Writing words for kids

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 all am* and* at ball be bed big book box boy* but came* can* car cat come* cow dad day* did do dog*	fat for fun* get* go good* got* had* hat he* hen here him* his* home* hot I* if in* into* is it* its* let	like* look man may me* mom my* no* not of oh old on* one* out* pan pet pig play* ran rat red ride run	sat see she sit six so stop sun ten the* this to* top toy two* up us was* we* will* yes you*

Grade 1

a
all
am*
and*
at
ball
be
bed
big
book
box
boy*
but
came*
can*
car
cat
come*
cow
dad
day*
did
do
dog*

fat
for
fun*
get*
go
good*
got*
had*
hat
he*
hen
here
him*
his*
home*
hot
I*
if
in*
into*
is
it*
its*
let

like*
look
man
may
me*
mom
my*
no*
not
of
oh
old
on*
one*
out*
pan
pet
pig
play*
ran
rat
red
ride
run

sat
see
she
sit
six
so
stop
sun
ten
the*
this
to*
top
toy
two*
up
us
was*
we*
will*
yes
you*

Grade 2
about* add after ago an* any apple are* as ask ate away baby* back bad bag base bat bee been* before* being best bike bill bird black blue boat both bring brother* brown bus buy* by cake call candy change child city clean club coat cold coming* corn could cry cup cut daddy* dear deep deer doing doll door down* dress drive drop dry duck each eat eating egg end fall far farm fast	father* feed feel feet fell* find fine* fire first* fish five fix flag floor fly food foot four fox from* full funny game gas gave girl give glad goat goes* going* gold gone grade* grass green grow hand happy hard has* have* hear* help here* hill hit hold hole hop hope* horse house* how* ice inch inside* job jump just* keep king know* lake land last late lay left leg light line little* live	lives long looking lost lot love mad made* make* many* meat men met mile milk mine miss moon more most mother* move much* must myself* nail name* need new* next nice* night nine north now* nut off* only open or* other our outside* over page park part pay pick plant playing pony post pull put rabbit rain read rest riding road rock room said* same sang saw* say school* sea seat seem seen send*	set seven sheep ship shoe show* sick side sing sky sleep small snow some* soon* spell start stay still store* story take talk tall teach tell than* thank that them* then* there* they* thing think* three time* today* told too* took train* tree truck try use very* walk want* warm wash way week well* went* were* wet what when* while* white who why wind wish with* woke wood work yellow yet your zoo

Grade 3
able above afraid afternoon* again* age air airplane almost alone along* already* also always* animal another* anything* around* art aunt* balloon* bark barn basket beach bear because* become began begin behind believe* below belt better birthday* body bones born bought* bread bright broke brought* busy cabin cage camp can't* care carry catch cattle cave children* class close* cloth coal color corner cotton cover dark desert didn't* dinner dishes does done don't* dragon draw dream drink early earth east eight	even ever every* everyone* everything* eyes face family* feeling felt few fight fishing flower flying follow forest forgot form found* fourth free Friday friend* front getting* given grandmother great grew ground guess* hair half having* head heard* he's* heat hello* high himself hour hundred hurry hurt* I'd* I'll* I'm* inches isn't it's* I've* kept kids kind kitten knew* knife lady large largest later learn leave let's* letter* life list living lovely loving* lunch mail making maybe* mean merry might*	mind money* month morning* mouse mouth Mr. * Mrs.* Ms. music near nearly never news noise nothing number o'clock* often oil once* orange order own pair paint paper party* pass past penny people* person picture place plan plane please* pocket point poor race reach reading ready real rich right* river rocket rode round rule running* salt says sending sent* seventh sew shall short shot should sight sister sitting sixth sled smoke soap someone* something* sometime* song sorry sound south space	spelling spent sport spring stairs stand state step stick stood stopped* stove street strong study such sugar summer* Sunday* supper table taken taking talking teacher* team teeth tenth that's* their these* thinking third those thought* throw tonight* trade trick trip trying turn twelve twenty uncle under upon* wagon wait walking wasn't watch water weather* we're* west wheat where* which wife wild win window winter without woman* won won't* wool word working world* would* write* wrong yard year yesterday you're*

Grade 4
across against answer* awhile* between board bottom breakfast broken build building built captain* carried caught* charge* chicken circus cities clothes* company couldn't* country discover doctor* doesn't dollar	during eighth* else enjoy enough everybody* example except excuse field* fifth finish following good-by* group happened* harden haven't* heavy held hospital* idea instead* known laugh middle minute	mountain ninth ocean office parent peanut pencil picnic police pretty* prize quite* radio raise really* reason remember* return Saturday* scare second since slowly stories student sudden suit	sure* swimming* though threw* tired together* tomorrow* toward tried* trouble truly* turtle until* village visit wear we'll whole* whose women wouldn't* writing* written wrote yell young

Grade 5
although America among arrive attention beautiful* countries course* cousin* decide	different* evening favorite finally* future happiest happiness important interest piece	planet present president principal* probably* problem receive* sentence several special	suddenly suppose* surely* surprise* they're* through usually

Grade 5

although
America
among
arrive
attention
beautiful*
countries
course*
cousin*
decide

different*
evening
favorite
finally*
future
happiest
happiness
important
interest
piece

planet
present
president
principal*
probably*
problem
receive*
sentence
several
special

suddenly
suppose*
surely*
surprise*
they're*
through
usually

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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Meet Ali Kamanda and Jorge Redmond, authors of Black Boy, Black Boy: Celebrating the Power of You

Get Widget |

wiggly words: fun ways to get kids to write

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Maddy’s Kindergarten teacher is–in my humble opinion–the best of the best. My dream has come true: Maddy landed a super teacher with whom she has already fallen in love.

A few weeks back, Maddy was sent home with a packet of information about things parents can do at home to help promote literacy and learning. I literally danced around the house when I saw it.

Three cheers for the Kindergarten team at Maddy’s school!

It included uppercase and lowercase alphabet cards to cut out, and it included four sheets of words.

They classify the words as early emergent, upper emergent, early fluency and fluency. I put them on the computer in the form of tiny flash cards to use for learning and games.

Here they are to download:

early emergent words;

upper emergent words;

early fluency words; and

fluency words.

I added a few words to these lists in order to include all of the words that our kindergartners are expected to know by the end of the school year.

Wiggly Words: I have a wiggly board that I use for making writing that much more fun for emergent readers and writers. It is a thick piece of cardboard and put several layers of drywall tape on top of it. (I found the drywall tape on our workbench a few years ago–it’s really just a hard plastic grid with tape on the back; anything bumpy or textured will work.)

Students put a blank piece of paper on top of the board, and when they write their words, or letters, or numbers, they look bumpy and wiggly. Crayons work best and will show the best ‘wiggle’.

All I did this afternoon was dump the Early Emergent Word Cards and the Early Fluency Word Cards into a small bucket.

I knew Maddy was comfortable with most of the Early Emergent words, and I thought I’d throw in a couple more challenging ones for fun.

Next, Maddy pulled two cards out of the bucket and put them face up above her Wiggly Board.

I said, Okay, Maddy, you big word reader, let’s see which word you’ll choose to write. Will it be ‘are’ or ‘you’?

I always read two words and gave her a choice. That way, she was using some of her reading skills by listening to the words I read and then reading them again–or trying to–by herself when she made her decision.

She was never put on the spot or forced to read a new, tough word on her own, out of context. I always try to set her up for success.

It was the luck of the draw that our first few words were from the Early Emergent list, but as we pulled more and more cards, they were mixed–easier words with more difficult ones.

Then she wanted to find all of the words that had a letter ‘g’ in them to read and write because she felt she had really begun to write her lowercase ‘g’ well. So we hunted for those words, and she wrote them when she found them.

And before we knew it, Owen and Cora turned up the music way too loud, their dancing around turned to spinning and rough-housing, and Maddy wanted to join them. (Who wouldn’t?).

So our little sight word fun was over, but fun it was. . .

Maddy has had a blast lately, playing with sight words. And as I’ve said before, there are tons of cool ways to help make these important words more familiar–and fun–for our emerging readers, and most of these ways take minimal preparation time on a parent’s part.

Five, ten, or twenty minutes now and again to help our little ones become better readers is worth it!

Want a few more alphabet activities? Check out:

backyard alphabet hunt
homemade alphabet book
leafy letter learning
ABC hunt
on the road ABC hunt
lowercase ABC hunt
build your own bingo: uppercase and lowercase match
ABC cards and clothespin match
alphabet letter splash
alphabingo (play with lowercase letters)
alphabet letter lids
leafy outdoor alphabet hunt
build your own board game
clothespin letter match
10 fun ways to learn the alphabet

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About amy mascott

teacher, mother, dreamer. lover of literacy, fun learning, good food, and three crazy-cool kids. finder of four-leaf clovers | dc metro · http://about.me/amymascott
tweet with me: @teachmama

How children remember the spelling of complex words

“As you hear it, so it is spelled” the principle of the Owl, and by the way it is not bad, because Winnie the Pooh was very upset by long and difficult words.

This is a very convenient principle, but, alas, it does not coincide with the laws of the Russian language.

What to do?

Remember. This is the only way to write competently "naughty" dictionary words to which none of the rules of the Russian language apply. You can help a child only by turning on interest.

5 games so that difficult vocabulary words do not upset kids!

Learn the Word

Learn the word by one consonant letter: krndsh, brz, Moscow, stkn, jrny, stlts.

Collect Words

Collect the word from scattered syllables: fe, kon, ta - candy; ko, lo, yab - an apple; neither, earth, ka, la - strawberries.

Shopping

Olya and Anya went shopping. Olya took vegetables and fruits with an unverifiable unstressed vowel O (cucumber, apple, carrot), Anya - with A (cabbage, orange, zucchini).

"Joke Questions-Riddles"

1) In what words does cancer live? (breakfast, rocket)

2) Which words contain notes? (tomato, guys, beans, road, lilac)

3) Name the words in which the numbers are hidden. (Motherland, once, magpie, showcase)

4) All words are good, but where did the snakes hide? (dinner)

5) What words does the crow like? (potato, painting, pencil, pocket, carriage)

"Dictionary hide and seek"

Find vocabulary words in the text and write them down.

For example, an excerpt from the poem by S. Ya. Marshak "Night Page"

Before you is the night page.
The capital is shrouded in darkness.
Trams go to rest,
Trolleybuses are rushing home. ..

By the 3rd grade, children must write 200 vocabulary words without mistakes. By the end of schooling, their number is in the thousands. You will find all vocabulary words that a child should know by the 4th grade in the manual by O. V. Uzorova and E. A. Nefyodova “Absolute literacy in 15 minutes. 1-4 grades»

11/21/2018 Authors

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How to practice correct spelling with children

1000

Vocabulary dictation, spelling, tests - these words give the students goosebumps. How can you help students remember all these words?

It's no secret that children love to play, and what they learn with pleasure remains in their memory for life. So where to start? The first, and most important, is to abandon the boring, monotonous rewriting of words. How then to teach? Fun, interesting and interactive!

1. Adapt your favorite games. Tic-tac-toe and the gallows will impress any child. And the spirit of competition will only spur the desire to learn words. If the group is quite large, we divide the students into 2 parts. One thinks of a word, the other writes it. Managed - earned the right to put a cross. No. The move goes to the opponents. And then they definitely will not miss their chance!

2. If you have active students, then Running Dictation will help you. We prepare a list of words in advance, glue it in the farthest corner. The task of the students is to copy all the words correctly on the board. Whoever did it first, wins! If there are many students, we divide into teams and rejoice at success. Unlike regular rewriting, it's fun, it's productive, you have to memorize the word, not just copy it. In general, some pluses.

3. Have you ever heard of Whole Body Writing ? Not? Then we go to you! Modern techniques, especially for children, suggest using as many organs of perception as possible. The essence of this method is that you need to draw a letter with your body, and the rest of the students need to guess this letter. For convenience, we prepare cards in advance with the words passed, the student chooses one, and with the help of his body “writes” this word. A lot of fun and learned words with a guarantee.

4. Every child wants be a teacher ! What does it mean? And this means that you need to give him a chance to become a teacher, even if only for 5 minutes. We prepare words with errors and ask the children to correct these errors. Simple but effective.

5. Well, if the soul requires a dictation, then spend it. Not just a dictation, but Silent Dictation …shhh…don’t make a sound! Show students a picture or object and ask them to write a word. The same dictation can be made active, we hang pictures or lay out objects, the task is to sign all the objects. At the initial stage, you can allow peeping.

6. sorting helps to deal with complex letter combinations. For example, you need to work out the spelling of words with -ee and -ea, prepare a set of cards (a picture, plus words with a gap) and ask the children to insert the necessary letters. By the way, we will immediately solve at least 2 problems. Children will remember the spelling of words and will associate the word with a particular subject.

7. You must have heard that America is the only country in the world where a spelling contest is held. And we just have to hold the same competition with our students.