How it works
- Type or paste your words, one per line or with commas.
- Name the list (for example “Week 5”) so it prints on every page.
- Tick the activities you want and choose a handwriting style for tracing.
- Download one PDF with every activity, then the answer keys at the back.
The seven activities
Trace and write
Each word is traced twice on handwriting lines, then written once without help.
Look, say, cover, write, check
Fold along the dashed line to hide the words, write each one from memory, then unfold and tick it. There are two tries per word.
Word scramble
The letters of each word are mixed up (never in the right order) for children to unscramble.
ABC order
A word bank to put in alphabetical order. Capital letters don’t change the order, so “Thursday” sorts with the t words.
Letter boxes
Each word is drawn as a row of boxes shaped like its letters: tall boxes for b, d and t, boxes that hang below the line for g, p and y. Children match words from the word bank to their shapes.
Word search
The list hidden in a grid of letters, across, down or diagonally but never backwards, so it stays readable for young children. The grid grows with the list.
Spelling test
Numbered lines for the test on Friday, and a list in the same order for you to read aloud.
A weekly spelling routine
Many classes use one activity a day: tracing on Monday, look-say-cover-write-check on Tuesday, the scramble and ABC order mid-week, letter boxes as a quiet task, and the test on Friday. Because the list is saved in your browser, next week you only type the new words.
Provincial curriculum links
- BC Grade 1Familiar words spelled correctly, with an introduction to Canadian spelling.
- BC Grade 2–3Word patterns and word families, and most conventions of Canadian spelling.
- BC Grade 3Word knowledge that includes roots, prefixes and suffixes.
- ON Grade 1–3Spelling is taught directly and systematically alongside word reading (2023).
Canadian spelling mixes British and American forms: colour, centre and cheque, but organize and recognize. Build lists with the forms students see in Canadian books; the maker prints each word exactly as you type it.
Ontario’s 2023 curriculum ties spelling to phonics, so in the primary grades a list built around one pattern, such as words with ai and ay, works better than a list of unrelated words. In BC Grade 3, a list that shares a root or suffix (play, played, playful) supports the word knowledge the curriculum describes.
Summarized in our own words from BC English Language Arts (Grades 1–3) and The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1–8: Language (2023).
