How to use these 2nd grade spelling worksheets
The pages are set out as one school week. Each takes 10 to 15 minutes, and you need just a pencil.
- Monday: spelling list. Read the 10 words together. Talk about what they share: one short vowel sound each, with two consonants together at the start or end. Your child writes each word twice.
- Tuesday: word sort. Your child reads each word and decides where it belongs. Talk about the choices out loud; the thinking is the useful part, not just a tidy page.
- Wednesday: spelling practice. Unscramble the jumbled words using the word bank, then write the first five words in ABC order.
- Thursday: quick review. Say each word in a sentence, then have your child spell aloud the two or three words that tripped them up on Wednesday.
- Friday: spelling check. You read each word and a short sentence; your child writes the word. Mark it together and color the stars.
The last two pages are the week 2 list (long a, spelled a_e, ai and ay) and its word sort, so you can carry straight on into week 2. For all 36 weeks of words, see our 2nd grade spelling words list.
Tips by age
Young 7s. Split the list into two days of five words. On the check, let them say the sounds out loud as they write.
Confident 7s and 8s. Add a bonus word that fits the pattern, like crisp or stomp, to the Friday check without warning.
Children who find spelling hard. Use the spelling tip printed on the practice page: say the word, tap the sounds on your fingers, write it, then check it against the list. Tapping makes each sound visible.
Games to play with the pages
- Spelling hopscotch. Chalk 10 squares outside. Call a word; your child hops one square per letter while spelling it out loud.
- Rainbow write. Write each word three times in three colors, saying the letters as they go.
- Sort race. Cut out the words from a spare list page and time the sort. Do it again on Thursday and try to beat Tuesday's time.
- Find it in a book. Look for short vowel words with blends in a chapter book. Each one found earns a tally mark.
- Teach it back. Let your child be the teacher and read the Friday check to you. Make one deliberate mistake for them to catch.
If you are planning the whole year, our 2nd grade homeschool curriculum guide shows how spelling fits alongside reading, writing and math in a typical week.
When your child is ready for more
After the short vowel review, second-grade spelling moves into the long vowel teams in week 2 and beyond, then r-controlled vowels like ar and or, silent letters, prefixes, suffixes and homophones.
Spelling & Vocabulary: 2nd Grade runs all 36 weeks with the same simple routine as this sample (a list built on one pattern, a word sort, a practice page and a Friday check), plus a word detective vocabulary page each week that goes with the stories in our 2nd grade curriculum. Because the routine never changes, your child spends their energy on the words, not on working out a new kind of page.
Questions parents ask
Ten words a week is a common and manageable amount in second grade, which is what these lists use. What matters more than the number is that every word follows one pattern, so your child learns a rule that works for hundreds of words rather than memorizing ten on their own.
Yes. Choose Colourful or Black & White and US Letter or A4, and the download starts straight away. No email, no account. These are real pages from our 2nd grade Spelling & Vocabulary book, so you can run a full week with them and see if the routine suits your family.
Short vowels are the base of almost every later pattern, and these words add blends at the start and end, like st in stamp and nk in trunk. Starting the year with a familiar sound plus harder consonants lets children feel successful while still being stretched.
The full book has 183 pages and covers a whole school year: 36 weekly lists, each built on one pattern such as long vowels, r-controlled vowels, silent letters, prefixes, suffixes and homophones. Every week has a word sort, a practice page, word detective vocabulary and a Friday spelling check.
