Spelling and Vocabulary

Novel Idea

Why don’t you ask your child what words they wish they knew how to spell?

Maybe they’d like to make a card or write a story under the pictures they drew. First decide how many words you think your child could learn - 3, 5, 10 or 20? Then ask them to start thinking, and you’ll write down the words they say. Stop when you reach your target number (you might find yourselves with too many words - what a problem!)

If you think the word is too hard for this list, you could write it down on a list called “Future Spelling Words”, or something else that works for you.

I’ve found this makes spelling much more exciting and personally interesting for my girls - maybe it will for you too, especially if your spellers are a little reluctant!

Other Spelling Word Ideas

1) You might want to start with the most commonly used words. There are many resources online that have analyzed numerous written works and then listed English words (and other languages) in the order they most commonly appear. It makes sense to teach our students the words they are most likely to come across first. There are lists for the 1000 most common words and up. Below is a link for website with the top 60,000. That might keep you busy for a while.

2) Find spellilng lists that other teachers are using that are already sorted by grade level. Many of these lists have already considered word frequency, word family similarities and level of difficulty, and have been used successfully for years. Many will already come with prepared worksheets.

3) Create your own lists based on subjects you're studying and the vocabulary related to that subject.

Tip: Don't get so caught up analyzing your endless choices that you stall out. Just be decisive and start learning words. You can always change programs later. If words are repeated in different lists - good. Students need repetition - lots of it.


Tampareads.com is my favorite spelling online resource. It has spelling lists from Grade 1 to Grade 6, and worksheets to go along with the spelling lists. You can download many of the worksheets for free to see if you like them. I like them, so I downloaded the rest for a small fee. You might want to type these weekly lists into spelling city, to have even more games to learn the spelling words, and definitions too.


Word Bank of 1200 High-Frequency Writing Words - here's a useful tool. The words in this word bank are listed in the order of their frequency of use in everyday writing. Since "the" is the most frequently used word in the English language, it is number one in the word bank.

The site gives recommendations of which words to cover per grade level. For example, Grade 1 would cover word frequencies #1-30, and Grade 2 would cover word frequencies #31-130, etc.


Wordfrequency.info provides the top 60,000 English words.


The Nelson Program also has spelling workbooks for grade 2 to grade 6. It seems these books correlate to many programs taught by school boards in Canada. There is a resource section for Nelson Language Program teacher’s. It includes a list of 103 sight words to learn by the end of grade 1, along with other ideas.


Kid's Page Archive - Free spelling list worksheets for grades 1 to 5. However, they are not organized by grade level, so look at the words on the list, and decide if your student is ready for them.


Worksheets 4 Teachers - has lots of free worksheets teaching vocabulary and spelling.


EdHelper.com - Spelling and Vocabulary You can make your own spelling and vocabulary worksheets from Grade 1 to Grade 12, but this service is for paid members. It only costs $19.99 / year for membership, which I think is pretty reasonable. See site for details and current rates

Practice Printing and Cursive Writing

Free SAT Vocabulary Practice

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