A Complete Guide to Year 1 Spelling: Worksheets & More

15 January, 2025

Teaching spelling in Year 1 is all about building a solid foundation. At this early stage, kids are introduced to a variety of spelling patterns, blends, and digraphs, which serve as the building blocks for more advanced language skills in later years. Below, we’ll break down the essential spelling concepts to focus on during this crucial year. To help, we’ve created a collection of Year 1 spelling worksheets (including word lists) that provide engaging, structured opportunities for students to practise and master these concepts. Browse Year 2 Spelling Guide.

Spelling Activities

While the Year 1 spelling worksheets you’ll find below are perfect for helping your kids practise and strengthen their spelling skills, it’s also important to mix in some fun, hands-on activities to keep them excited and engaged. Here are some of our favourites that kids not only enjoy, but that really work!

Word Bingo: Create bingo cards with the spelling words and call out each word for students to mark on their cards. For an extra challenge, ask them to spell the word aloud before marking it off.

Chalk Rainbow Writing: Have students write their spelling words with colourful chalk for a fun, sensory activity. You can use different colours in creative ways—perhaps one colour for vowels and another for consonants, or a specific colour to highlight the spelling focus. For example, use a certain colour to highlight the ‘s’ blends in their word list, like slip, scare, skip, and stop.

Word Sorting: Have students sort words by their spelling patterns (e.g., words with ‘oi’ vs ‘oy’ or ‘ai’ vs ‘ay’). This activity encourages pattern recognition and helps students understand how different letters work together. Find our word sorts below.

Spelling Word Sentences: Have your kids use each of their spelling words in a sentence—it’s a great way to reinforce both the meaning and the spelling. You could even challenge them to include all their spelling words in a short story. It’s a fun way to make sure they’re really getting the hang of those words!

Word Search: Give your kids a blank grid. Have them ‘hide’ each of their spelling words by placing one letter in each box. Once they’ve hidden all their words, they can fill in the rest of the grid with random letters. After that, they can swap with a partner and see if they can find the words the other person hid. It’s a playful way to practise spelling while sharpening their word-search skills!

Year 1 Spelling Worksheets and Word Lists

1. Short Vowel CVC Words

CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant) are the bread and butter of early spelling. Revisiting these simple words helps reinforce the short vowel sounds, which are often tricky for young learners to master. Examples like cat, bed, and dog should be regular features in your lessons. Browse our collection of CVC worksheets.

2. Initial ‘r’ Blends — br, cr, dr, fr, gr, tr

A blend is a combination of two or more consonants where each consonant sound can still be heard. Initial ‘r’ blends are blends that involve the letter ‘r’ and are used at the beginning of a word (the onset). Students in Year 1 focus on listening to, forming and spelling ‘r’ blends such as brick, frog and grow. Browse more blends resources.

3. Initial ‘l’ Blends — bl, cl, fl, gl, pl, sl

Initial ‘l’ blends involve the letter ‘l’ at the beginning of a word (the onset). Students focus on listening to, forming, and spelling ‘l’ blends in words like black, clap, and slip.

4. Initial ‘s’ Blends — sc, sk, sm, sn, sp, st

The ‘s’ blends, including scare, skip, and snack, are common in everyday words, making them an important focus. Students should practise forming and spelling blends that involve the letter ‘s’.

5. Final Blends — ‘nt’, ‘nd’, ‘nk’, ‘mp’, ‘st’

Final blends come at the end of words and can be a bit trickier for students to identify. Practice words like tent, wind, bank, lamp, and fast to help students get comfortable with these patterns.

6. Diphthongs — ‘oi’ and ‘oy’

Diphthongs like those in coin and boy introduce a unique sound pattern that combines two vowel sounds within the same syllable. Understanding these can help students with more complex spelling as they progress.

7. Contractions — Word + ‘is’ and Word + ‘not’

Students in Year 1 are introduced to basic contractions. Focus on word + ‘is’ (e.g. it’s, he’s, she’s) and word + ‘not’ (e.g. can’t, won’t).

8. Short /e/ Spelt ‘e’ and ‘ea’

Words like bed and head show how the short /e/ sound can be spelled in different ways. Teaching these variations early is important to help avoid confusion later.

9. Silent ‘e’ — Long Vowel Patterns

The silent ‘e’ (often called the ‘bossy e’) plays a big role in changing short vowel sounds to long ones. You can see it in action with words like cake, hope, and cute, where that little ‘e’ completely changes how the vowel sounds.

10. Common Long Vowel Patterns

Common long vowel patterns like ai, ay, ea, ee, oa, and ew help young learners recognise familiar sound combinations in words. These patterns show up in everyday words such as train, play, beach, tree, boat, and stew. Understanding these patterns helps build confidence in both reading and spelling as students learn to connect sounds to their written forms.

11. Initial Digraphs — ‘ch’, ‘ph’, ‘sh’, ‘th’ and ‘wh’

Where each letter in a blend can be heard, the two letters in a digraph combine to make one sound. Start with common initial digraphs like ch, ph, sh, th, and wh to build familiarity.

Whether you’re using the year 1 spelling worksheets, hands-on activities, or a mix of both, the key is to make the experience fun and engaging. By keeping things varied and playful, you’ll help your little learners build strong spelling skills—and a love for words that lasts a lifetime! Browse all our spelling resources, or move on to our Year 2 Spelling Guide.