Spelling Teaching Resources
Explore spelling games, word lists, activities, worksheets and more to help you teach elementary and middle school students how to spell a wide variety of words!
Aligned with the Common Core Curriculum, every resource in this expansive collection has been created by a teacher for teachers just like you. Best of all, each resource has undergone our thorough review process to ensure it's ready for your lesson plans and your students.
New to teaching spelling? Or maybe you're just looking for fresh ideas to engage students with the topic? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including spelling strategies that can help your students become better spellers!
6 Spelling Strategies Every Student Should Learn
Spelling is a fundamental skill that plays a crucial role in literacy development, but in a world of hastily typed (and poorly spelled) text messages and digital tools with built-in spell checker functionality, it can seem like learning how to spell words correctly is falling by the wayside.
So how do you ensure your students aren't just adding to the jumbled up world of words? Arming students with spelling strategies they can use when encountering new words can help!
The following spelling strategies are great for struggling students and their advanced peers as they empower students to face new words without fear — unlike the rote memorization of words that was once common in spelling instruction.
1. Teach Students About Word Families
By teaching word families, we can help our students recognize and understand how certain letter combinations consistently appear in related words. In turn, this helps them with spelling related words and increasing their vocabulary.
Show your students how words with the same root or base share similar spellings, and have them explore and practice word families by creating word trees or sorting words with common patterns.
2. Work on Breaking Down Syllables
Teaching kids to divide longer words into manageable syllables isn't just a good spelling strategy for upper years students. It can also help them with the pronunciation of new words!
Teach students to identify syllable patterns and break words into syllables. You might want to practice clapping or tapping out syllables, then have them spell each syllable before combining a whole word.
3. Teach Chunking and Chaining
Breaking spelling words into smaller, manageable chunks or patterns is a helpful strategy for students of various ages — especially those tackling complex words.
To do this, teach your students to identify prefixes such as re- and un-, suffixes such as -ful and -able and root words within longer words. Practice breaking their spelling words into chunks and then combining them accurately.
4. Teach Contextual Spelling
Do your students get their spell words just right in isolation but struggle when writing sentences and paragraphs?
Contextual spelling is a strategy that could help. This comes down to simply having them practice writing their spelling words within sentences, reinforcing word usage and allowing them to apply their spelling know-how in meaningful contexts.
5. Create Spelling Lists With Word Sorting
You may notice that some spelling word lists on the Teach Starter site are based on patterns. That's because we recommend categorizing words based on specific spelling patterns, helping your students notice similarities and differences.
In addition to using the lists provided, why not work backward? Provide students with a pattern, then provide words they can spell using it.
6. Use Mnemonics
While English is full of spelling patterns — from words that all follow the long e pattern or all contain the letters igh — it also contains a fair share of words that seem to break all the rules.
Teaching students mnemonics such as "i before e, except after c and when sounding like a" gives them tips to fall back on when they encounter those rule breakers.
You can also teach difficult words in meaningful sentences or short stories to reinforce their usage, making recalling meaning and spelling easier.
Speaking of ...
15 Difficult Words to Spell — And How to Teach These Irregular Words
As we mentioned, the English language is full of tricky irregular words that don't seem to have discernible phonetic patterns and can't simply be broken down via chunking or syllables. That makes them difficult words to spell!
Here's a look at some of the more common difficult words to spell that our teacher team has encountered over the years and some of our best tips on how to help your students remember them!
Here's a list of some commonly difficult words for kids to spell, along with tips on how to effectively teach them:
1. Wednesday
How to Teach It — Break this tricky day of the week word down, sounding it out — "Wed-nes-day" — to emphasize the correct spelling. Practice saying and writing the word several times to reinforce the spelling pattern.
2. February
How to Teach It — The second month is often spelled without the first r in the right place. To address this, use the syllables strategy mentioned above, breaking down the word into "Feb-ru-ary" to make it easier to remember.
Emphasize the silent "r," and have your students visualize the sequence of syllables.
3. Beautiful
How to Teach It — Break the word into parts: "beau-ti-ful." Discuss the rule of "i before e except after c" and practice spelling similar words that follow this pattern.
4. Definitely
How to Teach It — Break the word into syllables ("def-i-nite-ly") and emphasize the tricky "i" and "e" placement. Use repetition and context-rich sentences to reinforce the spelling.
5. Restaurant
How to Teach It — Teach by syllables ("res-tau-rant") and emphasize the challenging "au" sound. Encourage your students to picture the inside of a restaurant to remember the spelling.
6. Accidentally
How to Teach It — Highlight the repeating letters ("c" and "l") and break the word into manageable parts ("ac-ci-den-tal-ly").
7. Necessary
How to Teach It — The mnemonic phrase "Never Eat Crispy Crust, Eat Salad Sandwiches And Remain Young" is a teacher team favorite to help kids remember the order of the letters in necessary.
8. Friend
How to Teach It — Friend is misspelled by young students, but emphasising the 'ie' vowel pair can help them get it right. Practise using the vowl pair within other words like 'field,' 'chief,' and 'shield.'
9. Because
How to Teach It — We recommend using the mnemonic strategy for this difficult word, along with practicing writing the word in context.
Our favorite mnemonic for because is "Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants."
10. Receive
How to Teach It — Because this breaks the common pairing of "ie," receive is often misspelled by students (and adults!).
To teach it, break the word into parts ("re-ceive") and emphasize the "i" before "e" rule.
11. Opportunity
How to Teach It — You have an opportunity to help kids remember this one with a breakdown of the syllables "op-por-tu-ni-ty." You may also want to review other words with two "p"s, such as appreciate and disappoint.
12. Pronunciation
How to Teach It — Pronouncing new words can be challenging for students, but so is spelling the word pronunciation! To teach this tricky word, use the syllables strategy, emphasizing each one — pro-nun-ci-a-tion.
13. Exercise
How to Teach It — You can use visual associations to remember the "x" and "c" placement in exercise — like a jumping "x" doing exercise. You may also want to practice other x words like "exert" and "extra."
14. Separate
How to Teach It — Highlight the tricky "a" and "e" placement in separate, and teach the syllables — sep-a-rate.
15. Temperature
How to Teach It — Once again, temperature is a difficult spelling word that can be taught using syllables — tem-per-a-ture.
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Months of the Year Printable Activity Book
Create months of the year booklets to help your students identify, sequence and spell the months in a year.
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Plural Nouns Chart - Printable Plural Rules Guide
Give your students a reference guide to help them remember all of the different plural rules.
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Spin and Spell - Months of the Year Worksheet
Spin and spell the months of the year with a printable spelling worksheet for 2nd Grade.
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Phoneme Find - R, RR, and WR Spelling Game
Decide when to use r, rr, or wr to spell the /r/ sound with an engaging Interactive Phonics Activity!
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Medial L Words - List & Flashcards
Practice reading and articulating Medial L words with a list of 50 words and accompanying illustrated flash cards.
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Spelling CCVC Words - Worksheets (Differentiated)
Develop students’ ability to segment and blend the sounds in CCVC words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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Auto-Fill Customizable Spelling Worksheets
Save time making custom spelling lists and spelling practice worksheets with an editable auto-fill spelling worksheet pack.
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Daily Dolch Drills — Pre-Primer Weekly Homework
Practice weekly sight words to strengthen letter-sound recognition, spelling, and reading fluency with six weeks of sight word homework worksheets.
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Google Interactive L-Blends Word Building Activity
Engage young readers to tackle L-blend words with an engaging and inviting Google Interactive activity.
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Disappearing Snowman (Hangman Alternative)
An interactive word guessing game.
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CVC Word Chain Sequencing Cards
Practice building word chains involving CVC words with these word chain sequencing cards.
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CVC Words - Spell and Write Task Cards
Practice spelling CVC words and manipulating their phonemes to create word chains with this set of hands-on work mats.
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Spaceship Word Chains - Worksheets
Manipulate the individual phonemes in 3- and 4-letter words to create new ones with this set of word chain worksheets.
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Short Vowel Worksheets (Middle Sounds Practice)
Identify medial or middle vowel sounds with this set of three worksheets.
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Weekly Spelling Homework-Year-Long Spelling Worksheets
Practice weekly spelling words to strengthen letter-sound recognition, alphabetization, and sentence writing skills with 36 weeks of worksheets.
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How Does It End? - Final Sounds Printable or Interactive Activity
Practice spelling CVC words with this set of 15 fill-in-the-blank word cards and their matching missing letters.
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Dolch Noun Sounding Out Cards
A set of 95 cards containing Dolch nouns for students to practice sounding out words.
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Spelling Center Rotation Board
Set up a spelling stations rotation chart for your students to reference with this display kit.
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Finding Phonemes - A, AW, AU, OR, ORE Digital Learning Activity
Read and spell words using the au, aw, a , or, and ore phonemes with an interactive digital learning activity.
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Phoneme Find - N, NN & KN - Spelling Game
Decide when to spell words with n, nn, kn to spell the /n/ sound with an engaging Interactive Phonics Activity!
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Compound Words - Worksheet Pack
Practice using compound words in sentences with. a pair of printable compound word worksheets for older students.
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W, WH, or U? Phoneme Interactive Game
Decide when to use w, wh, or u to spell the /w/ sound with an engaging Interactive Phonics Game!
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Halloween Spelling Practice Worksheets
Practice weekly spelling words with a spooktacular Halloween twist with a set of printable Halloween spelling worksheets.
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Rainbow Affixes - Prefix and Suffix Game
Define words with prefixes and suffixes with a self-checking interactive game!
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CVC Word Chain Ladders - Worksheets
Build word chains with CVC words using this set of printable phonics worksheets.
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Long U Words - Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common “long u” graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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CVC Phoneme Manipulation Worksheets - Short E
Manipulate the individual phonemes in “short e” words with this set of differentiated CVC words worksheets.
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Silent Letters Interactive Activity
Explore silent letters in one- and two-syllable words with this interactive spelling activity.
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Word Study List — Double Consonant Words
Introduce and explore double letters in words with a list of 50 double-lettered words.
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Word Study List — Final Stable Syllable
Introduce and explore multisyllable words with a list of final stable syllable words.
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Read and Write Compound Words Worksheet
Read and write compound words with a set of fill-in and cut and paste worksheet.
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Google Interactive Activity- Reading, Spelling, and Rhyming Word Families
Build skill with word families, rhyming words, and more with a Google Slides Interactive Word Family Activity.