Kindergarten Spelling Words

Every list is built from three-letter consonant, vowel, consonant words, called CVC words, where the vowel makes its short sound. We chose the words by spelling pattern, then checked each against a pronunciation dictionary so the vowel is really the short one, and used word frequency to keep to words five-year-olds know. Each list page has a hangman game with that list, the words with difficulty scores, and a printable worksheet with an answer key.

One thing to know about hangman at this age: short words are the hardest for our solver, and three-letter words average about 7.5 wrong guesses. That is why the teaching notes on each page suggest revealing the vowel first, so the game becomes a search for the first and last sounds.

Most kindergarten programs teach the short vowels one at a time, usually starting with short a, and add consonants as they go. Children first blend sounds to read a word, then segment sounds to spell it. Once a child can do both with a few vowels, the next step is usually word families, where changing a single letter makes a new word. These patterns are commonly taught in kindergarten, though order and pace differ between programs.

Our lists follow that sequence. Start with CVC Short A Words, then CVC Short I Words, CVC Short O Words, CVC Short E Words and CVC Short U Words, or use whichever order your program follows. Short e and short i are the most often confused, so many teachers separate them by a week or more. When the vowels are secure, Word Family Words groups the same vocabulary by ending: -at, -an, -ap, -ig, -in, -it, -op, -ot, -ug, -un, -et and -en.

Children who are ready for more can move on to the 1st grade lists, which keep the short vowels but add blends, digraphs and endings like ck. Sight words are a separate strand, and high-frequency words like the, is and was are taught alongside, since they cannot always be sounded out.

Keep the routine short, around ten minutes. On Monday, say five words from one list and have children tap and spell them with tiles, with no written test. On Tuesday and Wednesday, repeat with the same words, changing one letter at a time to make new ones. On Thursday, play a hangman round on a whiteboard, with the teacher giving the vowel first and the class calling out the other letters.

On Friday, say the words and have children write them, or point to the right tiles if writing is not ready. Count sounds correct rather than words correct, so a child who writes ct for cat still gets credit for two of the three. Print the worksheet from any list page for the written check, and keep a note of which vowels each child confuses for the next week.