Skip to content
SpellingTestMaker

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.

One word per line, or paste a comma-separated list. Numbering and bullets are stripped. A sentence after a pipe is read out with the word.

Your list, the answers and any name you type stay in this browser — nothing is uploaded. The built-in lists are compiled by spelling pattern, not issued by a curriculum authority. Check this before you rely on it. This spelling test maker is provided free and without warranty, and its results are not professional advice.

Grade 1 spelling words — Unit 1 — Short a

Name ____________________ Date ____________

Listen to each word and write it on the line. Put your name at the top first.

Grade 1 spelling words — Unit 1 — Short a

Name ____________________ Date ____________

Look at the word, cover it, write it, then check. Repeat any you get wrong.

  1. catThe cat slept on the windowsill.
  2. hatHe wore a wool hat in the snow.
  3. mapFind our town on the map.
  4. bagMy bag is full of books.
  5. ranThe dog ran across the field.
  6. sadThe ending of the film was sad.
  7. jamSpread jam on the toast.
  8. tapTap the drum twice.
  9. vanA white van parked outside.
  10. lapThe cat sat on my lap.

Spelling certificate

Awarded to

 

Grade 1 spelling words — Unit 1 — Short a

Score ______ out of ______

Date ____________

Every word in Grade 1 spelling words

80 words in 8 groups, grouped by pattern.

Unit 1 — Short a

The first pattern anyone teaches: one vowel, one sound, three letters.

  1. cat
  2. hat
  3. map
  4. bag
  5. ran
  6. sad
  7. jam
  8. tap
  9. van
  10. lap

Unit 2 — Short i

Same shape, different vowel. Say the words in pairs with unit one.

  1. pig
  2. sit
  3. win
  4. lip
  5. dig
  6. hid
  7. mix
  8. fin
  9. rib
  10. kit

Unit 3 — Short o

Watch for children who write "u" here — the two sounds are close.

  1. dog
  2. top
  3. hop
  4. box
  5. mop
  6. lot
  7. rod
  8. job
  9. fox
  10. pot

Unit 4 — Short u

The last of the easy four, and the one that survives into longer words.

  1. bug
  2. cup
  3. run
  4. sun
  5. mud
  6. hug
  7. nut
  8. bus
  9. cut
  10. tub

Unit 5 — Short e

Held back deliberately: short e and short i are the commonest confusion.

  1. bed
  2. ten
  3. red
  4. leg
  5. hen
  6. net
  7. pen
  8. wet
  9. jet
  10. get

Unit 6 — sh, ch and th

Two letters, one sound. The first time spelling stops being one-to-one.

  1. ship
  2. shop
  3. fish
  4. chin
  5. chop
  6. much
  7. thin
  8. that
  9. with
  10. wish

Unit 7 — Beginning blends

Two sounds you can still hear separately, unlike a digraph.

  1. stop
  2. spin
  3. flag
  4. drum
  5. grab
  6. clap
  7. sled
  8. trip
  9. frog
  10. plan

Unit 8 — -ing and the first sight words

Words that will not sound out, learned whole.

  1. jumping
  2. going
  3. said
  4. they
  5. have
  6. come
  7. some
  8. was
  9. one
  10. from

What the practice modes do

Generated by the same code the buttons run, on the first few words of this list, so what is printed here is what you will get.

Word Letter scramble Missing letters Spelled out loud
catatcc_tC, A, T
hathtah_tH, A, T
mapapmm_pM, A, P
baggabb_gB, A, G

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.

Other lists and guides