KS1 Spellings

KS1 Spellings - The National Curriculum (Year 1)

Here are the statutory requirements in regard to spelling in the National Curriculum:

- The sounds /f/, /l/, /s/, /z/ and /k/ spelt ff, ll, ss, zz and ck

Examples: off, well, miss, buzz, back

- The /ŋ/ sound spelt n before k

Examples: bank, think, honk, sunk

- Division of words into syllables

Examples: pocket, rabbit, carrot, thunder, sunset

- -tch (The /tʃ/ sound is usually spelt as tch if it comes straight after a single vowel letter.)

Examples: catch, fetch, kitchen, notch, hutch

- The /v/ sound at the end of words

Examples: have, live, give

- Adding s and es to words (plural of nouns and the third person singular of verbs)

Examples: cats, dogs, spends, rocks, thanks, catches

- Adding the endings –ing, –ed and –er to verbs where no change is needed to the root word

Examples: hunting, hunted, hunter, buzzing, buzzed, buzzer, jumping, jumped, jumper

- Adding –er and –est to adjectives where no change is needed to the root word

Examples: grander, grandest, fresher, freshest, quicker, quickest

- Vowel digraphs and trigraphs

- Using k for the /k/ sound

Examples: Kent, sketch, kit, skin, frisky

- Adding the prefix –un 

Examples: unhappy, undo, unload, unfair, unlock

- Compound words

Examples: football, playground, farmyard, bedroom, blackberry

- Common exception words

KS1 Spellings - The National Curriculum (Year 2)

Here are the statutory requirements in regard to spelling in the National Curriculum:

- The /dʒ/ sound spelt as ge and dge at the end of words, and sometimes spelt as g elsewhere in words before e, i and y

Examples: badge, edge, bridge, dodge, fudge age, huge, change, charge, bulge, village gem, giant, magic, giraffe, energy jacket, jar, jog, join, adjust

- The /s/ sound spelt c before e, i and y

Examples: race, ice, cell, city, fancy

- The /n/ sound spelt kn and (less often) gn at the beginning of words

Examples: knock, know, knee, gnat, gnaw

- The /r/ sound spelt wr at the beginning of words

Examples: write, written, wrote, wrong, wrap

- The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –le at the end of words

Examples: table, apple, bottle, little, middle

- The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –el at the end of words

Examples: camel, tunnel, squirrel, travel, towel, tinsel

- The /l/ or /əl/ sound spelt –al at the end of words

Examples: metal, pedal, capital, hospital, animal

- Words ending –il

Examples: pencil, fossil, nostril

- The /aɪ/ sound spelt –y at the end of words

Examples: cry, fly, dry, try, reply, July

- Adding –es to nouns and verbs ending in –y

Examples: flies, tries, replies, copies, babies, carries

- Adding –ed, –ing, –er and –est to a root word ending in –y with a consonant before it

Examples: copied, copier, happier, happiest, cried, replied

- Adding the endings ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words ending in –e with a consonant before it

Examples: hiking, hiked, hiker, nicer, nicest, shiny

- Adding –ing, –ed, –er, –est and –y to words of one syllable ending in a single consonant letter after a single vowel letter

Examples: patting, patted, humming, hummed, dropping, dropped, sadder, saddest, fatter, fattest, runner, runny

- The /:/ ɔsound spelt a before l and ll

Examples: all, ball, call, walk, talk, always

- The /ʌ/ sound spelt o

Examples: other, mother, brother, nothing, Monday

- The /i:/ sound spelt –ey

Examples: key, donkey, monkey, chimney, valley

- The /ɒ/ sound spelt a after w and qu

Examples: want, watch, wander, quantity, squash

- The /ɜ:/ sound spelt or after w

Examples: word, work, worm, world, worth

- The /ɔ:/ sound spelt ar after w

Examples: war, warm, towards

- The /ʒ/ sound spelt s

Examples: television, treasure, usual

- The suffixes –ment, –ness, –ful , –less and –ly

Examples: enjoyment, sadness, careful, playful, hopeless, plainness (plain + ness), badly merriment, happiness, plentiful, penniless, happily

- Contractions

Examples: can’t, didn’t, hasn’t, couldn’t, it’s, I’ll

- The possessive apostrophe (singular nouns)

Examples: Megan’s, Ravi’s, the girl’s, the child’s, the man’s

- Words ending in –tion

Examples: station, fiction, motion, national, section

- Homophones and near-homophones

Examples: there/their/they’re, here/hear, quite/quiet, see/sea, bare/bear, one/won, sun/son, to/too/two, be/bee, blue/blew, night/knight

- Common exception words

KS1 Spellings - Strategies and Games

Schools use a range of different methods to help children learn their spellings. Here are some of the most popular ways to help children learn their spelling words:

1. Wordsearches: spelling words could be hidden in a wordsearch for children to find. If they are learning, for example, how to add +tion to root words, perhaps only the root words could be provided!

2. Hangman: playing a game of hangman on a whiteboard is also another popular way to help children memorise spellings.

3. Anagrams: children could be given anagrams of spelling words which they have to unscramble.

4. Spelling Art: draw an overlapping wiggly line with space in each section you create. Choose one word for each sentence and challenge children to write the word as many times as they can within each section.

5. Word rank: from a range of spelling words, ask children to rank them from what they think are the easiest to spell to the hardest. Try to identify why the words at the bottom are hardest and work on these first. Children could write them out, identifying the trickiest letters and making sure to write these letters larger than the others.

6. Silly sentences: make up silly sentences that use all the words from a given list of spellings. What’s the silliest sentence you can make?!

7. Table tennis spelling: in pairs, children to imagine they are playing table tennis but they bat letters instead of balls! They take it in turns to ping pong each letter in a word in order to each other until they have spelt the word between them.

KS1 Spellings - Look Say Cover Write Check

Children are typically given a Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check template which has a list of spelling words they need to learn in the first column. These may be common exception words, mis-spelt words identified in their writing or they may be words with a common spelling pattern they need to learn.

The idea of Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check is that the children take each spelling word in turn. First they will look at the word. The next step is to say it aloud so they can hear it. After that, they cover the word over with either their hand or a piece of paper. Then, they will try to write the word in the next column of the table. Finally, they check their spelling by either removing their hand or the piece of paper. This process can be repeated until children have successfully learnt the spelling.

Here are some possible ways in which the Look, Say, Cover, Write Check technique for learning spellings could be used:

- As a morning task when children come into the classroom before registration

-During spelling sessions as a way to provide practise for children in learning spellings

-As a homework task to support parents in helping children learn their spellings

KS1 Spellings - Useful Blogs and Articles

Here at PlanBee we not only have a huge library of resources to support teachers, but we also write expert articles and blogs on a range of subjects. Here are some that you might like to read to find out more about KS1 Spellings:

FREE: Printable Letter Tiles

FREE: Year 1 Spelling Words List

FREE: Year 2 Spelling Words List

FREE: Look Say Cover Write Check Template

FREE: Homophones Game