Spelling
Grade-by-grade lists and the patterns underneath them, so your child learns the rule rather than fifteen separate words.
All spelling resources
WorksheetsHow-toExplainerThe five long vowel sounds, the four ways English spells each one, and how to teach them once your child has the short vowels.
GuideThe seven things that matter, what to watch while your child practices, and how to pick the best one for you.
Word listWorksheetsA silent final e reaches back over one consonant and makes the vowel say its own name. Four vowels do it all the time (a_e, i_e, o_e and u_e), and e_e is real but rare.
Word listWorksheetsAn ending blend is two consonants run together at the end of a word, with both sounds still heard: hand, tent, jump, nest, desk, gift, belt, wolf, milk. They are harder to hear than the blends at the start of a word, and they are where most of a child's spelling mistakes live. Below are the words family by family, free worksheets, and why nk and ng are taught differently.
Word listWorksheetsA vowel team is two letters that spell one vowel sound, so rain has four letters and three sounds. The lists below are grouped by SOUND rather than by spelling, because the choice between two spellings of the same sound is the part a child actually has to learn.
Word listWorksheetsLong a is the sound in cake, rain and day: the letter a saying its own name. English writes it at least five ways, and choosing between them is the part a child has to learn.
Word listWorksheetsLong e is the sound in feet, leaf and happy: the letter e saying its own name. It has more spellings than any other long vowel, and the two commonest, ee and ea, cannot be told apart by any rule.
Word listWorksheetsLong i is the sound in bike, light and my: the letter i saying its own name. It is the only long vowel spelled with three letters for one sound, and the only one commonly spelled with no i at all.
Word listWorksheetsLong o is the sound in bone, boat and snow: the letter o saying its own name. One of its spellings, ow, also spells a completely different sound, which is the mix-up this page sorts out.
Word listWorksheetsLong u is two sounds, not one. It is the /yoo/ in cube and music and the /oo/ in blue and moon, and both are called long u. Knowing that is what stops a child stalling on blue.
Word listWorksheetsAn r-controlled vowel is a vowel followed by r, where the r changes the vowel's sound so it is neither short nor long. Parents and teachers call it bossy r. There are five spellings (ar, or, er, ir and ur) but only three sounds, because er, ir and ur all say the same thing.
Word listWorksheetsThe words a second grader learns to spell, grouped by the patterns of the year, with free worksheets for each group.
WorksheetsHow-toExplainerOne box for each sound in a word, chips before letters, and how to use them with a five-year-old at the kitchen table.
Word listWorksheetsThe words a kindergartner learns to spell, grouped by skill from two-letter words to sh, ch and th, with free spelling and writing worksheets for every group.
Word listWorksheetsThe words a first grader learns to spell, grouped by the five patterns of the year, with free worksheets for each group.
How-toWhy spelling is harder than reading, the five-minute routine that works, and what to do when your child gets a word wrong.
ExplainerThe handful of rules that are worth teaching, roughly when each one lands, and the ones to handle with caution.
How-toSeven games you can play tonight with nothing but a pencil, why they beat worksheets, and how to tell a spelling game from a reading one.
How-toExplainerWhat struggling spelling looks like, why writing a word out ten times does not fix it, and the multisensory techniques that do.
ExplainerWhat age spelling starts, the five stages it arrives in, and why nite for night is a good sign.