100 Tricky Elementary Spelling Words
By mastering key elementary spelling words early, elementary students can achieve success and build confidence!
Many common elementary spelling words contain silent consonants, irregular vowels, or other tricky spellings. Students often need a little extra practice reading, writing and spelling these words.
We've chosen 100 of these words. Print the list to use and study with your students. Use these words frequently in homework, board work and other classroom activities.
Your kids will get an extra spelling boost as they master these important words!
Printable list of 100 Elementary Spelling Words
| again | although | answer | any |
| are | become | been | both |
| bought | catch | climbed | color |
| come | could | country | do |
| does | door | earth | edge |
| eight | enough | example | eyes |
| father | few | find | four |
| friend | from | give | great |
| group | have | heard | island |
| kind | knew | know | learn |
| listen | live | many | measure |
| most | mother | move | night |
| off | often | old | on |
| once | one | only | other |
| people | picture | piece | quickly |
| right | said | science | should |
| sign | snow | some | straight |
| stretch | sure | talk | their |
| there | they | though | thought |
| through | to | today | two |
| usually | walk | want | was |
| watch | water | were | what |
| where | who | women | word |
| work | world | would | write |
| wrote | you | young | your |
How to Use This List
1. At the beginning of the week, write 3 to 5 of these words on the classroom board, or on the fridge at home. Use the words in sentences. Ask students to use the words in written work. Emphasize correct usage and correct spellings.
2. After several weeks of this practice, be sure to review words from past weeks, particularly those that seemed to be the most difficult. Continue to incorporate all the words in classroom writing assignments, spelling games, and conversations.
3. Assign students to work with a partner. Give them the PDF word list, pencils and graph paper. Ask them to create mini word search puzzles, hiding 10-20 words in a puzzle. They will need to make a word list, a final word search for a classmate to solve, and an answer puzzle that shows the location of all the words.
4. Use some of these elementary spelling words in "Five-Minute Fillers" like these:
- List at list five words from this list that begin with the same letter. Challenge students to orally compose the best possible sentence using all five words. (Some may resemble tongue twisters!) Example: Women around the world watch water work.
- Ask students to find two four-letter words with similar spelling patterns. See if they can transform one into the other, changing one letter at time and always spelling a sensible word. Examples: FIND, fine, five, GIVE; SURE, sore, more, MOVE
- Ask students to add 10 more words to this list that might be difficult for themselves or for other students.
More Elementary Spelling Words
Find more grade level spelling lists and activities:
First grade
Second grade
Third grade
Fourth grade
Fifth grade
Sixth grade
Spelling Practice Ideas
Your students need lots and lots of practice when learning new spelling words. Why not make it fun? Use the links above and tabs on the left to find resources for your grade.
Wacky packages! - Find the spelling errors on these whimsical boxes. One of our most popular pages!
Silent Letter Search: Word search fun! Students must add the correct silent letters and then locate the completed words in an engaging word search puzzle. This individual format is always a hit!
For more difficult words, check out my Spelling Bee Word Lists!
Spelling crossword puzzle - This puzzle provides a fun way for kids to practice spelling those tricky plural nouns.
Word Scrambles are a superb way to practice elementary spelling words. Kids already have all the letters they need; they just need to put them in the correct places! These pages are available in a wide variety of difficulty, so check out the entire list to find the ones that are best for your child or students!
Roll It! - Easy-to-make spelling word games. Roll the consonants around the tube to spell new words. Great at home or at school.
Using spelling words in context is one of the very best ways to learn and practice new spelling words. Because of this, I've added many pages of delightful new writing prompts for kids to this website. Each prompt includes one or more spelling words for the grade level given. Look through the entire directory to locate the sets of prompts most appropriate for your students.
You can also extend students' learning by offering new vocabulary words weekly. First expose them to these grade words orally, then show them the words in writing. Eventually, kids will be able to use them correctly in conversation and finally spelling them correctly, too!
Double the Fun - To double or not to double the final consonant when adding a suffix? Another great game for spelling fun! For grades 3 - 5.
Spelling Bee Games - Try one of our new Silent Spelling Bee variations. A fun--and quiet--twist on a classic game!
Shady Spelling
- Printable game
boards for two players.
Ann Richmond Fisher is a longtime published educational writer, a former classroom teacher and a former homeschool teacher. Ann's spelling bee resources, graded spelling word lists, spelling games, worksheets, and other language arts resources have become respected around the globe since she launched Spelling-Words-Well in 2010.
Ann is also the creator of www.word-game-world.com.
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