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.

a student's spelling words practice worksheet with some of the sections filled out in different colors

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."