Spelling for children's
The Basic Spelling Vocabulary List
By: Steve Graham, Karen R. Harris, Connie Loynachan
This list was created to help teachers know which spelling words should be taught to kids in grades 1–5. The list contains 850 words that account for 80 percent of the words children use in their writing — the ones they need to be able to spell correctly.
This list was devised to help educators know which spelling words should be taught to children. The list contains 850 words that account for 80 percent of the words children use in their writing — the ones they need to be able to spell correctly.
Mastering this relatively small corpus of words yields a high rate of return. For example, the most common 1,000 words are used 13 times more frequently than the next most common 1,000 words. It also provides teachers flexibility in planning spelling instruction, providing an opportunity to give children the "basics" while supplementing with other spelling words germane to classroom activities.
Grade level for each word was determined based upon difficulty, pattern of occurrence in children's writing across grades, and grade placement on current vocabulary lists and spelling materials.
Words that children have difficulty spelling correctly are marked with an asterisk.
Grade 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| a | fat | like* | sat
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Grade 2 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| about* | father* | lives | set |
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Grade 3 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| able | even | mind | spelling |
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Grade 4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| across | during | mountain | sure* |
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Grade 5 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| although | different* | planet | suddenly
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Graham, S.
, Harris, K.R. and Loynachan, C. (1993). The Basic Spelling Vocabulary List. Journal of Educational Research 86(6) 363-368.
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Spelling - Oxford Owl for Home
Helping your child to spell when writing
As well as learning their spelling words, your child will need to remember these spellings and attempt to spell other words when writing.
When we can spell well, we can concentrate on what we want to write, rather than how to write it. We are also more likely to use interesting words when we can spell them.
Here are some strategies you can use to support your child:
1. Encourage your child to ‘have a go’
Encourage your child to have a go at spelling a word. This will build confidence and practise spelling skills. Making mistakes is a natural part of learning, and if your child is comfortable knowing that they’re not going to get spellings right all the time, then they will be more likely to try out more adventurous words. Keep positive and upbeat.
2. Keep reinforcing phonics
Remind your child to use phonics as their first port of call for spelling a new word – even in Key Stage 2. Help them to really hear each individual sound in the word and choose a suitable spelling pattern.
3. Check your spelling
Remind children to read through their writing and check for spelling errors.
They need to develop a feel for whether a word looks right. Help them to check words in a dictionary.
4. Encourage your child to read
When we read, we see words spelled correctly. The more we read, the more words we see.
Spelling in Year 1 (age 5–6)
In Year 1, your child will learn:
-
- to spell simple words that can be spelled using the phonics they have learnt so far
- to spell the days of the week
- how to spell words with simple prefixes and suffixes like un- and -ing
- how to spell compound words, for example, football, playground
- the names of the letters of the alphabet
- to spell the Year 1 common exception words (see our list of Common exception words for Year 1)
Books to develop spelling skills:
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- Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Age 5–6
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Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary
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Oxford First Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Dictionary
Spelling practise activities:
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- Phonics: Which spelling?
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Phonics: Which spelling? (Super challenge)
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At Home with Spelling 1 (age 5–7)
Spelling in Year 2 (age 6–7)
In Year 2, your child will learn:
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- new graphemes (letter groups to spell sounds) to represent the phonemes (sounds) they have already learnt
- to spell words with suffixes including words ending in -ment, -ness, -ful, -less, and-ly
- to use an apostrophe to mark where a letter is missing, for example don’t, he’ll
- to use an apostrophe to show possession for single nouns, for example, George’s hat, the lady’s car
- to spell the Year 2 common exception words (see our list of Common exception words for Year 2)
Spelling books for age 6-7:
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- Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Age 6–7
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My Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Kit
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Oxford Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Dictionary
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Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary
Spelling in Year 3 (age 7–8)
In Year 3, your child will learn:
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- how to use a dictionary to check their spelling
- to spell many homophones correctly:
Year 3 and 4 Homophones list
accept/except, affect/effect, ball/bawl, berry/bury, brake/break, fair/fare, grate/great, groan/grown, here/hear, heel/heal/he’ll, knot/not, mail/male, main/mane, meat/meet, medal/meddle, missed/mist, peace/piece, plain/plane, rain/rein/reign, scene/seen, weather/whether, whose/who’s
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- spelling more words with prefixes including words beginning dis-, mis-, in-, re-, im-, sub-, inter-, super-, anti-, auto-
- spelling more words with suffixes and other endings, including words ending -ation, -ly, -sure, -ture, -sion, -ion, -ous, -tion,
- words with unusual spelling such as ch for /k/, gue for /g/ and que for /k/, sc for /s/ and ei, eigh, and ey for /ay/
- using the possessive apostrophe with regular and irregular plurals, for example, the children’s lunch, the girls’ shoes
- spelling words that are often misspelt (see our Spelling word list for Year 3 and Year 4)
Spelling books for age 7-8:
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- Grammar and Punctuation Age 7–8
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My Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Kit
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Oxford Primary Illustrated Dictionary
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Oxford Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Dictionary
Spelling in Year 4 (age 8–9)
In Year 4, your child will continue to practise:
-
- how to use a dictionary to check their spelling
- to spell many homophones correctly:
Year 3 and 4 Homophones list
accept/except, affect/effect, ball/bawl, berry/bury, brake/break, fair/fare, grate/great, groan/grown, here/hear, heel/heal/he’ll, knot/not, mail/male, main/mane, meat/meet, medal/meddle, missed/mist, peace/piece, plain/plane, rain/rein/reign, scene/seen, weather/whether, whose/who’s
-
- spelling more words with prefixes including words beginning dis-, mis-, in-, re-, im-, sub-, inter-, super-, anti-, auto-
- spelling more words with suffixes and other endings, including words ending -ation, -ly, -sure, -ture, -sion, -ion, -ous, -tion,
- words with unusual spelling such as ch for /k/, gue for /g/ and que for /k/, sc for /s/ and ei, eigh, and ey for /ay/
- using the possessive apostrophe with regular and irregular plurals, for example the children’s lunch, the girls’ shoes
- to spell the words in the Spelling word list for Year 3 and Year 4
Spelling books for age 8-9:
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- Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Age 8–9
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Bond SATs Skills Spelling and Vocabulary Workbook: 8–9 years
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Oxford Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Dictionary
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Oxford Primary Dictionary
Spelling in Year 5 (age 9–10)
In Year 5, your child will learn:
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- to spell words with silent letters, for example, doubt, island, lamb, solemn, thistle, knight
- to spell words ending in ence/ance or able/ible
- to spell more homophones and other confusing words
Year 5 and 6 homophones list
aisle/isle, aloud/allowed, affect/effect, altar/alter, ascent/assent, bridal/bridle, cereal/serial, compliment/complement, descent/dissent, desert/dessert, draft/draught, farther/further/father, guessed/guest, heard/herd, led/lead, morning/mourning, past/passed, precede/proceed, principal/principle, profit/prophet, stationary/stationery, steal/steel, wary/weary, who’s/whose
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- to talk about word families, for example, sign, design, signature, significant
- to use a thesaurus to find new words
- to use a dictionary to check their spelling
- to spell the words in the Spelling word list for Year 5 and Year 6
Spelling books for age 9-10:
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- Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Age 9–10
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Bond SATs Skills Spelling and Vocabulary Workbook: 9–10 years
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English Age 9–10
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Oxford Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Dictionary
Spelling in Year 6 (age 10–11)
In Year 6, your child will continue to practise:
-
- to spell words with silent letters, for example, doubt, island, lamb, solemn, thistle, knight
- to spell words ending in ence/ance or able/ible
- to spell more homophones and other confusing words
Year 5 and 6 homophones list
aisle/isle, aloud/allowed, affect/effect, altar/alter, ascent/assent, bridal/bridle, cereal/serial, compliment/complement, descent/dissent, desert/dessert, draft/draught, farther/further/father, guessed/guest, heard/herd, led/lead, morning/mourning, past/passed, precede/proceed, principal/principle, profit/prophet, stationary/stationery, steal/steel, wary/weary, who’s/whose
-
- to talk about word families, for example, sign, design, signature, significant
- to use a thesaurus to find new words
- to use a dictionary to check their spelling
- to spell the words in the Spelling word list for Year 5 and Year 6
Spelling books for age 10-11:
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- Bond SATs Skills Spelling and Vocabulary Workbook: 10–11 years
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Bond SATs Skills Spelling and Vocabulary Stretch Workbook: 10–11+ years
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Oxford School Dictionary & Thesaurus
-
Oxford School Dictionary
Copybooks for children - Print and circle!
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Here you can download all kinds of recipes for children and print them for free.
Among them there are recipes for mathematics, recipes with capital letters, recipes for kids, recipes for preschoolers and primary school students: grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc. For children 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 years old.
Copybooks are a very important methodological material for children, as they teach a child's hand to write, stimulate the development of beautiful handwriting and develop a positive attitude towards learning. Children who at preschool age were not familiar with copybooks and did not study them regularly have big problems in elementary school - they hardly learn to write, their handwriting is far from ideal, and every word written in a notebook is perceived by them as the most difficult work, and sometimes real pain. Where, then, will the love for learning and the incentive to achieve school success come from? nine0009
Be sure to print out various recipes for your kids, starting from the earliest years, and you will not regret it - your child will always delight you with his academic efforts, good grades and excellent handwriting!
To delve deeper into preparing children for school, use our section on teaching a child to read, in which you will find a lot of useful educational materials with the alphabet, syllables, word processing, game aids and much more .
..
Help kids develop their fine motor skills with dotted or outlined tracing. Our tracing tasks and exercises for children aged 5-6 will help your little one prepare their hand for writing...
Your child knows how to pronounce the alphabet. Now it's time for him to start writing letters on paper. Children learn the basics of writing at school, but handwriting needs to be developed at home as well. nine0009
Here you can download Russian copybooks for children (printed letters) with tasks. Materials in the original size are posted at the bottom of the page in one file. Learning to write, the child will be able to learn not only how to write letters correctly, he will have a great opportunity to color pictures and perform various tasks.
In this material, you can download in the attachments at the bottom of the page the exercises for children "Circle the dots".
Such tasks will serve as a great start for the baby while learning to write and help develop a beautiful handwriting in a child. nine0009
Here you can download tasks for kids "Circle the dots of the picture", where the child must first circle each depicted object along the contour, and then color the resulting pictures. Exercises will help you teach your child to write, and will also develop fine motor skills of the baby.
Here you can download eight exercises for preschoolers "Capital Russian letters" in one file, which will help your child form ideas about the correct combination of capital letters in words, and provide the child with the opportunity to practice writing some letters and words on his own. nine0009
Copybooks for children "Capital letters from A to Z" you can download in attachments at the bottom of the page in one file. These are indispensable activities for preschoolers who are learning to write. Timely teaching of children will certainly bring positive results during school hours, besides, a beautiful handwriting is gradually formed and developed in the child, the speed of writing letters is increasing, and there is also a desire and love for learning.
Here you can download the "Writing while playing" recipes, which consist of 33 worksheets for children from 5 years old. Performing simple and exciting sentences, your child: gets acquainted with the basic elements of numbers and letters, forms graphic skills, trains fine motor skills, develops attention and memory, learns to complete tasks independently...
Copybook for children capital letters is the best educational material for training a preschooler and younger students in writing. After all, it is capital letters that cause difficulties in primary school children.
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with teaching children to start children to write beautifully | Strength Fox
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Why teach a child to write beautifully
- For the development of the brain.
nine0174 Calligraphy is an effective way to develop fine motor skills. It helps to avoid problems with the development of speech and thinking. The neural connections that appear in the process will take over the coordination of any precise and small movements. This will be useful for future surgeons, sculptors or biathletes.
- For successful studies . Not only that teachers do not reduce grades for dirt in a notebook. Handwriting helps you remember the spelling of words better and helps you focus on what you are writing. In addition, calligraphy classes develop concentration, perseverance, willpower and self-control. All this is useful not only at school. nine0175
- To raise self-esteem . It's hard to learn how to write neatly. With the right motivation, the child's efforts will pay off. He will be able to be rightfully proud of himself, because he succeeds in what not everyone does.
- For self-expression .
If you approach classes creatively, they will become an exciting game for the child. Perhaps experimenting with writing tools, colors and fonts will become his hobby - a great start for a future designer. nine0175
At what age to teach a child to write
Psychologists recommend teaching a child to write in block letters from the age of five or six. But if the kid showed interest in the letter earlier, of course, you need to support him. Follow the interest of the child - do not try to impose classes on him if he is not ready for them yet.
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It is not worth teaching a small child to write in cursive: this will be taught in the first grade. A preschooler will have enough possession of block letters. nine0009
Getting Started
Interest in writing appears when the child's visual perception, speech, attention and memory are well developed. And of course, by this time he should be able to read.
To create a base for learning will help:
- finger games;
- ball and dice games;
- constructor assembly;
- drawing, modeling, appliqué, puzzles;
- fastening buttons, buttons, Velcro, tying shoelaces; nine0175
- stringing beads;
- cutting vegetables.
To teach a child to write letters, it is better to use different channels of perception. It is important that he not only see, but also physically feel their outlines. Cards with rough letters will help with this - you can buy them, but it's better to do it with your child. Also try laying out the letters with ribbons, collecting them from sticks and sculpting them from plasticine.
These cards with letters on a rough surface are used in Montessori .Source: hendmeid.guru
We recommend starting each session with finger exercises.
They help to awaken sensitivity and mobility. Massage with a prickly rubber ball or a su-jok simulator is also very useful.
Su-jok is a plastic ball with small spikes and two prickly metal rings. They are used in oriental medicine to massage the palms.Source: 900igr.net
Exercise "Fist - rib - palm"
Three hand positions follow each other. Performed with each hand 8-10 times.
Exercise "House - Hedgehog - Castle"
"House" - fingers are connected at an angle, thumbs are perpendicular to the palms.
"Hedgehog" - the palms are at an angle, the fingers of one hand pass between the fingers of the other.
"Lock" - palms are pressed, fingers are interlaced. nine0009
Gymnastics "Rings"
The thumb is alternately connected into a ring with the index, middle, ring and little fingers with a gradually increasing speed.
It is necessary to do both in the direct order - from the index finger to the little finger, and vice versa. First with each hand separately, then together.
How to teach your child to write
Unlined sheets are suitable for starters so that the markings do not distract the child. Just give him pencils and offer to draw letters. Discuss the elements of a letter. Let him remember everything - a stick, a semicircle, a crossbar. At first, you can draw them separately, then try to connect them. At first it will come out wrong and crooked, but be patient. Praise your child for any attempts and mark the most successful ones. nine0009 Algorithm for writing block letters
It is best to learn to write with a pencil - this will help the child not be afraid of mistakes. In addition, the ink is not easily removed from clothes. To teach a child to write words, it is important to help him navigate the sheet. Suggest drawing something in different parts of the sheet, such as the top middle, the bottom right corner, or the center.
If your child is having a hard time, play “Fly” with him. Draw the sheet into nine squares. Separately draw a fly, cut it out and put it in the central square. Give commands: “The fly is crawling down!”, “Now to the left!”, “Up!” The child must move the fly as directed. If everything worked out, the fly is caught in a bag. If he mixed up the commands, she flies out the window. nine0009
When the child is comfortable with the directions, move on to the concept of stitches. Draw several lines with a large spacing and "land" the fly on one of them. Now invite the child to draw something above the line, below the line, down the line, up two lines.
After this stage, proceed to writing letters, but be sure to discuss with your child what elements it consists of and where they are connected. The same should be done when discussing the combination of letters in words. On the sample spelling of words, bright dots can indicate important points. Then highlight the best letters, specifically focusing on the child's attention.
