Unit 1 — Short a
The first pattern anyone teaches: one vowel, one sound, three letters.
First grade
First grade spelling words
Eighty words in eight weekly units, each unit one pattern. Short vowels first, then digraphs and blends, then the handful that refuse to follow any rule at all.
First grade 80 words 8 units
Take a unit
Unit 2 — Short i
Same shape, different vowel. Say the words in pairs with unit one.
Unit 3 — Short o
Watch for children who write "u" here — the two sounds are close.
Unit 4 — Short u
The last of the easy four, and the one that survives into longer words.
Unit 5 — Short e
Held back deliberately: short e and short i are the commonest confusion.
Unit 6 — sh, ch and th
Two letters, one sound. The first time spelling stops being one-to-one.
Unit 7 — Beginning blends
Two sounds you can still hear separately, unlike a digraph.
Unit 8 — -ing and the first sight words
Words that will not sound out, learned whole.
The words
WordSentence read after it
cat
The cat slept on the windowsill.
hat
He wore a wool hat in the snow.
map
Find our town on the map.
bag
My bag is full of books.
ran
The dog ran across the field.
sad
The ending of the film was sad.
jam
Spread jam on the toast.
tap
Tap the drum twice.
van
A white van parked outside.
lap
The cat sat on my lap.
Unit 2
pig
The pig rolled in the mud.
sit
Please sit on the carpet.
win
Our team hopes to win the cup.
lip
She bit her lip and kept quiet.
dig
Dig a hole for the bulbs.
hid
The kitten hid behind the curtain.
mix
Mix the flour and the eggs.
fin
A shark fin cut through the water.
rib
He bruised a rib playing soccer.
kit
Pack your swimming kit tonight.
Unit 3
dog
Our dog barks at the mail carrier.
top
Write the date at the top.
hop
Rabbits hop across the lawn.
box
Store the crayons in this box.
mop
Use the mop to dry the floor.
lot
There is a lot of homework tonight.
rod
He fixed a new rod to the curtain.
job
Feeding the fish is my job.
fox
A fox crossed the empty road.
pot
Boil the pasta in a big pot.
Unit 4
bug
A tiny bug crawled up the wall.
cup
Pour the juice into a cup.
run
I can run all the way home.
sun
The sun came out after lunch.
mud
Our boots were covered in mud.
hug
She gave her mother a hug.
nut
A squirrel cracked open a nut.
bus
The school bus leaves at eight.
cut
Cut along the dotted line.
tub
The tub was full of warm water.
Unit 5
bed
Make your bed before school.
ten
Count to ten and open your eyes.
red
She wore a red hat.
leg
The table has a broken leg.
hen
The hen laid three eggs.
net
The ball hit the top of the net.
pen
Sign your name with a pen.
wet
My socks are wet from the puddle.
jet
A jet flew low over the houses.
get
Get your coat from the peg.
Unit 6
ship
The ship sailed at dawn.
shop
The corner shop sells stamps.
fish
A fish jumped out of the water.
chin
He rested his chin on his hand.
chop
Chop the carrots into sticks.
much
How much does the ticket cost?
thin
Slice the bread very thin.
that
That book is mine.
with
Come with me to the office.
wish
I wish it would snow.
Unit 7
stop
Stop at the crossing.
spin
Spin the wheel to see who starts.
flag
The flag flapped in the wind.
drum
He plays the drum in the band.
grab
Grab your coat and follow me.
clap
Clap twice when the music stops.
sled
We pulled the sled up the hill.
trip
The school trip is on Thursday.
frog
A frog jumped into the pond.
plan
We made a plan for the party.
Unit 8
jumping
The children were jumping in the puddles.
going
We are going to the museum tomorrow.
said
The teacher said to line up.
they
They are waiting outside.
have
I have a new library book.
come
Please come to the front of the class.
some
Take some paper from the pile.
was
The film was very long.
one
Only one apple is left.
from
This letter is from my cousin.
Sheets you can print
Tick what you need. The packet prints in this order, one sheet per page, with nothing else on the paper.
One pattern per week, not ten random words
A first grade list should be almost boring in its regularity. Every word in unit one has a short a in the middle and a consonant on each side, so a child who can spell cat, hat and map can spell rat, sat and tap without ever being taught them. That transfer is the entire point, and it disappears the moment a list mixes cat in with because.
Ten words is enough at this age and eight is often better. They are short, so the test takes four minutes, and what is being built is the confidence to attempt a word rather than the memory of ten specific ones.
The vowels that get confused
Short e and short i are the pair that causes trouble, which is why they sit four units apart here rather than side by side. A child writing pin for pen is not being careless: the two sounds are close together, and in many accents they are nearly identical before an n. Teach them separately, several weeks apart, and only then contrast them deliberately.
Short o and short u come second for confusion, particularly in pairs like cup and cop. The remedy is the same one — keep them apart on the way in, and put them side by side only once each is secure on its own.
Digraphs are the first real spelling rule
Up to unit six, spelling is one letter per sound. Then sh, ch and th break that, and it is worth naming out loud: two letters, one sound, and neither letter says its own name. Children who are not told this explicitly tend to write s for sh for months, because s is what they can hear at the front of the word.
Blends are the opposite, and the contrast is what makes both clear. In stop you really can hear the s and the t separately, and saying the word slowly pulls them apart. A child who can tell you which of shop and stop has two sounds at the front has understood the distinction.
The eight words that will not sound out
Unit eight is the exception unit: said, they, have, come, some, was, one, from. Every one is a top-fifty word in English and every one breaks the pattern the other seventy have spent the year teaching. They have to be learned whole, and they deserve more practice time than anything else on this page because they appear in every sentence the child will ever read.
Keep them in circulation afterwards. Three of these dropped into every later test, all year, costs a minute and heads off the slow drift back to sed and wos that turns up in every second grade class.
Common questions
How many spelling words should a first grader get each week?
Eight to ten, all sharing one pattern. The number matters far less than the sharing — ten related words are easier than five unrelated ones, because the child has to hold one idea rather than five.
My child can read these but cannot spell them. Is that normal?
Completely. Reading is recognition and spelling is production, and production runs a year or two behind at this age. A child who reads fluently and spells shakily is developing normally; the reverse would be the unusual case.
Should I correct invented spelling in their own writing?
Not while they are writing. Invented spelling shows a child hearing sounds and mapping them to letters, which is the machinery you want running freely. Correct afterwards, and only for words from the current list — a page returned covered in red teaches avoidance rather than spelling.
When should letter names be used instead of letter sounds?
Sounds for reading and for building words, names when spelling out loud, because the name is what has to be written down. Both are needed by the end of first grade, and mixing them up is why a child sometimes treats the two letters of sh as two separate sounds.