for reaching a set number of tallies each week. Tally marks are earned by using and/or spelling the word correctly throughout the week.

36.  Writing Challenge

Challenge students brains, spelling skills, and motor skills all in one activity. In this option, students write their words three times with their non-dominant hand, keeping them engaged instead of relying on rote memory.

9th - 12th Grades

37. memory strategy.

Use mnemonic devices like rhymes, sentences, or phrases to help students remember tricky spellings. English is full of exceptions to the rule. Mnemonic strategies offer students a cheat sheet they file in their brains.

Learn more: 20 Amazing Spelling Activities for Middle School

38. Peer Editing

One of the best ways to learn is to become a teacher. Have students peer edit in-class writing with a specific focus on spelling. Provide dictionaries. If the editor isn't sure if the work is spelled correctly, they find it in the dictionary to double-check.

Learn more: Read, Write, Think

39. Spelling Poems

Provide students with appropriate high-frequency words for their grades. You can differentiate between students based on reading level as well. Once you have reviewed the words and meanings, have students write poems using several of the words from the list.  Add peer editing to extend the assignment.

Learn more: Great Schools

40. Pull Apart Synonyms

This activity ups the challenge level on word scramble worksheets. Students unscramble the letters to create two synonyms. Your class is able to work on meaning and spelling simultaneously.

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Fifth Grade Spelling Worksheets

Spelling lists and exercises.

In grade 5, spelling becomes more challenging. These spelling lists and worksheets focus on more complex spelling rules and patterns , such as multiple syllables, contractions, consonant blends, rule exceptions and alternate word endings.  

Sample Grade 5 Spelling Worksheet

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35 Fun, Hands-On Spelling Activities to Use With Any Word List

Inside: 35 fun, hands-on spelling activities that get kids actively engaged with their spelling words – thinking, making, creating! Includes a printable version for at home learning.

There’s no doubting that some children (if not all!) learn best when they are actively engaged with thinking, making, creating – DOING. Which is why it can be advantageous to add an active, hands-on element to subjects that more typically rely on rote learning style activities – like spelling.

The 35 hands-on spelling activities included on this list are much more fun and engaging than simply writing out spelling words over and over again (my kids both strongly disliked the ‘Look, Cover, Write, Check’ approach to spelling – and I honestly didn’t see much learning happening with it).

These ideas can be useful as activities for literacy rotations or as homework activities, working particularly well with children in the early elementary/primary grades. Plus, at the bottom of this post you’ll find a handy printable version that can be sent home with families to use for at home learning.

RELATED: Looking for meaningful spelling activities for grades 4-6? Check out our spelling activities worksheets.

35 Hands-On Spelling Activities

1. Make each word with Scrabble letter tiles .

2. Cut some short lengths of yarn and use them to form the letters of each word.

3. Paint the words with watercolour paints .

4. Write words with pavement chalk on the pavement or on the trampoline mat.

5. Make the letters of each word with your body as you spell the word aloud.

6. Build your words with Lego bricks .

7. Stamp your words onto paper with letter stamps.

8. Stamp your words into playdough with non-inked letter stamps .

9. Dot paint each word with a Q-tip or cotton bud.

10. Make your words with letter stickers .

11. Spell your words aloud as you star jump – one jump for each letter.

12. Make letters from chenille stems/pipe cleaners and use them to spell each word.

13. Type your words on a computer.

14. Write each word with your finger in a sand or salt tray .

15. Make rainbow words , tracing each letter with lots of colours.

16. Thread your words with letter beads .

17. Write your words on the window with a whiteboard marker.

18. Spell aloud and clap for each letter of your words.

19. Spell each word aloud in a robot voice .

20. Make each word with alphabet stones .

21. Write each word with your finger into shaving cream on the shower screen at bath time – or spray a little on a cookie tray to try it when you’re not in the bath.

22. Write your words onto paper plates or circles (one word per plate) and make up a jumping game .

23. Write your words in a fun script – with tiny letters or tall, skinny ones, or try bubble writing!

24. Draw a hopscotch grid on the pavement with chalk. Add a spelling word to each square. As your stone lands on a square spell  the word aloud before hopping.

25. Squeeze a small amount of acrylic paint into a re-sealable Ziploc bag. Seal the top and then use your finger to write each word ‘in’ the paint .

26. Make each word with magnetic letters .

27. Play Tic Tac Toe with your spelling words – each player chooses a word to use in the place of the ‘x’ or ‘o’ as you play. Choose a new word for each game.

28. Write each word with white crayon onto white paper and then paint over them with watercolour paint for a magic word reveal!

29. Play Hangman choosing the word to guess from your list of words.

30. Make each word from playdough or plasticine snakes .

31. Spell each word aloud as you jump on the trampoline – one bounce per letter.

32. Write the letters of each word onto a craft stick (one letter per stick). Jumble the sticks up and then remake each word.

33. Use a laser pointer to ‘write’ each word on the wall.

34. Write your list words onto two sets of index cards and use them to play a memory game .

35. Write each of your words onto a chalkboard with chalk and then use a small paintbrush to paint over them with water.

35. Write each word onto a piece of coloured paper, cut the letters apart and mix them up. Race to unscramble each word.

How to Print Your Hands On Spelling Ideas Grid


Click here to download: Printable Hands-On Spelling Ideas Grid . Save the PDF to your computer. Open the PDF for full printing instructions. Having trouble accessing or downloading the file? Please try a different internet browser. 
Please note: All Childhood 101 printables are for personal use only, you may not use any part of this content for commercial purposes-that includes selling the document, giving it away to promote your business or website, or printing the file to sell. You may not share, loan or redistribute these documents. Teachers may use multiple copies for students in their own classroom.

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Christie Burnett is a teacher, author and mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to find engaging, high quality learning ideas.

4th Grade Spelling Words & Activities

Our lists of 4th grade spelling words, practice activities and fun worksheets are great resources for your  home school or classroom. Be sure to try them all!

By the fourth grade, students are being exposed to more words more quickly than ever before. They're learning bigger and trickier words, including sets of confusing homophones and words with silent letters. They need lots of practice (and encouragement) as they take on increasing challenges in spelling.

Lists of 4th Grade Spelling Words

Fourth grade spelling words - Our list of 300 words most fourth graders should know or learn this year.  Learn to spell these words for reading, writing and spelling success, all through fourth grade and beyond!

4th Grade Vocabulary Words  - 200 words to help teach your students math, science, social studies and more! You'll find ten words in each of ten categories to interest your kids/students, plus 100 more! From  earthworms  to  equations , this list is packed with fascinating words to help expand your child's vocabulary!

NEW!  Fourth Grade Spelling Words & Activities for in-school or at-home use! You'll find 180 grade-level words arranged in 12 high-interest topics, including insects, music, detectives, U.S. states, frequently misspelled words, travel and more. A wide variety of engaging activities plus lots of extension activities help to boost learning, too!

  4th Grade Lesson Plans  - 25 spelling dictation sentences and full instructions. Use a few of these each week to provide students with extra practice in writing, spelling and using spelling words in context. 

Tricky Elementary Spelling Words - Students in grades 2-5 sometimes need extra practice with these 100 common words.

Fourth Grade Writing Prompts

I've written two sets of engaging writing prompts, aligned with our 4th grade spelling word list.  Use these stimulating prompts anytime throughout the year for fun spelling and writing practice!

Fourth Grade Worksheets

Fourth Grade Find-A-Word Puzzles: Words from our 4th grade spelling word list are hidden in this fun "4" shape for students' FUN and LEARNING! This word search puzzle features words with silent letters. It's printable for your convenience. Don't miss the special twist!

It Pay$ to $pell  - Combine math and spelling fun! Each letter of the alphabet is worth a different amount of money. Follow the directions to spell high-value or low-value spelling words. It's a fun challenge that you can adapt to use again and again with your 4th, 5th and 6th grade students!

Three Part Puzzler - Students must reconstruct 12 familiar words, syllable by syllable in this challenging page. Students will draw lines to connect three word parts, one from each column, to spell a common word. 

Free Spelling Worksheets - Can You Spell Well? : If students correctly identify the misspelled words, they'll shade the page to reveal in interesting word.

Brain Teasers and Riddles - Try Level One or Level Two !

More Spelling Activities

Puzzle Partners - Classroom match-ups lead to meaningful, fun spelling practice!

Spelling Word Games

More Spelling Fun for Kids - New games to play on a Scrabble game board. Mumbo-Jumbo, anyone?

Spelling Bee Games - Try one of our new Silent Spelling Bee variations. A fun--and quiet--twist on  a classic game! 

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Spelling bees, grade level resources, spelling worksheets, classroom helps, spelling games & puzzles, sight words & phonics, site sections, subscribe or read the latest updates here, 300 fourth grade spelling words your students need to know, spelling words well.

Think-A-Spell! A fun collection of brain teasers and spelling challenges. Best for ages 10 to adult. 

AnyWord Spelling Practice Series    Fun Worksheets, games & prompts that work with almost ANY spelling words!

Gigantic Spelling Bee Word Lists with definitions, sentences and languages

Spelling Bee Toolboxes for Grades 3/5 and 6/8     All the resources you n eed for a successful bee!  

100 Difficult Spelling Bee Words with Definitions, Sentences and Pronunciations, Volumes 1 and 2

600 Spelling Bee Words & Sentences for Gr 3/5 & 6/8 Extra words & sentences at two levels

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Although extremely valuable, word work can get redundant if students are repeating the same activity week after week. Ideally, a mix of activities will increase engagement and students will start to look forward to working with new words. In terms of implementation, the weekly vocabulary and spelling practice ideas listed below can take many forms. The objective remains the same whether students are completing their work on paper or with a computer. 

Give students an opportunity to play with and manipulate letters to form new words using the wordsmith activity.  Students try to spell as many words as they can using the letters in a specific word. For example, if your vocabulary words are related to a chapter on the Civil War, students would try to spell as many words as possible using the letters in “Civil War”.  Adding a time limit isn’t necessary, but it adds a fun twist!

Ultimately, manipulating the letters to form new words will strengthen decoding skills, improving reading fluency and comprehension.

The storytime activity requires students to correctly use their vocabulary or spelling words in a fictional narrative.  Integrating the news words into a cohesive story is effective because it provides students with a strong frame of reference for understanding and integration.   Basically, it forces students to apply their knowledge of the word’s meaning rather than simply recall or memorize a definition.  The average student learns 3,000 words per year, but only 10% are acquired through direct instruction. The rest are learned contextually.  Learning to utilize context clues when determining word meaning is an essential aspect of the vocabulary development process. 

Word Scramble

Word scramble activities reinforce phonemic awareness, pattern recognition, and spelling skills.  Word scrambles and word searches provide similar benefits and can be used interchangeably. As students develop the ability to look for consonant clusters and vowel combinations, they will become more adept at unscrambling words.

The A to Z activity forces students to make connections between words.  First, a focus word is introduced. It can be one of the new spelling/vocabulary words students are learning, or it can be an overarching thematic word.  Next, students think of words (one for each letter of the alphabet) related to the focus word, earning points for each word added. When students have completed as many letters as possible, points are totaled to get a final score.  Time constraints can be added to make the A to Z activity more challenging.

Definition and Sentences

Requiring students to record definitions and sentences for each of their vocabulary or spelling words will help them build a strong foundation for future learning.  I like to think of it as a jumping off point. The initial exposure will be extremely helpful when it comes time to access and apply the new words. 

Developing a word grid will provide students with a point of reference when working with the new words in future assignments.  To set up your grid, add each new word in the far left column and individual word activities in the other columns. The number of columns will depend on the number activities (definition, part of speech, synonym(s), antonym(s), sentence, and/or a picture).

The pictionary activity requires students to create a visual dictionary. Connecting a picture to each word will reinforce learning and support recognition.  When students create their own visual representations, they are developing an association with the word that they will be able to draw from when needed. 

Word of the Week   

Dive deep with a weekly word study.  Focusing on a different part of the word each day will give students an in-depth glimpse into the meaning and use of each word. Ideas for daily activities are similar to the word grid ideas described above including definition, part of speech, synonym(s), antonym(s), sentence, and/or a picture. 

Click here to download all eight digital spelling and vocabulary templates from Literacy in Focus on TpT.  Use them with any list of words!

Reinforce spelling and vocabulary instruction with digital activities! Eight spelling and vocabulary activity templates are included for use with any list of words! Use these editable worksheets in your Google Classroom for weekly spelling or vocabulary practice. All directions and text boxes are editable, so you can customize them to meet your specific needs.

Purdue OWL® Exercises Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Spelling Exercises

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

These OWL resources contain information regarding common spelling errors and include exercises to help students practice distinguishing between the different uses of these errors.

-ible vs. -able

This resource includes two exercises about -ible and -able that you may print. Once you print the exercise, correct the errors by filling in the blank with the appropriate ending. Click the "Go to Answers" link to see the answers for this exercise.

Accept/Except

This resource includes a fill-in-the-blank exercise that you may print and provide the appropriate word choice of accept and except .

Affect/Effect

This resource discusses the difference between affect and effect and includes an exercise that you may print and fill in the blank with the appropriate response. Click the "Go to Answers" link to see the answers for this exercise.

This resource contains an exercise on the i/e rules and their appropriate use. Print the five exercises and apply the i/e rules appropriately. Click the "Go to Answers" link to see the answers for this exercise.

Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool

A complete, free online christian homeschool curriculum for your family and mine, spelling placement test, jump to  section 2     section 3     section 4     section 5     section 6, course description:.

This course is not intended for everyone, just for those who are struggling with spelling. There are six levels corresponding roughly to grade levels. Each level has sixty lessons. Doing three levels is a full 180-day course. You can use the placement test to see where your child might need to start. Each day works on a phonics pattern, so it might be very helpful to a child really struggling to just start on a simple level. Each day they are given a phonics pattern to practice and a sight word. They will practice some past sight words as well. Here is the full list of the spelling words .

Example Lesson for a Reminder of How to do the Lessons

• We’re going to work on spelling patterns. For instance, if you can spell bed, then you can spell red. They follow the same spelling pattern.
• I’ll give you the pattern and the first letter to use it with and you write them together, following the pattern.
• I will give you the spelling pattern -ed. The line means that’s where the other letter or letters go. This spelling pattern comes at the end of the word.
• Then I will give you letters such as b and r.
• Then you would put them together. You would write bed and red.
• When you write the words, write one on each line. At the very top of the page write the spelling pattern. Under that write a word on each line. Write neatly. The letters should sit on the line. Some letters are “tall” letters, such as h and t. They reach all the way up. All capital letters are tall letters. Some letters are short letters. They just go halfway up. Some letters hang down. The long line hangs down under your writing line, but the rest of the letter sits on the line. Here’s a picture of how the letters are formed.
• b, r, T, l, w, f, N
• Always write with lowercase letters unless I give you a capital letter. What words start with an uppercase letter? Names!
• Hint: A lowercase b faces the same way as a capital B. It’s like a capital B with the top part erased.
• The second part of our spelling lesson is to work on sight words. These don’t necessarily follow our patterns, so we need to practice them special.
• Your first sight word is THE, the .
• Look at the word for the day.
• Say it out loud.
• Did you do it?
• Make sure to say the letters out loud with your voice.
• Close your eyes and picture the word. Picture what letter it starts with. Picture what letter it ends with. Picture the word.
• Write the word in the air with your finger.
• Write the word with your finger on the table.
• Look at “the.”  The letters t and h are tall letters . The letter e is a short letter.
• Read your words after you write them. It’s a good spelling practice to read your words after you write them to make sure they say what you intended!
• Go to our spelling word website.
• Write the words on a line towards the bottom of the page.
• Cover it over with your hand or a piece of paper. Click “Again” and when it disappears, write it.  Repeat.
• Leave a big space between each word. Tap your paper two times with a jump to help you leave a space.

Section 1  (Material: index card) Lesson 1  

• Parents: There is a placement test if you are interested.
• You are going to work on your spelling to be more confident in expressing yourself. We want to know what you have to say! Above are the directions for each lesson in bold. You can always go to the top of the page to have a reminder of how to do the lessons.
• You are going to need a spelling notebook. Write neatly. Space out your words. Label your pages.
• Let’s start with the short sound E. That’s the sound in the middle of words such as bed, leg, pet, web. It’s the sound that starts the word egg. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• Got it? Why don’t we start there.
• Hint: The first word you will write is bed.
• Cover it over with your hand or a piece of paper. Click “Again” and when it disappears, write it.  Repeat. This might be a good time to have an index card and use it to cover the word. 
• You will follow these basic directions each day. I will show them to you again from time to time.
• We are going to continue with the short sound E. That’s the sound in the middle of words such as bed, leg, pet, web. It’s the sound that starts the word egg. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• You will write the spelling pattern with the parts given using lowercase letters. Write neatly using tall (t h l f b d) and short letters and making sure that the letters y, p, g, and j sit on the line but hang down under it. Check out Lesson 1 if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• b, g, j, l, m, n, p, s, w, y
• Read your words after you write them.
• Your next sight word is ONE, one. This is the number 1.
• Look at the word, one .
• Read the letters out loud.
• Look at “one.”  The letters are all short letters .
• When it says Next, get ready to start on a new line for a new word. Click “Next” and get started following the same process. Each new word gets a new line on your paper.
• We are going to use the short sound I. That’s the sound that starts the little words if, in, it, and is. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words hit, pin, dip, and Tim. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• w, t, p, s, f, sp
• SP is what we call a blend, two sound that we say together. We are making the word spin, twirling around. Say S. Say P. Say SP. Write S-P-I-N, but use lowercase letters!
• Your next sight word is ARE, are. This is, “We are friends. These are my things.”
• Look at the word, are .
• Look at “are.”  The letters are all short letters .
• Each time it shows you the word, wait until it disappears and then write it down, leaving a space between each word. When you get a new word, start a new line on your paper.
• You will write the spelling pattern with the words given using lowercase letters. Write neatly using tall (t h l f b d) and short letters and making sure that the letters y, p, g, and j sit on the line but hang down under it. Check out Lesson 1 if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• b, w, p, s, f, h, l, z
• Your next sight word is MORE, more. “I would like some more, please.”
• Look at the word, more .
• Look at “more.”  The letters are all short letters .
• -ill  (This is a double L.)
• b, w, p, h, g
• Your next sight word is OF, of. “Which piece of the cake do you want?”
• Look at the word, of .
• Look at “of.”  There is a short and a tall letter.
• Let’s get back to the short sound E. That’s the sound in the middle of words such as bed, leg, pet, web. It’s the sound that starts the word egg. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• I’ll give you the pattern and the first letter to use it with and you write them together, following the pattern. Check out Lesson 1 if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• B, t, p, m, th, wh
• TH is one sound. WH is one sound, the W sound.
• P is a letter that hang down under the line. T and H are tall letters.
• Your special word to practice today is NEED, need. “I need a tissue.”
• Look at the word, need .
• Look at “need.”  The letter d is a tall letter . The other letters are short letters.
• Go to our spelling word website. Skip a line or two on your paper.
• When it says Next, get ready to start on a new line for a new word. Click “Next” and get started following the same process.
• -ell (That is a double L.)
• b, w, t, y, s, f, h
• The letter Y sits on the line but its tail hangs down under the line. The letters B, T, F, and H are all tall letters. The lowercase letters W and S are short letters.
• Your next sight word is HAVE, have. “Do you have an extra one for me?”
• Look at the word, have . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Write the word in the air with your finger. Write the word with your finger on the table.
• -ill  (You’ve done this before. But there are lots that we could write!)
• f, d, s, m, st
• ST is a blend. Say S. Say T. Say ST. You will write still .
• Your next sight word is COME, come. This is, “Can you come over to play?”
• Look at the word, come .
• Look at “come.”  The letters are all short letters .
• We are going to continue to use the short sound I. That’s the sound that starts the little words if, in, it, and is. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words hit, pin, dip, and Tim. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• t, r, s, d, h, l, z, n, fl
• FL is a blend. Say F. Say L. Say FL. You will write flip.
• Your next sight word is DAY, day. “I love a sunny day.”
• Look at the word, day .
• Look at “day.” Which letters are tall, short, and hang down ?
• We are going to use the short sound A. That’s the sound that starts the little words at, and, and as. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words hat, ran, map, and bag. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• b, r, p, s, f, h, m, c, v
• Your next sight word is MANY, many. “How many pieces do you want?”
• Look at the word, many .
• Look at “many.”  The letters are all short letters and one hangs down .
• Let’s introduce the short sound O. That’s the sound in the middle of words such as hot, mop, log, and job. It’s the sound that starts the word October. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• r, c, p, d, g, h, l, n
• Always write with lowercase letters unless I give you a capital letter.
• G and P are letters that hang down under the line. T, D, L and H are tall letters.
• Read your words after you write them. That’s always a good spelling practice. Make sure they say what you expect them to say!
• Your special word to practice today is EAT, eat . “That looks delicious. I can’t wait to eat it!”
• Look at the word, eat .
• We are going to continue with the short sound O. That’s the sound in the middle of words such as pot, top, fog, and rob. It’s the sound that starts the word octopus. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• b, t, p, h, c, m, st, dr
• ST is a blend. Say S. Say T. Say ST.
• DR is a blend. Say D. Say R. Say DR.
• The letter P sits on the line but its tail hangs down under the line. The letters B, T, and H are all tall letters. The lowercase letters C, M, and S are short letters.
• Your next sight word is FILL, fill. “Can you fill the dog’s water bowl, please?”
• Look at the word, fill . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Picture the word.
• Write the word with your finger.
• We are going to use the short sound I. That’s the sound that starts the little words if, in, it, and is. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words pit, sin, tip, and him. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• r, S, h, l, b, k, sl
• SL is a blend. Say S. Say L. Say SL.
• Notice! I included a capital letter. You are writing a name. These all have tall letters except for the R and the S in “sl.”
• Your next sight word is LITTLE, little. This is, “I have a new little brother.”
• Look at the word, little .
• Look at “little.”  There are many tall letters.
• We are going to continue to use the short sound E. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words red, pet, den, and bell. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• b, r, w, t, p, n
• ST is a blend. Say S. Say T. Say ST. This is an ending blend. It comes at the end of the word.
• Your next sight word is FIND, find. “Can you find my hairbrush?”
• Look at the word, find .
• Look at “find.”  The letters are short in the middle and tall on the outside .
• We are going to use the short sound A. That’s the sound that starts the little words at, and, and as. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words bat, man, rap, and tag. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• b, r, pl, f, t, D, c, p, m
• PL is a blend. Say P. Say L. Say PL.
• Pay attention to the B and the D. Write them the correct way.
• Your next sight word is CAME, came. “Jesus came to earth to show us who God is.”
• Look at the word, came .
• Look at “came.”  The letters are all short letters .
• Let’s get back to the short sound A. That’s the sound in the middle of words such as bad, lap, pat, wag. It’s the sound that starts the word apple. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• w, r, t, s, l, br, n
• BR is a blend. Say B. Say R. Say BR.
• Your special word to practice today is ALL, all. “Love the Lord with all your heart.”
• Look at the word, all .
• We are going to continue with the short sound A. That’s the sound in the middle of words such as pad, rag, pal, and hat. It’s the sound that starts the word apricot. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• -ap  (The P sits on the line and hangs down under the the line.)
• r, t, s, l, c, n, m
• Your next sight word is AS, as. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
• Look at the word, as . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• We are going to get back to the short sound O. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words pop and rot. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• d, f, h, l, bl
• BL is a blend. Say B. Say L. Say BL.
• Your next sight word is BOY, boy. This is, “It’s hard to imagine my dad as a little boy.”
• Look at the word, boy .
• Pay attention to the fact that boy starts with a tall letter and ends with a letter that hangs down. All letters sit on the line.
• We are going to continue to use the short sound A.
• -and  (The ND is a blend. Say N. Say D. Say ND.)
• h, l, s, b, br, bl
• We are blending BR and BL with “and.”
• Your next sight word is GIRL, girl. “It’s hard to imagine my mom as a little girl.”
• Look at the word, girl .
• We are going to use the short sound U. That’s the sound that starts the little word up. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words hut, run, mud, and bug. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• b, c, n, g, r
• Your next sight word is BIKE, bike. “Can you ride a bike?”
• Look at the word, bike .
• Write the word with your finger
• Let’s continue the short sound U. That’s the sound in the middle of words such as nut, mug, run, and tub. It’s the sound that starts the word umbrella. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• I’ll give you the pattern and the first letter to use it with and you write them together, following the pattern. Check out  Lesson 1  if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• When you write the words, write one on each line. At the very top of the page write the spelling pattern. Under that write a word on each line. Write neatly. The letters should sit on the line. Some letters are “tall” letters, such as h and t. They reach all the way up. All capital letters are tall letters. Some letters are short letters. They just go halfway up. Some letters hang down. The long line hangs down under your writing line, but the rest of the letter sits on the line. Here’s a  picture of how the letters are formed.
• h, j, sh, str
• J is a letter that hangs down under the line. H is a tall letter.
• STR is a blend. Say the sounds. Say them together. You are going to write “strut.” You can ask your parents how to strut if you don’t know what it means.
• All letters should sit on the line.
• Read your words after you write them. That’s always a good spelling practice. Make sure they say what you expect them to say!
• Your special word to practice today is WERE, were. “Were we supposed to clean this up?”
• Look at the word, were .
• Read it out loud.
• Go to our  spelling word  website. Skip a line or two on your paper.
• Cover it over with your hand or a piece of paper. Click “Again” and when it disappears, write it.  Repeat.
• When it says Next, get ready to start on a new line for a new word. Click “Next” and get started following the same process.
• We are going to continue with the short sound U. That’s the sound in the middle of words such as cut, tug, rub, and fun. It’s the sound that starts the word under. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• Check out Lesson 1  if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• r, t, h, j, b, m, shr, pl, dr
• We have three blends. Say them.
• Your next sight word is PLAY, play. “Can we play a board game today?”
• Look at the word,  play . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• We are going to use the short sound I. That’s the sound that starts the little words if, in, it, and is. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words pit, sin, tip, and him. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• r, w, p, d, f, z, b
• Your next sight word is GREEN, green. “My favorite color is green.”
• Look at the word,  green .
• Go to our  spelling word  website.
• We are going to continue to use the short sound A. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words rat, pat, ran, and bag. It’s the first sound in accident. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• b, p, s, h, gl, m, Br
• Br is a blend. It is capitalized because it starts a name.
• Your next sight word is SAW, saw. “I saw a woodpecker today.”
• Look at the word, saw .
• We are going to use the short sound O. It’s the sound that is in the middle of the words hot, mop, rob. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• r, s, m, j, thr, sl
• TH makes one sound and THR is a blend. Say it.
• SL is a blend.
• Your next sight word is WHAT, what. “What time is it?”
• Look at the word,  what .
• Let’s continue with the short sound U. That’s the sound that starts up, under, umbrella, uncle, unless. Can you hear the sound? Say it.
• t, r, c, s, shr, cl
• CL is a blend. Say C. Say L. Say CL.
• SH is one sound. SH and R is a blend. Say it, SHR.
• Your special word to practice today is DO, do. “Do good to everyone.”
• Look at the word, do .
• Let’s continue with the short sound U. That’s the sound that starts up, under, umbrella, uncle, unless. Say it.
• You will write the spelling pattern with the parts given using lowercase letters. Check out Lesson 1  if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• r, p, s, f, g, b
• Your next sight word is FOR, for. “This is a gift for you.”
• Look at the word, for . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• We are going to use some of those blends now. We will start with the blends and add on the endings this time.
• You will write the spelling pattern with the parts given using lowercase letters. Use the beginning blend given. Then add on the endings provided.
• dr-  (This is the letter D.)
• ag, op, ip, ill, ug
• The first word you will write is drag.
• Read each word out loud after you write it. Make sure it says what you expect it to say.
• Your next sight word is WAS, was. This is, “That was the best part.”
• Look at the word,  was .
• Look at “was.”  The letters are all short letters .
• We are going to continue to use our beginning blends.
• Write the blend and then add on the endings. Check out Lesson 1  if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• and, ip, iss, ot, og
• Your next sight word is DOWN, down. “Please sit down.”
• Look at the word,  down .
• ip, ap, um, ess
• STR is a blend. Say the sounds. Say them together.
• Your next sight word is BLUE, blue. “Blue is my favorite color.”
• Look at the word,  blue .
• Say the letters out loud.
• -ay  (This says “A.” It is the long sound A. The long sound is when the letter says it’s name.)
• w, p, s, d, m
• P hangs down under the line. D is a tall letter.
• Your special word to practice today is SLEEP, sleep. “I go to sleep at eight thirty.”
• Look at the word, sleep .
• -ate  (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• r, l, h, g, f, d, m, pl
• Your next sight word is SAY, say. “What do you have to say about this?”
• Look at the word, say . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ake  (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• w, r, t, l, f, m, b, c, br, st
• Read your words after you write them. The word “brake” is the brake on your car. Brake means to slow and stop.
• Your next sight word is TWO, two. This is, “We have two dogs.”
• Look at the word, two .
• -ave  (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• s, g, c, p, r, w, sl, br, D
• D is capitalized because it starts a name.
• Your next sight word is BLACK, black. “Our dog is a black lab; he is so sweet.”
• Look at the word, black .
• -ame  (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• n, bl, c, s, f, l, t, fr
• Make sure to say each sound in the blend. If you can hear them, you can write them. You know what letter makes the F sound and what letter makes the R sound.
• Your next sight word is FUNNY, funny. “That joke is so funny.”
• Look at the word,  funny .
• -e  (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• m, w, h, sh
• Even though this E is all by itself, it has the long vowel sound. When it is alone in the word and at the end like that, it has the long vowel sound.
• Your special word to practice today is HOW, how. “How are you doing?”
• Look at the word, how .
• -ee  (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• b, s, fr, tr, thr, kn
• TH makes one sound. It is not a blend. TH and R are two sounds that blend together.
• That last one is knee, where your leg bends. This is not a blend. The K does not make a sound. It is a silent letter.
• Your special word to practice today is BY, by. “Come and sit by me.”
• Look at the word, by . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -eet    (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• f, m, sh, b
• Here are some new blends we haven’t used before. SH makes its own one sound.
• Read each word out loud after you write it. Make sure it says what you expect it to say. This is meet as in seeing someone. This is beet as in the vegetable.
• Your next sight word is WATER, water. This is, “Fill the dog’s water bowl.”
• Look at the word,  water .
• -eed  (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• f, w, s, d, n
• Your next sight word is HER, her. “I already have given it to her.”
• Look at the word,  her .
• -y    (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”) A letter “Y” at the end of a word has the long E sound when it is a longer word, when the word has more than one syllable.
• A syllable is each part of a word. Fun has one syllable. Clap and say “fun.” Now say funny. Clap fun-ny. It has two syllables. There are five syllables in the word “unbelievable,” un-be-liev-a-ble.
• Did you notice that each syllable has a vowel sound? Every syllable always has a vowel sound. That knowledge will help your spelling.
• Put the long vowel sound of “E” onto the end of these words by writing a Y after these word parts.
• happ, funn, sill, reall, read  (This last word will become ready, as in, Are you ready to go?)
• Read each of the words you just wrote: happy, funny, silly, ready.
• Say each one again with clapping. Hap-py  Fun-ny  Sil-ly  Rea-dy
• Your next sight word is READY, ready. “I am ready to go.”
• Look at the word,  ready .
• -ube  (This says “U.” It is the long sound U. The long sound is when the letter says it’s name. This pattern of vowel-consonant-vowel makes the first vowel say its name. The silent E at the end is a specific pattern you will be seeing and practicing a lot. Vowel-Consonant-E is something to look for at the end of the word. It’s a clue that the vowel says its name.)
• Your special word to practice today is FROM, from. “He is from China.”
• Look at the word, from .
• -ule  (This is the long vowel sound U, where U says its name, “U.”)
• Notice the vowel-consonant-E.
• Your next sight word is TO, to. “We’re going to go to the park.”
• Look at the word, to . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ose  (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.” The “S” is saying “Z.” This sounds like -oze.)
• r, p, h, th
• Your next sight word is FEET, feet. This is, “I need socks; my feet are cold.”
• Look at the word, feet .
• -ope  (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• h, r, m, n, c, sc
• Your next sight word is FIRST, first. “First, come over here, and then I’ll tell you.”
• Look at the word, first .
• -one  (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• b, c, t, st, cl, l, z
• Your next sight word is HIS, his. “His hair is bright red.”
• Look at the word,  his .
• -o  (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• Just like E, when a vowel is alone, usually it has its short vowel sound. However, when it is at the end of a word, it has its long vowel sound.
• n, s, g, br, pr
• Say the blends. Here each sound: P and R say their sounds apart and together.
• Your special word to practice today is FOUR, four. “We have four dogs.”
• Look at the word, four .
• -ive  (This is the long vowel sound I, where I says its name, “I.”)
• d, h, l, f, dr
• Make sure to read the words. Say “live” with the long vowel sound.
• Your next sight word is THEY, they. This is, “They are my friends.”
• Look at the word, they . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ike    (This is the long vowel sound I, where I says its name, “I.”)
• b, l, h, M, sp
• Your next sight word is OVER, over. This is, “We climbed over the fence.”
• Look at the word,  over .
• Look at “over.”  The letters are all short letters .
• -ide  (This is the long vowel sound I, where I says its name, “I.”)
• h, w, r, s, sl, pr, br
• We have a few blends here. Hear the sounds, so you can write the sounds.
• Your next sight word is NOSE, nose. “We have two eyes and one nose.”
• Look at the word,  nose .
• -y    (This is the long vowel sound I, where I says its name, “I.”) A letter “Y” at the end of a word has the long I sound when it is a one-syllable word.
• Do you remember that a syllable is each part of a word. Try has one syllable. Clap and say “try.” Now say happy. Clap hap-py. It has two syllables.
• How many syllables are in protected?
• Notice that every syllable has a vowel sound. It has three syllables.
• Put the long vowel sound of “I” onto the end of these words by writing a Y after the the word parts.
• b, m, tr, fr, dr, sk, wh
• WH together make one sound. It is not a blend. It just says the W sound.
• Read each of the words you just wrote.
• These words each have one syllable.
• Your next sight word is SKIES, skies. “Blue skies are smiling down on me.”
• Look at the word,  skies .
• -ile  (This says “I.” It is the long sound I. The long sound is when the letter says it’s name.)
• t, p, f, m, N, wh
• Read your words after you write them. Why is there a capital N? It’s a name, the name of a river. WH is one sound, just the sound of “W.”
• Your special word to practice today is EVERY, every. “Every good thing is from God.”
• Look at the word, every .
• -une  (This is the long vowel sound U, where U says its name, “U.”)
• Your next sight word is PUT, put. “Put that down carefully.”
• Look at the word, put . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ole  (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• r, p, s, m, h
• Your next sight word is THINK, think. This is, “Do you think this is a good drawing?”
• Look at the word, think .
• -ote  (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• Read your words after you write them. ROTE means repeating something without thinking. You should know your math facts by rote memory. You shouldn’t have to think about it; the answers just come out. WROTE means that you were writing something earlier. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.
• Your next sight word is SOME, some. “I’ll share some of them with you.”
• Look at the word, some .
• -ite  (This is the long vowel sound I, where I says its name, “I.”)
• Read your words after you write them. LITE with this spelling means something diet; it has less sugar. SITE with this spelling is a place. It could be a website, or it could be the site where you are going to set up your tent.
• Your next sight word is AGAIN, again. “Could you say that again?”
• Look at the word,  again .
• -oke  (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• j, w, p, C, br, str
• Are you noticing the silent E at the end? It makes the vowel say its name.
• Say the blends. Here each sound.
• Your special word to practice today is COULD, could. “I’m sure you could do it too.”
• Look at the word, could .
• -ise  (This is the long vowel sound I, where I says its name, “I.” Just like with -ose, this S says “Z.” Rose and rise both have the Z sound.)
• Make sure to read the words.
• Your next sight word is AFTER, after. This is, “After lunch we will go on a walk.”
• Look at the word, after . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ale    (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• m, k, p, t, wh
• Read each word out loud after you write it. MALE means a man or a boy. PALE means you don’t have a lot of color in your face. TALE means a story.
• Your next sight word is UNDER, under. This is, “We ducked under the fence.”
• Look at the word,  under .
• Look at “under.”  The letters are all short letters  except the D.
• -ane  (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• c, m, l, cr, pl
• Read the words. MANE means hair. PLANE is an airplane.
• Your next sight word is WHERE, where. “Where are my shoes?”
• Look at the word,  where .
• -ine  (This is the long vowel sound I, where I says its name, “I.”)
• m, p, sh, v, d, w
• Your next sight word is SAID, said. “She said she would do it.”
• Look at the word, said . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.

Lesson 61  (Materials: index card)

• I’ll give you the vowel-sound pattern and beginning and/or end parts to put with it. You will write them together, following the pattern. The lines show the spot where you put the pattern letters.
• -oan  (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• Say the blend, G-R, GR.
• Say the words that you wrote today.
• Your special word to practice today is ALWAYS, always. “I will always love you.”
• Look at the word, always .
• Look at “always.”  The letter L is a tall letter . The letter Y hangs down under the line. The other letters are short letters.
• Cover it over with your hand or a piece of paper. Click “Again” and when it disappears, write it.  Repeat. This might be a good time to have an index card and use it to cover the words. 
• You will write the spelling pattern with the parts given using lowercase letters. Check out Lesson 61  if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• -oat (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• b, thr, m, c
• Say the blend, TH-R THR.
• Your next sight word is BECAUSE, because. “I will be late because of all the traffic.”
• Look at the word, because . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -oak (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• Make sure to read the words. C-R CR, C-L CL
• Your next sight word is UPON, upon. “Once upon a time is how many stories begin.”
• Look at the word,  upon .
• Look at “upon.”  The letter are all short letters , except P hangs below the line.
• Write the blend and then add on the endings. Check out Lesson 61  if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• -oal (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• Read the words. FOAL means a baby horse.
• Your next sight word is BEEN, been. “Where have you been?”
• Look at the word,  been.
• -oap (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• Your next sight word is WRITE, write. “Write these words carefully to practice spelling.”
• Look at the word, write . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -eat (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• b, tr, m, h, s, wh
• Say the blend, T-R TR.  WH makes one sound, W.
• Say the words that you wrote today. A beat is part of a rhythm.
• Your next sight word is BEFORE, before. “Finish your school work before lunch.”
• Look at the word, before . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ean (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• cl, m, b, l
• Your next sight word is ANY, any. “Do we have any more syrup?”
• Look at the word,  any .
• Look at “any.”  The letter are all short letters , except Y hangs below the line.
• -eam (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• cr, gl, dr, b, s, t
• Your next sight word is OR, or. “Do you want pancakes or waffles?”
• Look at the word,  or .
• -eal (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• s, r, d, m, h
• Read your words after you write them. This is heal as in “getting better.”
• Your next sight word is READ, read. “I learned how to read.”
• Look at the word, read . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ead (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• Your next sight word is VERY, very. “We are very thankful for everything we’ve been given.”
• Look at the word, very . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ain  (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• g, m, r, p, str, pl, br, dr
• Say the blends, S-T-R, STR.
• Say the words that you wrote today. The word plain means ordinary.
• Your special word to practice today is THESE, these. “These apples are the best sort.”
• Look at the word, these .
• -ait (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• Your next sight word is OFF, off. “Turn off the lights when you come upstairs.”
• Look at the word, off . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ail (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• p, m, s, h, f, t
• Make sure to read the words. Pail is a bucket. Mail is the letters you get. Tail is on the back of a dog.
• Your next sight word is WASH, wash. “You need to wash your hands after digging in the mud.”
• Look at the word,  wash .
• -air (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• f, p, h, l, ch, st
• Read the words. Pair means two that go together.
• Your next sight word is PULL, pull. “The horse pulls the sleigh.”
• Look at the word,  pull.
• -aid (This is the long vowel sound A, where A says its name, “A.”)
• p, l, m, br, r
• Read your words after you write them. This is maid as in a person who is paid to clean.
• Your next sight word is WHICH, which. “Which of these do you want?”
• Look at the word, which . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -eep (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• b, w, p, sl, k, d
• Your next sight word is SWEEP, sweep. “Please sweep up the crumbs under the table.”
• Look at the word, sweep . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -eel (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• Read the words. This is heel as on the back of your foot. This is peel as in what’s on a banana.
• Your next sight word is YOUR, your. “Is this your shirt or mine?”
• Look at the word, your .
• Look at “your.”  The letter are all short letters , except Y hangs below the line.
• -eet  (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• tw, gr, sw, str, fl, sl
• Here are some new blends we haven’t used before. T and W each have a sound that get blended into TW. G and R are blended into GR. F and L are blended into FL. Hear each sound, so you know to write each sound.
• Your next sight word is US, us. “Do you want to come with us?”
• Look at the word,  us .
• bl, fr, gr, sp
• Say each blend. Read your words after you write them.
• Your next sight word is RIGHT, right. “I throw with my right hand.”
• Look at the word, right . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -een (This is the long vowel sound E, where E says its name, “E.”)
• t, scr, gr, s, qu
• SCR says S-C-R, three sounds blended together. Hear them all so that you write them all.
• Your next sight word is BETWEEN, between. “Between you and me, I think you’re the best player on the team.”
• Look at the word, between . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -oe  (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• t, M, f, w, h
• What is the capital letter for? A name!
• Your special word to practice today is USE, use. “These use AA batteries.”
• Look at the word, use .
• -ow (This is the long vowel sound O, where O says its name, “O.”)
• Your next sight word is ITS, its. “Its fur is so soft.”
• Look at the word, its . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• thr, cr, sl
• Your next sight word is BLOW, blow. “Can you blow out all your candles at once?”
• Look at the word, blow . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ue (This is the long vowel sound U, where U says its name, “U.”)
• bl, tr, s, S
• Read the words. Sue is a name and something people do to try to force someone in court to make up for something they did wrong.
• Your next sight word is MADE, made. “We made sugar cookies for Christmas.”
• Look at the word,  made.
• -ie (This is the long vowel sound I, where I says its name, “I.”)
• p, l , t, d
• Your next sight word is CALL, call. “Call me when you are ready to come home.”
• Look at the word, call . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• pl, pr, st, str, cl
• Say the blends. Hear the two sounds in each of them. It will tell you which letters you need to write!
• P hangs down under the line. L and T are tall letters.
• Your next sight word is GAVE, gave. “He gave me his favorite ball.”
• Look at the word, gave . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ool (This is the long vowel sound U, where U says its name without the Y sound in front.)
• Your next sight word is FOUND, found. “Have you found your shoes?”
• Look at the word, found .
• -ool (This is the long vowel sound U, where U says its name without the Y sound in front.) We’ll continue with this and use some blends.
• Read the words. CH is the K sound when it follows the S. SCH is S-K as a blend.
• The other blend is D-R, DR.
• Your next sight word is FAST, fast. “How fast can you skate?”
• Look at the word,  fast . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -oon (This is the long vowel sound U, where U says its name without the Y sound in front.)
• Your next sight word is COLD, cold. “It was so cold out yesterday. I could see my breath.”
• Look at the word, cold . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -oop (This is the long vowel sound U, where U says its name without the Y sound in front.)
• sc, h, l, c, st, tr
• Your next sight word is WHO, who. “Who keeps turning out the lights?”
• Look at the word, who . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your special word to practice today is DOES, does. “He does all the work by himself.”
• Look at the word, does .
• -ew (This is the long vowel sound U, where U says its name without the beginning Y sound.)
• n, Dr, gr, cr
• Say the words that you wrote today. The D is a capital letter because it’s a name.
• Your next sight word is AROUND, around. “Look around for my pencil. I dropped it around here somewhere.”
• Look at the word, around . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -oot (This is the long vowel sound U, where U says its name without the beginning Y sound.)
• root, boot, toot, loot
• Your next sight word is BUY, buy. “Did you buy some more milk?”
• Look at the word, buy . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -oom (This is the long vowel sound U, where U says its name without the beginning Y sound.)
• r, bl, b, l, vr
• A lowercase B is like a uppercase B with the top erased.
• Your next sight word is CHILD, child. “Jesus told us to be like a little child.”
• Look at the word, child.
• -ar (This is one sound.)
• Read the words. They all rhyme.
• Your next sight word is THOSE, those. “Those are my favorite.”
• Look at the word, those . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -arn  (This is AR-N blended together.)
• Y hangs down under the line. D and B are tall letters.
• Your next sight word is WISH, wish. “My wish is for a pony.”
• Look at the word, wish . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -arm (This is AR-M blended together.)
• Your next sight word is WOULD, would. “Would you please help?”
• Look at the word, would .
• -or (This is one sound.)
• Your next sight word is THEIR, their. “Their dog is very friendly.”
• Look at the word, their . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -oor (This is the same sound as OR.)
• Your next sight word is WHY, why. “Why are you still sleeping?”
• Look at the word, why . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ore (This is the same sound as OR.)
• Your next sight word is DON’T, don’t. “Don’t come in! I’m working on a surprise.”
• Look at the word, don’t . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -n’t  (This is a contraction for the word not.)
• wo, ca, do, could
• Read the words. Won’t means will not. Couldn’t means could not. Don’t means do not.
• Your special word to practice today is KIND, kind. “He is a kind man, always nice and helpful.”
• Look at the word, kind .
• -‘s  (This is a contraction for the word is.)
• it, she, he
• Your next sight word is BOTH, both. “I can’t choose; I want them both.”
• Look at the word, both . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -‘ll (This is a contraction for the word will.)
• Your next sight word is EIGHT, eight. “When I turned eight, we made a pinata for my birthday.”
• Look at the word, eight . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -‘re  (This is a contraction for the word are.)
• they, you, we
• Your next sight word is WINTER, winter. “Winter is my favorite season because of the snow.”
• Look at the word,  winter.
• -‘ve  (This is a contraction for the word have. Add it to the end of the words below.)
• we, you, I, should
• Read the words. Should’ve means should have. We’ve means we have.
• Your next sight word is ANOTHER, another. “Do you want to play another game?”
• Look at the word, another . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ash (This is the short A sound as in hat.)
• b, d, g, m, r, c
• G hangs down under the line. D and B are tall letters.
• The SH is one sound.
• Your next sight word is SOUND, sound. “He laughs so hard the sound practically shakes the walls.”
• Look at the word, sound . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ash  (This is the short O sound as in hog.)
• -atch  (This is the same sound, like the short O sound as in hog.)
• Your next sight word is ANIMAL, animal. “We sometimes have wild animals in our yard.”
• Look at the word, animal .
• Your next sight word is BETTER, better. “I want to try again. I know I can do better.”
• Look at the word, better . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ich (This is the short I sound and CH is one sound.)
• Your next sight word is LIGHT, light. “Turn the light on so we can see what we’re doing.”
• Look at the word, light . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -itch (This is the short I sound and TCH is one sound, the CH sound.)
• p, d, h, st
• Your next sight word is CAN’T, can’t. “I can’t figure this riddle out.”
• Look at the word, can’t . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• w, r, s, str
• Your special word to practice today is YEAR, year. “We celebrate the new year on January first.”
• Look at the word, year .
• st, br, fl, cl, sl
• Your next sight word is EVEN, even. “Give one to everyone so it’s even.”
• Look at the word, even . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• b, f, s, g, r
• Your next sight word is FAMILY, family. “We get together with all the family for Thanksgiving.”
• Look at the word, family . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• s, r, l, st
• Your next sight word is LOUD, loud. “That siren is so loud!”
• Look at the word,  loud.
• p, l, g, s, str
• Your next sight word is NEW, new. “My new shoes are stiff and need to be broken in.”
• Look at the word, new . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is ONLY, only. “Only two people showed up to help.”
• Look at the word, only . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• l, n, s, br, m
• Your next sight word is PLACE, place. “Is this the place where we should meet?”
• Look at the word, place .
• w, bl, s, r, p
• Your next sight word is TWELVE, twelve. “There were twelve disciples.”
• Look at the word, twelve . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• bl, s, r, pl, t
• Your next sight word is SAYS, says. “He says this is the best one.”
• Look at the word, says . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is LARGE, large. “We get the large size and then share it.”
• Look at the word, large . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.

Lesson 121  (Materials: Index card)

• -ook  (This is NOT the U sound. This has its own sound as in the word look.)
• Your special word to practice today is EVERYTHING, everything. “I can’t decide which one I want. I want everything!”
• Look at the word, everything .
• Cover it over with your hand or a piece of paper. Click “Again” and when it disappears, write it.  Repeat. This might be a good time to have an index card and use it to cover the word. 
• s, l, p, k, t
• Your next sight word is ABOUT, about. “What is this story about?”
• Look at the word, about . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• cl, d, bl, s, r
• Your next sight word is FULL, full. “I’m done with my dinner; I feel full.”
• Look at the word, full . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• d, cl, y, t
• Your next sight word is SEVEN, seven. “There are seven of us all together.”
• Look at the word, seven.
• b, p, t, r, tr
• Your next sight word is MYSELF, myself. “I am going to do it myself.”
• Look at the word, myself . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ome (This is the short U sound like in sum.)
• Your next sight word is CARRY, carry. “I will help you carry the bags.”
• Look at the word, carry . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -one (This is the short U sound as in bun.)
• Your next sight word is LAUGH, laugh. “He is so funny; he always makes me laugh.”
• Look at the word, laugh .
• c, st, d, p
• Your next sight word is NEVER, never. “I would never do that.”
• Look at the word, never . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• dr, l, p, s
• Your next sight word is AWFUL, awful. “I think it tastes awful!”
• Look at the word, awful . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ey (This is the long sound A.)
• Your next sight word is DOESN’T, doesn’t. “He doesn’t need any more.”
• Look at the word, doesn’t . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. It has an apostrophe. It means does not.
• -atch  (This is the short A sound as in hat. TCH is one sound.)
• m, c, h, l, p
• Your special word to practice today is SIX, six. “I ate six rasberries.”
• Look at the word, six .
• -ind  (This is the long I sound as in hi.)
• k, m, f, gr, bl
• Your next sight word is HALF, half. “Let’s divide it in half and share.”
• Look at the word, half . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ild  (This is the long I sound as in hi.)
• Your next sight word is OWN, own. “I own the whole collection.”
• Look at the word, own . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -old  (This is the long O sound as in boat.)
• Your next sight word is HURT, hurt. “My new shoes hurt my feet.”
• Look at the word, hurt.
• -mb  (This is just the M sound, the B is silent.)
• co, la, du, bo
• Your next sight word is DONE, done. “I have worked for so long, but I am done.”
• Look at the word, done . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -tion (This is the sound “shun.” It’s one syllable.)
• ac, mo, po, lo
• Your next sight word is HAPPEN, happen. “If you follow the directions in the experiment, a color change should happen.”
• Look at the word, happen . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Reminder on syllable: A syllable is each part of a word. Fun has one syllable. Clap and say “fun.” Now say funny. Clap fun-ny. It has two syllables. There are five syllables in the word “unbelievable,” un-be-liev-a-ble.
• fun (becomes funny), hap (becomes happy), sil, real, pup
• Your next sight word is EVERYONE, everyone. “Everyone needs to come in here to listen to this.”
• Look at the word, everyone .
• part, bold, clean, neat
• Your next sight word is CHANGE, change. “You need to change your socks; they are soaking wet.”
• Look at the word, change . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• fear, care, end, help
• Your next sight word is KEPT, kept. “I have kept this shell since our trip to the beach.”
• Look at the word, kept . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -er  (This is always its own syllable. When you hear “er” as its own syllable, you know that the R has to come with a vowel. Every syllable has a vowel.)
• help, bold, great, old, low
• Read your words after you write them. These are all adjectives. When we add the E-R, we are making them comparative adjectives. They are comparing two things, such as I am older than you.
• Your next sight word is MONDAY, Monday. “Monday is the day we start school for each week.”
• Look at the word, Monday . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Put the word parts together.
• -ook  (This is NOT the long U sound. This is the sound in book and look.)
• c, h, n, sh
• Your special word to practice today is WORK, work. “I will join you when I finish my work.”
• Look at the word, work .
• -ow  (This is the sound when you hurt yourself, ow!)
• c, n, b, all
• Say the words that you wrote today. The last one is bow as in bow down before the King.
• Your next sight word is MOST, most. “I love it the most!”
• Look at the word, most . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -own  (This is the sound of hurting yourself.)
• cr, fr, g, d, cl
• Your next sight word is HOUSE, house. “Our house is at the end of the street.”
• Look at the word, house . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Hopper is a bunny hopping along. A hoper is someone who has hope.
• The first word below should be hotter.
• hot, thin, big, fat, slim
• Read the words; they are all comparative adjectives. Hear the two syllables. When you hear that syllable on the end, you know that there is a vowel there. You know you aren’t just writing an R.
• Your next sight word is SUMMER, summer. “I like summer because I like to go swimming.”
• Look at the word, summer .
• play, throw, kick, read, spell, jump
• Your next sight word is CANNOT, cannot. “I cannot figure this out.”
• Look at the word, cannot . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• The vowel, consonant, vowel pattern makes the vowel saying it’s name.
• Hoping means you hope something good is going to happen. The I makes the O say it’s name and O has the long vowel sound.
• Hopping is when something is jumping around. When we double the vowel, it says hopping. The vowels are kept apart and the O has its short sound.
• run (ru nn ing), swim, hit, beg, chat, chop, dig, drag, get
• Your next sight word is ELEVEN, eleven. “We have eleven pets!”
• Look at the word, eleven . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -s  (Make the words plural by adding an S. Plural means more than one. One book-Two books)
• book, tool, run, win, part, cow, door, hall, tree, clock
• Your next sight word is FRIEND, friend. “Can I have a friend over this afternoon?”
• Look at the word, friend .
• -es  (Make the words plural by adding -ES. Hear the extra syllable this adds onto the end of the word. That’s how you know it is ES and not just S. Every syllable has a vowel.)
• peach, pitch, box, miss, fix, dress, wish
• Your next sight word is THERE, there. “Put them down over there.”
• Look at the word, there . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ead  (This is the short E sound as in bed.)
• h, l, d, br, spr
• Your next sight word is I’ve. “I’ve always wondered about that!”
• Look at the word, I’ve . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is GIVE, give. “Would you please give me one to try?”
• Look at the word, give . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -uy  (This is the long I sound. This is the sound in hi and sigh.)
• Your special word to practice today is SHOE, shoe. “I can’t find my other shoe.”
• Look at the word, shoe .
• Read it. Say it.
• Then say the letters out loud.
• Close your eyes and picture the word.
• Write the word in the air  and on the table with your finger.
• -ice  (This is the long I sound and the C has its soft S sound.)
• n, m, l, r, d
• Your next sight word is SECOND, second. “I came in second place!”
• Look at the word, second . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ace  (This is the long A sound and the C has its soft sound S.)
• r, m, p, l, f
• Your next sight word is OUR, our. “Our house is at the end of the street.”
• Look at the word, our . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -age  (This is the long A sound and the letter G has its sound sound as in George.)
• c, p, r, w, s
• Your next sight word is SISTER, sister. “I have two brothers and one sister.”
• Look at the word, sister .
• -ied  (This is the long I sound.)
• l, cr, tr, d
• Your next sight word is COUNT, count. “I can count to a million!”
• Look at the word, count . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• This time take off the Y and then add the ending.
• tr y , cr y
• Your next sight word is COPIED, copied. “I copied the recipe exactly.”
• Look at the word, copied . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ies  (Make the words plural by taking away the Y and adding an IES. Plural means more than one. One book-Two books)
• bab y , lad y , cit y , part y , fl y
• Read the words. The I has the same sound as whatever sound the Y made.
• Your next sight word is CLIMB, climb. “That looks like a good tree to climb.”
• Look at the word, climb .
• -ing  (Take the E off the end of the word and add ING. These words have their long vowel sound. We are NOT adding a double letter. We don’t need to keep the vowels apart.)
• ride, hide, come, smile, drive
• Your next sight word is CAUGHT, caught. “The mouse got caught in the trap.”
• Look at the word, caught . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ound  (The first word below is hound, as in a hound dog. The O-U says “ow” like you hurt yourself.)
• h, f, p, m, s
• Your next sight word is MOUTH, mouth. “A bug flew into my mouth!”
• Look at the word, mouth . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ound  (The last word below will make “around.” The O-U makes the “ow” sound like you hurt yourself.)
• Which of these words has two syllables?
• Your next sight word is BREAKFAST, breakfast. “Did you eat breakfast yet?”
• Look at the word, breakfast . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -oil  (This is the word oil. This vowel sound is the vowel sound in joy and boy.)
• Your special word to practice today is PICNIC, picnic. “Pack up for the picnic.”
• Look at the word, picnic .
• -oin  (This is the same vowel sound as in oil.)
• Your next sight word is QUEEN, queen. “The queen is married to the king.”
• Look at the word, queen . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ouse  (This is the “ow” sound when you hurt yourself.)
• Your next sight word is QUICKLY, quickly. “I want to quickly finish this, so I can do something else.”
• Look at the word, quickly . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -outh  (This is the same vowel sound as house, the “ow” sound.)
• Your next sight word is PIECE, piece. “Can I have another piece, please?”
• Look at the word, piece .
• -out  (This is the same vowel sound as in mouth and house. This is the “ow” sound like you hurt yourself.)
• ab, p, st, tr, sh
• Your next sight word is MOVE, move. “Our family is going to move to a new house.”
• Look at the word, move . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ount  (This is the same vowel sound as in the word out.)
• m, c, am, acc
• Which of these words have two syllables?
• Your next sight word is NONE, none. “There are none left.”
• Look at the word, none . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ck  (This just makes one sound. It comes in the middle or end of a word, never at the beginning.)
• tri, bri, clo, atta
• Your next sight word is CRAZY, crazy. “This is going to sound crazy.”
• Look at the word, crazy .
• kn-  (This is one sound. The K is silent. This is just the N sound.)
• Your next sight word is BASKET, basket. “I made ten baskets at practice today.”
• Look at the word, basket . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• wr-  (This is just the R sound. The W is silent.)
• ite, ong, ote, ing (as in wring the water out of your sock)
• Your next sight word is COLOR, color. “My favorite color is blue.”
• Look at the word, color . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ign  (This is the long I sound and the G is silent. It could be written INE.)
• s, ass, res, des, al
• The word campaign is another one with the silent G.
• Your next sight word is EYES, eyes. “I spy with my two eyes something red!”
• Look at the word, eyes . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -le  (This is the L sound, but it gets its own syllable.)
• tab, ab, Bib, padd, unc, eag
• Read these words out loud. They are all two-syllable words.
• Your special word to practice today is AFRAID, afraid. “We were afraid for a minute when the lights went out.”
• Look at the word, afraid .
• Click “Again” and when it disappears, write it.  Repeat.
• Are you leaving a nice space between the words?
• -al  (This is the L sound. It has its own syllable.)
• tot, fin, met, tri, loc
• Read the words. They are each two syllables.
• Your next sight word is LOSE, lose. “I knew they would lose the game after they missed that shot.”
• Look at the word, lose . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ouch  (This is the “ow” sound when you hurt yourself.)
• ouch is it’s own word, c, p, gr-y, sl, cr
• Your next sight word is DRAW, draw. “I wish I could draw as well as her. It looks so real!”
• Look at the word, draw . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• g-  (The G followed by an E or an I sometimes has its soft sound, as in George.)
• entle, iraffe, erm, iant
• The G in these words has its soft sound.
• Your next sight word is HEART, heart. “I cut out a heart to make a card for my mom.”
• Look at the word, heart .
• c-  (C followed by an E or an I will usually have its soft sound.)
• ell, ent, ity, ider
• Read the words.
• Your next sight word is EASY, easy. “This will be easy for me. I got this.”
• Look at the word, easy . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• w, s, b, Tr
• g-ent-le-man  Put all those parts together! That uses the soft G followed by an E and the LE that is its own syllable. How many syllables is this word? Three syllables
• Your next sight word is SLEPT, slept. “We slept through the storm and never heard the thunder.”
• Look at the word, slept . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -cle  (This is one syllable just like LE is.)
• cy, bicy, tricy, ici, mira
• The CY has the soft C sound and the Y is like an I in these words. The second word there is another way to say bike.
• Your next sight word is FRONT, front. “I like playing in the front yard.”
• Look at the word, front .
• -ea-  (This is the short E sound sometimes. Put it in the middle of the words.)
• h-d, d-d, d-f, h-vy, br-d
• Your next sight word is LEAVE, leave. “I will leave the book here so you can read it.”
• Look at the word, leave . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ie  (This is the long E sound even though it looks like it should say something else!)
• bel-ve, th-f, p-ce, br-f, cash-r
• Your next sight word is BEAR, bear. “We saw a bear in the woods.”
• Look at the word, bear . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ei  (This is the long E sound just like it looks like it should say. We have a rhyme that says, “I before E except after C.” That’s not always true, but it can help you figure out if you should spell a word IE or EI.)
• c-ling, rec-ve, w-rd, -ther
• Read the words out loud. One of these words just has one syllable. Which one?
• Your next sight word is TOUCH, touch. “Don’t touch that! It’s hot.”
• Look at the word, touch . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.

Lesson 181  (Materials: Index Card)

• Put the word parts together. The dash shows where to put the word part. Check out Lesson 61  if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• au  (This is the aw sound, like something is super cute.)
• -to, c-ght, t-ght
• Your special word to practice today is TUESDAY, Tuesday. “I have piano lessons on Tuesdays.”
• Look at the word, Tuesday .
• Read it. Say it.
• Leave a space between each word.
• You can use the index card to cover up the words you’ve already written, so you aren’t just copying.
• -ght, b-ght, c-gh
• Read the words. The last one has a sound we haven’t practiced. The last word is cough, like when you have something in your throat and you make a noise pushing out air to get it out. What sound is that GH making?
• Did you notice which two letters always follow OU when it’s making this sound?
• Your next sight word is WEDNESDAY, Wednesday. “We meet every Wednesday.”
• Look at the word, Wednesday . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -our  (This is the “or” sound.)
• y, f, t, p, f-th
• All of these starting letters are either tall letters or letters that hang down.
• Say the words that you wrote today. They all rhyme.
• Your next sight word is VOICE, voice. “You have a beautiful singing voice.”
• Look at the word, voice . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• ou  (This is the “ow” sound like when you hurt yourself.)
• h-r, s-r, l-d, -ch, n-n, c-ch
• Read the words. They all have the “ow” vowel sound.
• Your next sight word is YOUNG, young. “When I was young, we didn’t have all the gadgets that kids have today.”
• Look at the word, young .
• c-nt, pr-d, sh-t, cl-d, ar-nd, gr-nd
• Your next sight word is TOWN, town. “I live in a small town.”
• Look at the word, town . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• ou  (This is the long U sound, where U says its name.)
• y-, s-p, y-th, c-gar, gr-p
• Your next sight word is YOU’RE, you’re. “You’re the first one to arrive.”
• Look at the word, you’re . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• ou  (This is the long O sound, where it says its name.)
• th-gh, alth-gh, thor-gh, d-gh
• What two letters always follow O-U when it makes this sound?
• Your next sight word is MERRY, merry. “Merry Christmas!”
• Look at the word, merry .
• ou  (This is the short U sound this time. That’s the sound in the middle of words like bug and run.)
• t-ch, t-gh, r-gh, d-ble, c-sin
• Read the words. Here we see the G-H making the F sound again.
• Your next sight word is TROUBLE, trouble. “I don’t want to get into trouble.”
• Look at the word, trouble . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -dge  (This is one sound, the soft G sound as in George.)
• ju, fu, ri, e, we
• Your next sight word is SUIT, suit. “I need to iron my suit before the show.”
• Look at the word, suit . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• dge (This is the same sound.)
• do-s, bu-t, nu-d, ba-r, ga-t
• Your next sight word is I’LL, I’ll. “I’ll be the first in line. I can’t wait!”
• Look at the word, I’ll . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Put the word parts together. The dash shows where to put the word part.
• ir  (This is the “er” sound.)
• b-d, ch-p, f-m, g-l, sh-t
• Your special word to practice today is DIRTY, dirty. “Your clothes are so dirty. What have you been doing?”
• Look at the word, dirty .
• c-cus, st-, f-st, squ-t, tw-l
• The first word is a C followed by an I, so it has its soft S sound. The second C has the hard K sound. The S-Q-U is one sound. T-W is also one sound. It’s a blend we haven’t seen yet.
• Your next sight word is THROUGH, through. “We need to drive through the tunnel to get to the other side of the mountain.”
• Look at the word, through . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• ur  (This is the “er” sound.)
• c-b, b-p, bl-t, h-l, c-l, t-n
• Your next sight word is BUILDING, building. “I made a lego building.”
• Look at the word, building . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• sp-t, sl-p, b-nt, b-st, c-ve, f-ther
• Your next sight word is SURE, sure. “I am sure that this is the right direction.”
• Look at the word, sure .
• hamb-ger, t-tle, st-dy, ret-n, dist-b, p-pose
• Your next sight word is SUPPOSE, suppose. “I suppose he’ll want some too.”
• Look at the word, suppose . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• h-, v-b, ov-, socc-, G-man, s-v-
• There are tons of words that end in E-R. An “er” at the end of the word is like E-R.
• Your next sight word is THOUGHT, thought. “I thought this was the best way to do it.”
• Look at the word, thought . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• p-son, obs-ve, s-vice, v-sion, av-age, c-tain
• Read the words. How many syllables do they each have?  (Answer: two )
• Your next sight word is PEOPLE, people. “There are so many people here for the concert.”
• Look at the word, people .
• air  (This is the long A sound this time. That’s where A says it’s name. This follows the rule that when two vowels are together, the first one says it’s name.)
• ch-, d-y, p-ing, desp-
• Your next sight word is QUESTION, question. “May I ask you a question?”
• Look at the word, question . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• ph  (This is the F sound.)
• -one, -oto, gra-, Ral-, or-an, ne-ew
• Read the words. Why is there a capital R in the one word? (Answer: It is a name. )
• Your next sight word is PHOBIC, phobic. “She’s extremely phobic of spiders.”
• Look at the word, phobic . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• gh (We saw this in some other words, but today we’ll give it attention.)
• tou-, cou-, enou-, rou-ly, lau-ter
• Your next sight word is HUNDRED, hundred. “On the hundredth day of school we jumped rope a hundred times.”
• Look at the word, hundred . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• qu  (This U does NOT make one of its vowel sounds. Q and U almost always go together. If you write Q, write U after it. It gives the Q its “qw” sound.)
• -ite, -it, -ickly, -ake, -iz, -iver
• Read your words after you’ve written them. The last one is pronounced with a short I sound even though it has that E there. It rhymes with “river.” Two of the words have two syllables. Which ones?
• Your special word to practice today is WHISPER, whisper. “Please whisper. Your sister is sleeping.”
• Look at the word, whisper .
• -est, -aint, -arter, -ality, -arrel, -irky
• Your next sight word is WHILE, while. “While I finish clearing the table, would you please put the dishes in the dishwasher?”
• Look at the word, while . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ard, -ilty, -itar, -inea pig, -ess
• Your next sight word is STRAIGHT, straight. “You are almost there, just keep heading straight.”
• Look at the word, straight . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
•  idance, -arantee, -ide, -est, -y
• Your next sight word is REMEMBER, remember. “I remember that day like it was yesterday.”
• Look at the word, remember .
• You will write the spelling pattern with the parts given using lowercase letters. Check out Lesson 61 if you need a reminder of how to do these lessons.
• ash, ish, eeze, irrel, eal, irt, irm
• Your next sight word is ELSE, else. “What else can I get for you?”
• Look at the word, else . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ye  (This is also the long I sound.)
• These words all rhyme!
• Your next sight word is EDGE, edge. “Please be careful and stay back from the edge.”
• Look at the word, edge . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• ui  (This is the long U sound, which is what it should be! When it is with the G or the Q, then the U is silent. But here, it is doing its job as the first vowel in a pair and saying its name.)
• j-ce, s-t, fr-t, fr-tcake, spaces-t
• Read the words. How many syllables do they each have?  (Answers: one, one, one, two, two )
• Your next sight word is EARLY, early. “We are going to be leaving very early tomorrow morning.”
• Look at the word, early .
• ui  (This is the long U sound again. This time the I is not going to be silent. It will have its short-vowel sound.)
• fl-d, r-ns, gen-ne
• Read the words. The last one has its short I sound even though there is a silent E.
• Your next sight word is BROUGHT, brought. “I brought some cookies to share.”
• Look at the word, brought . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ine  (This is the short I sound like at the end of genuine, as if the silent E wasn’t there.)
• adrenal-, genu-, hero-, femin-, mascul-
• Your next sight word is KNIFE, knife. “Can you bring a knife over to cut the bread?”
• Look at the word, knife . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• un- (This is what we call a prefix. Something we fix onto a word at the beginning. This prefix means NOT, or the opposite. We can do something or undo something and take it back. Since it is a prefix, it will go onto the front of the word.)
• -tie, -cut, -bend, -seal, -mask, -stoppable
• How many syllables is in the last word? (Answer: un-stop-pa-ble, 4 )
• Your next sight word is ENOUGH, enough. “I think we have more than enough for everyone.”
• Look at the word, enough . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• ea  (This is the long A sound.)
• b-r, gr-t, br-k, st-k, p-r, w-r
• Read your words after you’ve written them.
• Your special word to practice today is STATION, station. “The train pulled into the station.”
• Look at the word, station .
• -oy  (This is the sound at the end of boy.)
• b, t, R, s, all, depl
• Your next sight word is WORLD, world. “God has the whole world in His hands.”
• Look at the word, world . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• w-nt, w-sh, w-ter, w-llet, sw-mp, w-tch
• Say the words that you wrote today. What letter does the A always come after when it makes this sound?
• Your next sight word is NOTHING, nothing. “I brought nothing with me.”
• Look at the word, nothing . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• or   (This time we’ll put it not just at the end of a word.)
•  st-y, -bit, gl-y, aff-d, h-se, -phan, f-mat
• Your next sight word is SOUP, soup. “My family loves to eat lentil soup.”
• Look at the word, soup .
• -ity  (This is the short I sound followed by the long E sound for the letter Y.)
• grav-, clar-, ident-, san-, qual-, simplic-
• Say the words that you wrote today. The last one has a soft C sound (“S”) because it is followed by an I.
• Your next sight word is FIELD, field. “Let’s go over to the field to play soccer.”
• Look at the word, field . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ous  (This sound like the word “us.”)
• fam-, delici-, spaci-, danger-, anxi-, cauti-
• Apart from some exceptions, the ones that have the letter I there are words with a C. The letter I gives it its soft sound, “SH.”
• Your next sight word is AIRPLANE, airplane. “I have never flown in an airplane.”
• Look at the word, airplane . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ious  (This is two sounds, long E and the word “us.”)
• obv-, cur-, fur-, nefar-, var-, ser-
• Read the words. How many syllables do they each have?  (Answers: three, except for nefarious, which has four )
• Your next sight word is ADDRESS, address. “Give me your address so I can send you a card.”
• Look at the word, address .
• -er- (This is the long A sound, as in the word “very.”)
• m-ry, v-y, inh-it, st-eo, sh-iff
• Your next sight word is AGAINST, against. “I am against this. I think it’s a horrible idea.”
• Look at the word, against . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• v-ify, t-ritory, gen-ic, t-rible, ch-ry
• Your next sight word is GROCERIES, groceries. “Could you please help me bring in the groceries and put them away?”
• Look at the word, groceries . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -d (Let’s add D onto the end of verbs to make them past tense. When a word has the vowel-consonant-silent E pattern, we just need to add a D.)
• bake, care, share, dare, hire
• Did adding the D add a syllable? (Answer: No, because we didn’t add a vowel. Every syllable must have a vowel. )
• Your next sight word is EITHER, either. “We want to play either Monopoly or Clue.”
• Look at the word, either . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• require, scare, inspire, cure, stare
• Your special word to practice today is DELIVER, deliver. “Help me deliver this present.”
• Look at the word, deliver .
• -r  (We’re going to put this onto the end of complete words, turning words like time into timer. It turns a word into someone or something that does something such as dive becoming diver.)
• time, dive, lone, game, use, move
• Your next sight word is BUZZER, buzzer. “He hit the buzzer just before time ran out.”
• Look at the word, buzzer . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -er  (This is used to turn a word into a person or thing that does something, such as box into boxer and dry into dryer. These words don’t have E on the end already, so we add the E.)
• box, sing, farm, sell, work, hunt
• Read the words. They are all people. These words are all nouns.
• Your next sight word is GENTLE, gentle. “He is so gentle with the animals.”
• Look at the word, gentle . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -er   (This time we’ll put a double letter before the E-R. Why? We need to keep the vowels apart to keep the first vowel from saying its name. We’ve done this before. This time we’ll focus just on words that describe what someone or something does.)
•  drum, run, swim
• Say the words that you wrote today. These are all nouns. They are people.
• Your next sight word is FRUIT, fruit. “Bananas, apples, and oranges are my favorite fruits.”
• Look at the word, fruit .
• -ive  (This is the short I sound.)
• g, act, detect, defens, posit, l
• Say the words that you wrote today. The last one can be read two ways. It can be the short I sound or the long I sound. What are the words? However, give only has the short I sound.
• Your next sight word is DANGER, danger. “There’s a sign warning of danger ahead!”
• Look at the word, danger . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ance  (The Letter E is silent, but it gives the C its soft S sound.)
• d, gl, ch, import, dist, bal
• Your next sight word is COVER, cover. “Cover the food so the ants don’t get in.”
• Look at the word, cover . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -ed  (Let’s make words past tense by adding E-D. These words don’t already have E at the end.)
• fix, mark, fail, sign, smash, guard
• Read the words. Only the last one gets an extra syllable when it is pronounced.
• Your next sight word is DAMAGE, damage. “The storm didn’t really cause any damage.”
• Look at the word, damage .
• stu, ro, acci, presi, confi
• Read the words. How many syllables do they have? Each syllable chunk must have a vowel. (Answer: two, two, three, three, three )
• Your next sight word is HONEY, honey. “Bears like to eat honey.”
• Look at the word, honey . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -ure (This is pronounced with an ER/OR sound.)
• s, p, nat, fig, fail, feat
• Your next sight word is COUPLE, couple. “I have a couple of suggestions for you.”
• Look at the word, couple . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -sure (This is the same ER sound.)
• trea, clo, mea, plea
• Read the words. Do you hear that the S has a different sound?
• Your next sight word is HOUR, hour. “We still have another hour to drive before we get there.”
• Look at the word, hour . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• y  (This Y has the short I sound.)
• m-th, g-m, c-linder, m-stery, Eg-pt, ph-sical
• Your special word to practice today is MEANT, meant. “I had meant to tell you, but I kept forgetting.”
• Look at the word, meant .
• -ify (This is the short I sound and the letter Y has the long I sound. This breaks the rule that a Y at the end of a word with more than one syllable has the E sound.)
• not, ver, un, mod, qual, glor
• This vowel spelling patterns you just use in forms of the word beauty.
• Your special word to practice today is WHETHER, whether. “I don’t know whether or not I’ll be able to go.”
• Look at the word, whether . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• beau- (These vowels together say the long U sound. This is pronounced as B-You blended.)
• -ty, -tiful, -tify, -tification
• Say the words that you wrote today. This vowel spelling pattern of “eau” that says the long U sound is just used in forms of the word beauty.
• Your next sight word is POLICE, police. “The police catch people who break the law.”
• Look at the word, police . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -eau  (This time it has the long O sound. These are words English got from the French and they kept their spelling.)
•  plat, bur, chat
• Say the words that you wrote today. Do you know what they mean? You could search up pictures if you don’t. Or ask someone!
• Your next sight word is WRIST, wrist. “I wear a watch on my wrist.”
• Look at the word, wrist .
• ch  (This says “K.”)
• te-, me-anic, -emistry, s-ool, s-olarship, s-eme
• Say the words that you wrote today. The last one has a CH that says “K.”
• Your next sight word is SPECIAL, special. “I am trying to think of something special to do for my mom.”
• Look at the word, special . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -cian  (This says “shun.”)
• magi, musi, physi, politi, techni
• Say the words that you wrote today. The last one has a CH that says “K.
• Your next sight word is MACHINE, machine. “The invention of the sewing machine changed the world.”
• Look at the word, machine . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -sion  (This is the “shun” sound. Some have the soft G sound in place of the SH. Can you hear the different sound of the ending between mansion and version?)
• fu, vi, ver, mis, man, ero
• Read the words. How many syllables do they each have?  (Answers: two and the last three )
• Your next sight word is WEIGHT, weight. “My suitcase was over the weight limit, so I had to pay a fine.”
• Look at the word, weight .
• -ant  (When we say this ending, sometimes we pronounce it so that it sounds like “ent.” Say these words exaggerating the “ant” sound, like the insect, to help you remember how they are spelled.)
• pend, abund, inf, vac, mut
• Your next sight word is NEIGHBOR, neighbor. “We have a very friendly neighbor.”
• Look at the word, neighbor . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• -t (This is added onto words sometimes to make them past tense.)
• dream, burn, deal, leap
• Read the words. The last two change vowel sounds. The long E sound turns into a short E sound even though the letters stay the same.
• Your next sight word is KNEEL, kneel. “The front row needs to kneel down so we can see those in the back.”
• Look at the word, kneel . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• -t (This replaces the last letter to make the verb past tense. Example: bend, bent)
• NOTE: If there is a double E, take one out. Sleep becomes slept.
• sleep, bend, creep, feel, build, lend, spend
• Did adding the T add a syllable? (Answer: No, because we didn’t add a vowel. Every syllable must have a vowel. )
• Your next sight word is WRITTEN, written. “I have written you a long letter by hand.”
• Look at the word, written . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.

Section 5  (Material: index card)

• Your special word to practice today is FAVORITE, favorite. “This is my favorite color.”
• Look at the word, favorite .
• Write some other words with the same spelling patterns. Think about what you are writing and why it is spelled that way.
• coral/moral
• Your special word to practice today is NECESSARY, necessary. “I think it is still necessary to hold onto these. I think we will need them.”
• Look at the word, necessary . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Picture the word and write the word with your finger.
• Go to our  spelling word website. Continue until it says all done.
• Your next sight word is IDEA, idea. “I have a great idea.”
• Look at the word, idea . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Write some other words with the same spelling patterns. Think about what you are writing and why it is spelled that way.
• cornea  (science word – the part of your eyeball people put a contact on)
• Your next sight word is EQUAL, equal. “Two plus two is equal to four.”
• Look at the word, equal . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is LENGTH, length. “The length is the measurement along the long side.”
• Look at the word, length . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Go to our  spelling word website. Continue until it says you are all done.
• Your next sight word is JOURNEY, journey. “They embarked on a long journey.”
• Look at the word, journey . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Go to our  spelling word website. Continue until it says all done. Start each word on a new line and make sure to leave a space between the words.
• Your next sight word is COUNTRY, country. “Have you ever traveled outside of the country?”
• Look at the word, country . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Write some other words with the same spelling patterns.
• Your next sight word is ENERGY, energy. “I don’t have any more energy left.”
• Look at the word, energy . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is DETERMINE, determine. “The wise men determined when the star appeared in the sky.”
• Look at the word, determine . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is EXCEPT, except. “I like every kind of animal except snakes.”
• Look at the word, except . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your special word to practice today is FOUGHT, fought. “They fought like cats and dogs.”
• Look at the word, fought .
• Write these other words with the same spelling pattern as fought.
• Your special word to practice today is MOUNTAIN, mountain. “God can move mountains.”
• Look at the word, mountain . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is NEITHER, neither. “I will neither confirm nor deny that.”
• Look at the word, neither . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is MILLION, million. “I have a million questions!”
• Look at the word, million . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is DISAPPOINT, disappoint. “I don’t want to disappoint my mom.”
• Look at the word, disappoint . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Write these other words with the same spelling patterns.
• Your next sight word is USUALLY, usually. “We are usually on time, but we ran into traffic today.”
• Look at the word, usually . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is RISING, rising. “The sun is rising over the horizon.”
• Look at the word, rising . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• give – giving
• hide – hiding
• come – coming
• love – loving
• spy – spying, spied
• Your next sight word is STOMACH, stomach. “My stomach is so full.”
• Look at the word, stomach . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is SINCERELY, sincerely. “She really was sincerely sorry.”
• Look at the word, sincerely . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is SCHEDULE, schedule. “I like to keep on schedule.”
• Look at the word, schedule . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your special word to practice today is POISON, poison. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Unless it was poison. Then the antidote is the most important.” (From AGT)
• Look at the word, poison .
• Write these other words with the same spelling pattern. Think about what you are writing and why it is spelled that way.
• Your special word to practice today is SECTION, section. “We sat in the nose-bleed section.”
• Look at the word, section . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is RHYTHM, rhythm. “He has great rhythm. He really feels the music.”
• Look at the word, rhythm . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• rhinestones
• rhyme  (This Y has the long I sound. That E acts as a silent E giving it its long-vowel sound.)
• Your next sight word is LANGUAGE, language. “I am able to speak several languages.”
• Look at the word, language . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is DAUGHTER, daughter. “I have one daughter and two sons.”
• Look at the word, daughter . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• fraught (fraught with danger)
• Your next sight word is PHRASE, phrase. “I hear that phrase all the time, but I don’t know what it means.”
• Look at the word, phrase . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• telegraphic
• Your next sight word is PRODUCE, produce. “This factory will produce a million units this year.”
• Look at the word, produce . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is SURROUND, surround. “We’ll surround the castle and then we’ll attack.”
• Look at the word, surround . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• surprisingly
• surveillance
• Your next sight word is CIRCLE, circle. “She can draw a perfectly round circle.”
• Look at the word, circle . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is SOLVE, solve. “I like to solve puzzles.”
• Look at the word, solve . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• involvement
• Your special word to practice today is UNKNOWN, unknown. “It is unknown what’s in a large part of the ocean. It has never been explored.”
• Look at the word, unknown .
• Say the letters out loud with your voice.
• Your special word to practice today is SOAR, soar. “We watched an eagle soaring way above our heads.”
• Look at the word, soar . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is DELICIOUS, delicious. “That dessert was delicious.”
• Look at the word, delicious . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is ARRANGE, arrange. “Arrange all these pieces in order.”
• Look at the word, arrange . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• changing  (The E drops on any of these verbs to add ING.)
• unchangeable
• rearrangement
• Your next sight word is MAYOR, mayor. “He was elected mayor of the town.”
• Look at the word, mayor . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is TREASURE, treasure. “My son likes to dig in the yard for buried treasure.”
• Look at the word, treasure . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is BRUISE, bruise. “I have a bad bruise from when I slid down the stairs.”
• Look at the word, bruise . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is WEIRD, weird. “Something really weird happened to me today.”
• Look at the word, weird . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• conceit  (The above are exceptions. Usually, we say “I before E except after C.” Here are “C” words.)
• Your next sight word is CONTINUED, continued. “The rain continued all night long.”
• Look at the word, continued . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• value  (becomes valuable)
• venue  (revenue)
• Your next sight word is TUNNEL, tunnel. “I like driving through tunnels.”
• Look at the word, tunnel . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your special word to practice today is REGION, region. “This region is mostly known for its farmland.”
• Look at the word, region .
• Your special word to practice today is VARIOUS, various. “We have various stations set up for people to learn about all the different things we do here at our ministry.”
• Look at the word, various . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is CLIMBED, climbed. “We climbed to the peak yesterday.”
• Look at the word, climbed . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is DESSERT, dessert. “They always want seconds of dessert.”
• Look at the word, dessert . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• The clue to know that dessert has two SS is that you want more dessert. Desert, that dry place, just has one S. You don’t want more of that.
• Your next sight word is AMENDMENT, amendment. “We have amendments to our Constitution, changes we’ve made.”
• Look at the word, amendment . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is TYPE, type. “I learned to type when I had chicken pox and needed to keep my fingers busy.”
• Look at the word, type . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is PROCESS, process. “The process of making silk was a secret for a long time.”
• Look at the word, process . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is WARN, warn. “I need to warn you that it’s going to be really loud.”
• Look at the word, warn . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is FUTURE, future. “The future begins in just a second.”
• Look at the word, future . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is SOUTHERN, southern. “She has a southern accent.”
• Look at the word, southern . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your special word to practice today is HEIGHT, height. “Its height is impressive, the tallest tree I’ve ever seen in person.”
• Look at the word, height .
• (This can have the long A sound as in the number 8 and the words weight and freight.)
• Your special word to practice today is IMAGINE, imagine. “I want you to imagine that you are sitting on the beach right now.”
• Look at the word, imagine . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is CALVES, calves. “The baby calves are so sweet.”
• Look at the word, calves . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• wife, wives
• thief, thieves
• wolf, wolves
• shelf, shelves
• knife, knives
• calf, calves
• leaf, leaves
• Your next sight word is SIGNAL, signal. “They forgot to signal before they turned.”
• Look at the word, signal . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is WOUND, wound. “He got a deep wound when he fell from his bike.”
• Look at the word, wound . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is PARAGRAPH, paragraph. “Make sure the paragraph you write starts with an introduction.”
• Look at the word, paragraph . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is OBSERVE, observe. “I am watching the plant each day. I want to observe its growth.”
• Look at the word, observe . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is WONDERFUL, wonderful. “What a wonderful day it is for a picnic.”
• Look at the word, wonderful . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is SYLLABLE, syllable. “There is only one syllable in the word hi.”
• Look at the word, syllable . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is PLEASANT, pleasant. “I had a pleasant walk this afternoon in the cool air.”
• Look at the word, pleasant . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.

Lesson 301  (Materials: Index Card)

• Your special word to practice today is AUDIENCE, audience. “We were in the audience the last night of the show.”
• Look at the word, audience .
• convenience
• inexperience
• Your special word to practice today is ECHOES, echoes. “This canyon echoes.”
• Look at the word, echoes . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• potato/potatoes
• tomato/tomatoes
• hero/heroes
• domino/dominoes
• Your next sight word is IGNORE, ignore. “I have to ignore everything else and just focus to get my work done.”
• Look at the word, ignore . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is BELIEF, belief. “I have a belief in God’s word that keeps me from fear.”
• Look at the word, belief . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• plurals (cities, babies)
• endings (cutie, oldie)
• Your next sight word is SCISSORS, scissors. “I need to cut this out. Can you find me a pair of scissors?”
• Look at the word, scissors . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is WHO’S, who’s. “Who’s going to come along?”
• Look at the word, who’s . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• who’s, whose (who is, I don’t know whose this is.)
• then, than (next, comparing)
• idle, idol (not doing anything, a false god)
• weather, whether (rain and sun and such, don’t know whether we should go this way or that)
• accept, except (I can’t accept your offer, I like them all except this one)
• affect, effect (verb, noun)
• you’re, your (you are, belongs to you)
• compliment, complement (say something nice, goes nicely with something)
• Your next sight word is PERSUADE, persuade. “Can I persuade you to change your mind?”
• Look at the word, persuade . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• perseverance
• perspiration
• personality
• performance
• Your next sight word is SEPARATELY, separately. “They should work together instead of separately.”
• Look at the word, separately . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• inseparable
• incomparable
• preparation
• Your next sight word is CRISIS, crisis. “There was a minor crisis when the pipe burst, but we got it fixed and everything cleaned up.”
• Look at the word, crisis . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is RESCUE, rescue. “God rescues us out of this world.”
• Look at the word, rescue . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your special word to practice today is MIXTURE, mixture. “A mixture is when two substances are combined but each maintains its chemical identity.”
• Look at the word, mixture .
• Your special word to practice today is INJURY, injury. “His injury wasn’t severe, just a little cut.”
• Look at the word, injury . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• independence
• Your next sight word is FREIGHT, freight. “The freight truck takes cargo clear across the country.”
• Look at the word, freight . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is CANYON, canyon. “The river runs through the length of the canyon floor.”
• Look at the word, canyon . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is VISION, vision. “I have a vision of how I want to rearrange the room to make it better.”
• Look at the word, vision . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• compression
• illusionist
• Your next sight word is REDUCE, reduce. “I want to reduce the amount of sugar I eat.”
• Look at the word, reduce . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• introducing
• Your next sight word is HYPHEN, hyphen. “You put a hyphen in the middle of a word when you break it up over two lines.”
• Look at the word, hyphen . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is MUSICIAN, musician. “He is a very talented musician, playing many sorts of instruments.”
• Look at the word, musician . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• pediatrician
• statistician
• musicality (lots of music words)
• Your next sight word is DISASTROUS, disastrous. “The show was disastrous. Once the set crashed to the stage, it was all downhill from there.”
• Look at the word, disastrous . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• ambidextrous
• Your next sight word is REHEARSE, rehearse. “We rehearse every day for the show.”
• Look at the word, rehearse . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• unheard, overheard

Lesson 321  

• Your special word to practice today is DESCENDANT, descendant. “I am a descendant of my grandfather.”
• Look at the word, descendant .
• When it says Next, get ready to start on a new line for a new word. Click “Next” and get started, following the same process.
• effervescent
• reminiscent
• Your special word to practice today is PRINCIPAL, principal. “The principal of a school is the person in charge.”
• Look at the word, principal . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• anticipation
• participate
• unprincipled
• principal/principle  – Your school “principal” is your “pal,” ends in P-A-L. The other type of principle is a rule or belief you live by. These are homophones, words that sound alike but are spelled differently. Homo means same, and phone means sound.
• Your next sight word is SPONGE, sponge. “Rinse the sponge after you use it and wring it out.”
• Look at the word, sponge . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is ENCYCLOPEDIA, encyclopedia. “We used to have two sets of encyclopedias. If someone has encyclopedic knowledge, they seem to know a lot about things.”
• Look at the word, encyclopedia . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is LEAGUE, league. “I joined a bowling league.”
• Look at the word, league . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is SPAGHETTI, spaghetti. “Kids love to eat spaghetti.”
• Look at the word, spaghetti . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• ghostwriter
• Afghanistan
• spectacular
• Your next sight word is COOPERATION, cooperation. “We worked together with a lot of cooperation from everyone.”
• Look at the word, cooperation . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• uncooperative
• operational
• desperation
• recuperation
• exasperation
• communication
• documentation
• Your next sight word is NOVEL, novel. “His novel was based on a really novel idea.”
• Look at the word, novel . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• personnel  (employees)
• Your next sight word is THOUSAND, thousand. “It seemed like there were a thousand questions after the meeting.”
• Look at the word, thousand . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is GAZE, gaze. “It is easy to gaze at the falling snow.”
• Look at the word, gaze . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your special word to practice today is RESOURCES, resources. “Our country is rich in natural resources.”
• Look at the word, resources .
• Your special word to practice today is WRINKLE, wrinkle. “There is a wrinkle in my shirt that I can’t get out.”
• Look at the word, wrinkle . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is ELECTRICITY, electricity. “The electricity was out for ten hours.”
• Look at the word, electricity . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is REQUIREMENT, requirement. “There is a height requirement for this ride.”
• Look at the word, requirement . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• requisition
• Your next sight word is VAIN, vain. “He’s so vain that he has to look in the mirror every time he walks past.”
• Look at the word, vain . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is ESPECIALLY, especially. “I especially want to thank my mom for her advice.”
• Look at the word, especially . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• sacrificial
• Your next sight word is INVOLVE, involve. “I want to get involved with the local creek clean up crew and help out.”
• Look at the word, involve . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Your next sight word is SHAMPOO, shampoo. “People used to oil their hair, now they shampoo their hair to get out the oil.”
• Look at the word, shampoo . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• Look at the word, judgment . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• pigmentation
• acknowledgment
• Your next sight word is CALENDAR, calendar. “Write the time of the meeting on the calendar so we don’t forget.”
• Look at the word, calendar . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your special word to practice today is ANCIENT, ancient. “The ancient ruins show us a hint of what used to be.”
• Look at the word, ancient .
• coefficient
• insufficient
• Anchorage (most populous city in Alaska)
• Your special word to practice today is PENGUIN, penguin. “The penguin is a popular animal because of TV and movies.”
• Look at the word, penguin . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• linguistics
• distinguish
• linguine (The I says “e” here. The I in foreign words sounds like E.)
• Your next sight word is VACUUM, vacuum. “We are always getting things stuck in the vacuum after they get sucked up while we’re cleaning.”
• Look at the word, vacuum . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• continuum  (This is two syllables.)
• I can’t find other similar words. Words starting with “vac” don’t typically have the same sound. Words ending with “um” say “um” instead of “oom” like this one.
• graffitiing
• Your next sight word is IMPROVEMENT, improvement. “We saw a great improvement in her playing after she dedicated the summer to practicing.”
• Look at the word, improvement . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• appointment
• nourishment
• entertainment
• compartment
• contentment
• discernment

Lesson 345-

• Your next sight word is LIQUID, liquid. “Ice turns into a liquid once its temperature is over zero degrees Celsius.”
• Look at the word, liquid . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• equilibrium
• Your next sight word is SUCCESS, success. “Our bake sale was a great success.”
• Look at the word, success . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• accessibility
• accessorizing
• unsuccessfully
• Your next sight word is KNOWLEDGE, knowledge. “We have knowledge of God’s word.”
• Look at the word, knowledge . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• acknowledgement
• straightedge
• Your next sight word is STRENGTH, strength. “Strength in weakness is God’s gift to His people.”
• Look at the word, strength . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• engineering
• challenging
• Your next sight word is CURIOUS, curious. “I am curious to learn more.”
• Look at the word, curious . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is SAILOR, sailor. “I wanted to be a sailor when I grow up because I love boats.”
• Look at the word, sailor . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your special word to practice today is SKETCH, sketch. “I can quickly sketch out my idea for you.”
• Look at the word, sketch .
• wretchedness
• homestretch
• Your special word to practice today is VEIN, vein. “I can see a blue vein under my skin.”
• Look at the word, vein . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• intents/intense (intentions, strong focus)
• cymbal/symbol  (crashing instrument, something that represents)
• dew/due  (water on the grass in the morning/owed)
• chute/shoot  (slide, with guns or sports)
• censor/sensor  (to cut out parts, used in detection)
• ascent/assent  (go up, approval)
• cached/cashed  (stored on a computer browser, exchanged for money)
• they’re/their/there  (they are, their house, over there)
• it’s/its  (it is, its fur)
• Your next sight word is NOISY, noisy. “It is so noisy in here.”
• Look at the word, noisy . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Your next sight word is THREATENED, threatened. “The mama bear reacted because she thought her cubs were being threatened.”
• Look at the word, threatened . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• weatherproof
• breathtaking
• Your next sight word is DISGUISE, disguise. “He wore a disguise so no one could recognize him.”
• Look at the word, disguise . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud. Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• guide  (many versions of this word, such as the two below)
• Your next sight word is RADIUS, radius. “A one-mile radius is a circle drawn one-mile out in all directions from a given point.”
• Look at the word, radius . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• campus  (campuses is the plural)
• cactus (cacti or cactuses is the plural)
• Your next sight word is VISIBLE, visible. “Make sure the sign is visible.”
• Look at the word, visible . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• indivisible
• incomprehensible
• unsusceptible
• irresistible
• inconceivable
• indiscernible
• Your next sight word is VIOLENCE, violence. “There was violence at the protest.”
• Look at the word, violence . Picture the word. Write the word with your finger.
• inconvenience
• consequence
• persistence
• convergence
• omnipotence
• Your next sight word is RECENTLY, recently. “I have just recently come to really understand what this is saying.”
• Look at the word, recently . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• concentrate
• Your next sight word is SQUAWK, squawk. “The bird let out a loud squawk.”
• Look at the word, squawk . Say it out loud. Read the letters out loud.
• Go to our  spelling word website. Write each word after it disappears. Continue until it says all done.

Resource Room Word List Samples

• Sep 4, 2023

Building Strong, Confident Spellers

It’s happened to every teacher: You finally get your students in their seats working on a writing task, only to be bombarded with the question, “How do you spell..?” For some students, a lack of confidence in their spelling creates a barrier to their writing fluency and doubles the time needed for writing assignments. Sometimes, it leads to avoidance of writing activities altogether. In this post, we will share ideas for routines and activities that explicitly target spelling skills, building more confident and proficient spellers that are ready to tackle new words!

SPELLING ROUTINES

When we provide students with a consistent, structured process to sound out and spell words, as well as repeated opportunities to practice this process, they will eventually internalize it. The more automatic this process is for them, the more confident they will become. For many students, “sounding it out” doesn’t come naturally, and they need to be explicitly taught spelling strategies in addition to letter-sound correspondences.

Simultaneous Oral Spelling

Simultaneous Oral Spelling (SOS) is a multisensory strategy that supports spelling while also reinforcing letter-sound knowledge (Birsch & Carreker, 2018). It is a routine to teach and implement during spelling activities that students can then carry over into writing tasks. Routines like SOS give students a clear starting point for every word, and break the words down into manageable pieces. The steps are as follows:

Look and listen while the teacher states a word to spell.

Repeat the word. Segment the sounds, tapping a finger for each.

Name the letters while writing the word.

Read the word aloud and check spelling.

These steps can vary. Finger tapping while segmenting can be replaced with other kinesthetic activities like moving a physical manipulative. Some programs or teachers may not include oral naming of the letters during spelling.

For multisyllabic words, teach students to first break the word into syllables (e.g. mon - u - ment). Many programs suggest having students tap their fist on the table for each syllable, then tap fingers to segment the sounds one-by-one. For example, if students are spelling the word “practice” it might sound like this:

“Prac” - “tice”

“Prac /p/ /r/ /a/ /k/” (student spells this syllable, then returns to the second syllable)

“Tice /t/ /i/ /s/”

Many struggling spellers can have difficulty holding sounds in their memory, so spelling the words one syllable at a time can help them better attend to each phoneme in the word.

Using Available Resources

Depending on the classroom, students may have tools available to assist them with spelling. Allowing students to use reference tools can be valuable during writing tasks where students must tackle words that are beyond what they have been taught. They are also very valuable when students are editing their work and checking their own spelling!

There may be a sound wall students can reference when they’re having trouble spelling a word with the long “a” sound. There may be an alphabetized word wall for those tricky irregular words that are introduced throughout the year. Or maybe there are dictionaries available for students to look up long words they’re stuck on.

Many students benefit from explicit teaching and modeling of how to use these resources to help themselves. I like to intentionally make mistakes and model how I can check and correct myself, when appropriate. Keep in mind however that ultimately, we want students to use their own understanding of syllables and letter-sounds as their first strategy when they get to an unfamiliar word .

“Brave” Spelling

Sometimes students just need to know that it is okay to make a spelling mistake. Does this mean we want students to throw all their phonics knowledge out the window when they begin writing? Absolutely not! But students’ ideas and word choice are often more advanced than the spelling patterns they have learned. We want them to feel empowered to translate their ideas to paper. Still using the concepts and processes we’ve taught them – but without getting discouraged when they are unsure about a word!

Especially with primary students, we liked to have a lesson with our classes about being “brave spellers” who aren’t afraid to try, even if they might make a mistake. Making mistakes is part of learning, and oftentimes sharing their ideas is more important than how they spell.

SPELLING ACTIVITIES

The goal is for students to not only be confident spellers but also accurate spellers. These routines and activities will work best when paired with direct, multisensory phonics instruction that follows a clear scope and sequence. Spelling activities should align with the phonics pattern being introduced for decoding practice. They should not just be based on memorization , but rather application of a new letter-sound correspondence students have been taught!

Spelling Dictation

Spelling dictation is an opportunity for students to spell a list of words intentionally chosen to practice a particular phonics pattern. The list is focused on a pattern (e.g., -ay), rather than lists that are organized by concept or book (e.g., “transportation” or words from Charlotte’s Web ). It also is the perfect activity to introduce Simultaneous Oral Spelling and build up that internal system that can quickly break apart words into syllables and sounds.

We use different dictation templates ( available here ) depending on the students and lesson. Dictating words AND sentences can be a great way to review previously learned concepts and practice writing conventions. Click on the picture if you’d like to see more examples of our dictation templates.

Word Ladders or Word Chains

This spelling activity is a great tool for phonological awareness development, too! In a word chain, the words you ask students to spell change by just one sound at a time (e.g., spell “cat” → change “cat” to “c o t” → change “cot” to “ r ot”). We like to use a write and wipe template for these activities so students can quickly change the letters. Magnetic letters or letter tiles are also a fun way to practice this!

Irregular Words

It can be useful to have a reference available in the room for irregular words when students get stuck, but this is often not enough to get students remembering the spelling on their own. Words with truly irregular parts (such as “said” and “was”) can be introduced in a way that draws attention to the regular and irregular parts. Then, multisensory practice with seeing, reading, saying, and spelling the word can help students to memorize it. We made a fun, foldable resource with direct instructions and steps for teaching students these types of words. Check it out here or by clicking the picture!

CONFIDENCE IS KEY!

The confidence to spell words is essential to student writing development. In addition to building students’ spelling abilities, these routines and activities can build students’ confidence with spelling so that they can access all other writing activities that are so important to their learning!

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Written by: Rachel Draper & Taryn Quaytman

Copyright © 2023 SparkEd LLC

Birsh, J. R., & Carreker, S. (2018). Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills (Fourth Edition). Paul H Brookes Publishing.

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Spelling Worksheets Maker

“I use Spelling Shed to teach sight word recognition and spelling. Spelling Shed is an independent assignment for my students. I am currently teaching remotely so I assign Spelling Shed via Google Classroom. I use the Hive Game to administer spelling tests every Friday. My students love it! I love that I receive data instantly.”

Teacher, 3rd & 4th Grade.

Dunbar Elementary, Atlanta GA

Spelling Shed Curriculum Overview

Spelling Shed provides a series of word lists for grades K-5 that have been developed by applying the Science of Reading research and follow a systematic progression. The progression covers a range of phonics skills, high-frequency words, and morphological awareness, typically addressed in each grade level. Our curriculum aligns with current ELA standards for grade K-5.

Every grade has core foundational skills incorporated into the list progression, at varying degrees of difficulty, depending on the grade level.

• K-2 word lists are based mostly on phoneme-grapheme correspondences (PGCs), beginning with the most common patterns to more advanced ones. The majority of the words selected for each list contain only the PGCs that have been previously reviewed, to avoid cognitive overload, help ensure focus, and attain mastery of the skill at hand.
• In grades 3-5 as the shift from phonics to morphology becomes increasingly important, the word lists begin to focus more on providing opportunities to spell through meaning, with less emphasis on PGCs.
• Grades K-3 word lists integrate grade-level appropriate, decodable and partially decodable Dolch HFWs and Fry’s Instant 300 HFWs.

For districts that already have word lists or follow a word study curriculum, teachers can easily import those spelling word lists to use with Spelling Shed. We also feature ready made lists of popular reading series including HMH Journeys® and McGraw-Hill Reading Wonders®. We also provide traditional high-frequency word lists like Dolch and Fry.

Spelling Games

In order for words to move into long term memory students need an opportunity to play with their words. Spelling Shed has designed several engaging games that will help students do just that. Our main spelling game has four different levels to provide students with the right amount of support. Missing Word, another popular game asks students to identify the correct spelling of the specific word.

Game Levels

Each level includes audio

• Shown the word at first
• Given only the letters that are in the word
• Highest level of support

Medium Level

• They are NOT shown the word
• Medium-High level of support
• Given additional letters to complete the word
• Low level of support

Extreme Level

• Given almost a full keyboard of letters
• No level of support

Game Features

Assignment Feature

In order to keep students learning on track Spelling Shed created Assignments. This feature provides students with quick access to their weekly word lists. No more time wasted searching for word lists! Teachers have the option to create full years worth of assignments with a few clicks of the mouse or can create weekly assignments to target the needs of specific learning groups.

Teachers can track the group or class progress throughout the week with Assignment Rank. Students are provided with six different levels in regards to how well they are progressing with the weekly word lists. Levels in Spelling Shed are determined by accuracy as well as game difficulty.

Hive Games are engaging “live” spelling tests that display real time student data and are a favorite among students and teachers. Trends can quickly be identified for spelling misconceptions. Hive Games can be delivered as an in class tool, or as a remote learning option. Hive Games can also be utilized as a pre assessment to determine student levels.

Avatars, Honeypots, Scores, and Leagues

All users have an avatar which can be personalized . Avatar upgrades can be purchased using Honeypots. Honeypots are earned by spelling words correctly in all game types and in other EdShed games like MathShed.

All Spelling Shed games provide a score for correct answers, speed bonus, and streak bonuses. A shed score is the total score for the past 7 days. Leagues and group leagues use the Shed Score to show current performance. World Leagues show the top 100 groups by Shed Score.

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4.2 Spelling

Learning objectives.

• Identify common spelling rules.
• Identify commonly misused homonyms.
• Identify commonly misspelled words.

One essential aspect of good writing is accurate spelling. With computer spell checkers, spelling may seem simple, but these programs fail to catch every error. Spell checkers identify some errors, but writers still have to consider the flagged words and suggested replacements. Writers are still responsible for the errors that remain.

For example, if the spell checker highlights a word that is misspelled and gives you a list of alternative words, you may choose a word that you never intended even though it is spelled correctly. This can change the meaning of your sentence. It can also confuse readers, making them lose interest. Computer spell checkers are useful editing tools, but they can never replace human knowledge of spelling rules, homonyms, and commonly misspelled words.

Common Spelling Rules

The best way to master new words is to understand the key spelling rules. Keep in mind, however, that some spelling rules carry exceptions. A spell checker may catch these exceptions, but knowing them yourself will prepare you to spell accurately on the first try. You may want to try memorizing each rule and its exception like you would memorize a rhyme or lyrics to a song.

Write i before e except after c , or when pronounced ay like “neighbor” or “weigh.”

• ach ie ve, n ie ce, al ie n
• rec ei ve, dec ei ve

When words end in a consonant plus y , drop the y and add an i before adding another ending.

• happy + er = happ i er
• cry + ed = cr i ed

When words end in a vowel plus y , keep the y and add the ending.

• del ay + ed = dela yed

Memorize the following exceptions to this rule: day , lay , say , pay = daily , laid , said , paid

When adding an ending that begins with a vowel, such as – able , – ence , – ing , or – ity , drop the last e in a word.

• writ e + ing = writ ing
• pur e + ity = pur ity

When adding an ending that begins with a consonant, such as – less , – ment , or – ly , keep the last e in a word.

• hope + less = hop e less
• advertise + ment = advertis e ment

For many words ending in a consonant and an o , add – s when using the plural form.

• pho to + s = photos
• sopra no + s = sopranos

Add – es to words that end in s , ch , sh , and x .

• chur ch + es = churches
• fa x + es = faxes

Identify and correct the nine misspelled words in the following paragraph.

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

Eight Tips to Improve Spelling Skills

• Read the words in your assignment carefully, and avoid skimming over the page. Focusing on your written assignment word by word will help you pay close attention to each word’s spelling. Skimming quickly, you may overlook misspelled words.
• Use mnemonic devices to remember the correct spelling of words. Mnemonic devices, or memory techniques and learning aids, include inventive sayings or practices that help you remember. For example, the saying “It is important to be a beautiful person inside and out” may help you remember that beautiful begins with “be a.” The practice of pronouncing the word Wednesday Wed-nes-day may help you remember how to spell the word correctly.
• Use a dictionary. Many professional writers rely on the dictionary—either in print or online. If you find it difficult to use a regular dictionary, ask your instructor to help you find a “poor speller’s dictionary.”
• Use your computer’s spell checker. The spell checker will not solve all your spelling problems, but it is a useful tool. See the introduction to this section for cautions about spell checkers.
• Keep a list of frequently misspelled words. You will often misspell the same words again and again, but do not let this discourage you. All writers struggle with the spellings of certain words; they become aware of their spelling weaknesses and work to improve. Be aware of which words you commonly misspell, and you can add them to a list to learn to spell them correctly.
• Look over corrected papers for misspelled words. Add these words to your list and practice writing each word four to five times each. Writing teachers will especially notice which words you frequently misspell, and it will help you excel in your classes if they see your spelling improve.
• Test yourself with flashcards. Sometimes the old-fashioned methods are best, and for spelling, this tried and true technique has worked for many students. You can work with a peer or alone.
• Review the common spelling rules explained in this chapter. Take the necessary time to master the material; you may return to the rules in this chapter again and again, as needed.

Remember to focus on spelling during the editing and revising step of the writing process. Start with the big ideas such as organizing your piece of writing and developing effective paragraphs, and then work your way down toward the smaller—but equally important—details like spelling and punctuation. To read more about the writing process and editing and revising, see Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” .

Homonyms are words that sound like one another but have different meanings.

Commonly Misused Homonyms

Principle, Principal

Principle (noun). A fundamental concept that is accepted as true.

The principle of human equality is an important foundation for all nations.

Principal (noun). The original amount of debt on which interest is calculated.

The payment plan allows me to pay back only the principal amount, not any compounded interest.

Principal (noun). A person who is the main authority of a school.

The principal held a conference for both parents and teachers.

Where, Wear, Ware

Where (adverb). The place in which something happens.

Where is the restaurant?

Wear (verb). To carry or have on the body.

I will wear my hiking shoes when go on a climb tomorrow morning.

Ware (noun). Articles of merchandise or manufacture (usually, wares ).

When I return from shopping, I will show you my wares .

Lead (noun). A type of metal used in pipes and batteries.

The lead pipes in my homes are old and need to be replaced.

Led (verb). The past tense of the verb lead .

After the garden, she led the patrons through the museum.

Which, Witch

Which (pronoun). Replaces one out of a group.

Which apartment is yours?

Witch (noun). A person who practices sorcery or who has supernatural powers.

She thinks she is a witch , but she does not seem to have any powers.

Peace, Piece

Peace (noun). A state of tranquility or quiet.

For once, there was peace between the argumentative brothers.

Piece (noun). A part of a whole.

I would like a large piece of cake, thank you.

Passed, Past

Passed (verb). To go away or move.

He passed the slower cars on the road using the left lane.

Past (noun). Having existed or taken place in a period before the present.

The argument happened in the past , so there is no use in dwelling on it.

Lessen, Lesson

Lessen (verb). To reduce in number, size, or degree.

My dentist gave me medicine to lessen the pain of my aching tooth.

Lesson (noun). A reading or exercise to be studied by a student.

Today’s lesson was about mortgage interest rates.

Patience, Patients

Patience (noun). The capacity of being patient (waiting for a period of time or enduring pains and trials calmly).

The novice teacher’s patience with the unruly class was astounding.

Patients (plural noun). Individuals under medical care.

The patients were tired of eating the hospital food, and they could not wait for a home-cooked meal.

Sees, Seas, Seize

Sees (verb). To perceive with the eye.

He sees a whale through his binoculars.

Seas (plural noun). The plural of sea, a great body of salt water.

The tidal fluctuation of the oceans and seas are influenced by the moon.

Seize (verb). To possess or take by force.

The king plans to seize all the peasants’ land.

Threw, Through

Threw (verb). The past tense of throw .

She threw the football with perfect form.

Through (preposition). A word that indicates movement.

She walked through the door and out of his life.

Complete the following sentences by selecting the correct homonym.

• Do you agree with the underlying ________(principle, principal) that ensures copyrights are protected in the digital age?
• I like to ________(where, wear, ware) unique clothing from thrift stores that do not have company logos on them.
• Marjorie felt like she was being ________(led, lead) on a wild goose chase, and she did not like it one bit.
• Serina described ________(witch, which) house was hers, but now that I am here, they all look the same.
• Seeing his friend without a lunch, Miguel gave her a ________(peace, piece) of his apple.
• Do you think that it is healthy for mother to talk about the ________(passed, past) all the time?
• Eating healthier foods will ________(lessen, lesson) the risk of heart disease.
• I know it sounds cliché, but my father had the ________(patients, patience) of a saint.
• Daniela ________(sees, seas, seize) possibilities in the bleakest situations, and that it is why she is successful.
• Everyone goes ________(through, threw) hardships in life regardless of who they are.

Commonly Misspelled Words

Below is a list of commonly misspelled words. You probably use these words every day in either speaking or writing. Each word has a segment in bold type, which indicates the problem area of the word that is often spelled incorrectly. If you can, use this list as a guide before, during, and after you write.

Use the following two tricks to help you master these troublesome words:

• Copy each word a few times and underline the problem area.
• Copy the words onto flash cards and have a friend test you.

Table 4.1 Commonly Misspelled Words

Identify and correct the ten commonly misspelled words in the following paragraph.

Writing at Work

In today’s job market, writing e-mails has become a means by which many people find employment. E-mails to prospective employers require thoughtful word choice, accurate spelling, and perfect punctuation. Employers’ inboxes are inundated with countless e-mails daily. If even the subject line of an e-mail contains a spelling error, it will likely be overlooked and someone else’s e-mail will take priority.

The best thing to do after you proofread an e-mail to an employer and run the spell checker is to have an additional set of eyes go over it with you; one of your teachers may be able to read the e-mail and give you suggestions for improvement. Most colleges and universities have writing centers, which may also be able to assist you.

Key Takeaways

• Accurate, error-free spelling enhances your credibility with the reader.
• Mastering the rules of spelling may help you become a better speller.
• Knowing the commonly misused homonyms may prevent spelling errors.
• Studying the list of commonly misspelled words in this chapter, or studying a list of your own, is one way to improve your spelling skills.

Writing Application

What is your definition of a successful person? Is it based on a person’s profession or is it based on his or her character? Perhaps success means a combination of both. In one paragraph, describe in detail what you think makes a person successful. When you are finished, proofread your work for spelling errors. Exchange papers with a partner and read each other’s work. See if you catch any spelling errors that your partner missed.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.