3rd Grade Spelling Words by Week

Rule: A closed syllable ends with a consonant, so the vowel is short (cap). A silent e at the end makes the vowel say its name (cape).

Challenge: pancake · inside

Dictation sentence: The cub slid down the hill in a red cape.

Rule: Two vowels can team up to spell one long vowel sound. Use ai in the middle of a word and ay at the end (rain, play). ee and ea spell long e (green, beach). oa and ow spell long o (boat, snow).

Challenge: explain · seaweed

Dictation sentence: We play in the rain and dream of a green boat.

Rule: When r comes after a vowel, it changes the vowel sound. ar says /ar/ (farm), or says /or/ (corn), and er, ir and ur all say /er/ (fern, bird, turn).

Challenge: perfect · thirsty

Dictation sentence: The bird flew to the farm before the storm.

Rule: When a word ends in a consonant plus le, those three letters make the last syllable. Count back three letters to divide: ta|ble, ap|ple. An open first syllable has a long vowel; a closed one has a short vowel.

Challenge: bicycle · tremble

Dictation sentence: Put the apple and the candle on the little table.

Rule: Review: closed syllables have short vowels (hop), silent e makes a long vowel (plane), vowel teams spell long vowels (paint), r changes the vowel (shark), and consonant-le makes the last syllable (ta|ble).

Challenge: pancake · explain

Dictation sentence: We will paint a plane on the table.

Rule: Review: decide what kind of syllable each word has: closed (cub), silent e (kite), vowel team (rain), r-controlled (farm) or consonant-le (ap|ple).

Challenge: seaweed · bicycle

Dictation sentence: I sleep on the boat when the rain falls.

Rule: An open syllable ends with a vowel, so the vowel usually says its name: ti|ger, pa|per, ro|bot.

Challenge: tomato · volcano

Dictation sentence: The tiger and the robot read a paper about music.

Rule: Find the two vowels. If two consonants stand between them, divide between the consonants (VC/CV): rab|bit, nap|kin. If one consonant stands between them, first try dividing before it so the first syllable is open (V/CV): be|gin, mo|ment. If that does not make a real word, divide after the consonant so the first syllable is closed (VC/V): cab|in, lem|on.

Challenge: problem · climate

Dictation sentence: The rabbit ate a muffin from the picnic basket.

Rule: Add -s to most nouns (plants). Add -es to words that end in s, x, ch or sh (boxes, lunches). If a word ends in a consonant plus y, change the y to i and add -es (puppy, puppies). If a vowel comes before the y, just add -s (toys). Some plurals follow no rule and must be learned: child, children; mouse, mice; foot, feet; tooth, teeth; man, men.

Challenge: sandwiches · butterflies

Dictation sentence: The puppies ate berries from the dishes.

Rule: When a one-syllable word ends in one short vowel and one consonant, double the last consonant before adding -ed or -ing: stop, stopped; run, running.stop, stopped; run, running. In a two-syllable word, double only when the last syllable is stressed: be|gin, be|gin|ning; for|get, for|get|ting. Never double w or x (snowing, fixed).

Challenge: beginning · forgetting

Dictation sentence: We stopped running and hugged after swimming.

Rule: When a word ends in a silent e, drop the e before adding -ed or -ing: smile, smiled; ride, riding.

Challenge: arriving · decided

Dictation sentence: We smiled and waved while skating past the lake.

Rule: Review: divide words into syllables (ti|ger, bas|ket), choose -s, -es or -ies for plurals, double after a short vowel (stopped), and drop a silent e (smiled).

Challenge: volcano · butterflies

Dictation sentence: The puppies stopped digging in the plants.

Rule: A prefix is a word part added to the front of a base word. It changes the meaning: un + lock = unlock, re + tell = retell, dis + like = dislike.

Challenge: disconnect · unexpected

Dictation sentence: Please unpack your bag and retell the story you reread.

Rule: Review: find the prefix, then the base word, and put their meanings together: un + fair = not fair; re + play = play again; dis + trust = not trust.

Challenge: disconnect · uncover

Dictation sentence: It is unsafe to untie the boat, so please redo the knot.

Rule: Add the prefix to the front of the base word without changing either spelling: pre + heat = preheat, mis + spell = misspell, non + stop = nonstop.

Challenge: prehistoric · misunderstand

Dictation sentence: Do not misspell words on the pretest about nonfiction books.

Rule: A suffix is a word part added to the end of a base word. -ful means full of (helpful) and -less means without (careless). The suffix -ful has only one l.

Challenge: wonderful · weightless

Dictation sentence: Be careful and helpful, not careless, with the playful puppy.

Rule: Add -ly to tell how something is done (quick + ly = quickly). Add -ness to name a feeling or state (kind + ness = kindness).

Challenge: thankfulness · carefully

Dictation sentence: Walk slowly and softly in the darkness.

Rule: Review: a prefix goes at the front of a base word (re|read) and a suffix goes at the end (thank|ful). Use the meanings of the parts to find the meaning of the word.

Challenge: unexpected · wonderful

Dictation sentence: Reread the steps and preheat the oven quickly.

Rule: Add -er to compare two things (taller) and -est to compare three or more (tallest). For the challenge words, use earlier rules: double the last consonant (big, biggest) and drop the silent e (nice, nicest).

Challenge: biggest · nicest

Dictation sentence: The strongest wind made the cold day even colder and darker.

Rule: -able means can be (wash + able = washable). -ment turns a verb into a noun (move + ment = movement). Keep the e when the suffix starts with a consonant (amusement).

Challenge: comfortable · measurement

Dictation sentence: The excitement grew as we lifted the breakable box to the basement.

Rule: Add -y to a noun to make a describing word (rain, rainy). When a word ends in a consonant plus y, change the y to i before adding -ed, -er or -est (cry, cried; happy, happier). Keep the y before -ing (crying).

Challenge: crunchy · prettiest

Dictation sentence: We carried our sandy towels home on a windy day.

Rule: A compound word joins two smaller words to make a new word: sun + shine = sunshine. Spell each small word the usual way.

Challenge: grandmother · basketball

Dictation sentence: After the rain, a rainbow and sunshine filled the backyard.

Rule: Review: add -er or -est to compare, -able or -ment to make new words, change y to i before -ed, -er or -est, and join two words to make a compound.

Challenge: comfortable · grandmother

Dictation sentence: After a rainy week, we were happier on the playground.

Rule: Review: check the base word before adding a suffix (try, tried), and split a compound into its two words (door + bell).

Challenge: measurement · prettiest

Dictation sentence: We tried to ring the doorbell faster on the windy day.

Rule: -tion and -sion are Latin endings that make nouns. -tion says /shun/ (ac|tion). -sion says /zhun/ (vi|sion) or /shun/ (man|sion).

Challenge: multiplication · permission

Dictation sentence: We saw a show about addition and division on television.

Rule: -ture is a Latin ending that says /cher/: pic|ture, na|ture, ad|ven|ture.

Challenge: architecture · literature

Dictation sentence: Draw a picture of a creature from your nature adventure.

Rule: Homophones sound the same but have different spellings and meanings. there = a place, their = belongs to them, they're = they are. to = toward, too = also, two = 2.

Challenge: whose · who's

Dictation sentence: They're going to hear the band over there with their two friends.

Rule: A contraction joins two words into one shorter word. An apostrophe takes the place of the missing letters: do not = don't, we are = we're.

Challenge: wouldn't · shouldn't

Dictation sentence: We're sure it's fun, but we can't go if you don't come.

Rule: To show that one person or thing owns something, add 's (the dog's bone). For a plural that already ends in s, add only an apostrophe (the boys' bikes). If a plural does not end in s, add 's (the children's toys).

Challenge: children's · people's

Dictation sentence: My sister's cat sat on the teacher's desk near the boys' coats.

Rule: Review: listen for Latin endings (sta|tion, vi|sion, pic|ture), pick the right homophone, and place the apostrophe for contractions (can't) and possessives (dog's, girls').

Challenge: multiplication · children's

Dictation sentence: Their dog's picture is at the station.

Rule: Some words do not follow the usual rules, so we learn them by heart. gh can say /f/ (laugh, enough), and ough or augh can say /aw/ (thought, caught). ough has other sounds too: /oo/ in through and /oh/ in although.

Challenge: through · although

Dictation sentence: She said we bought enough food, and we had to laugh.

Rule: Review: look for the tricky part of each word. gh says /f/ in laugh, ough and augh say /aw/ in thought and taught, and heart words like said must be remembered.

Challenge: through · daughter

Dictation sentence: My friend said the people taught us to laugh again.

Rule: In a diphthong the vowel sound glides: oi and oy (coin, enjoy), ou and ow (cloud, town). Use oy at the end of a word or syllable (enjoy). Use ow at the end of a word or before a final n or l (cow, town, crown, owl). aw and au are vowel teams that both say /aw/ (draw, launch).

Challenge: thousand · autumn

Dictation sentence: Draw a coin, a cloud and a crown in the town.

Rule: When c or g comes before e, i or y, it usually makes its soft sound: c says /s/ (city) and g says /j/ (giant).

Challenge: celery · energy

Dictation sentence: The giant giraffe ate an orange in the city.

Rule: In many last syllables the vowel makes a quick 'uh' sound called a schwa, so you must remember the spelling: sev|en, wag|on, an|i|mal, tun|nel.

Challenge: festival · kitchen

Dictation sentence: The camel pulled a wagon with a chicken past the garden.

Rule: Year review: use vowel patterns (cloud, enjoy, crawl), soft c and g (city, giant), schwa endings (an|i|mal, wag|on), spelling changes (swimming, cried) and prefixes and suffixes (un|happy, care|ful) to spell each word.

Challenge: multiplication · unexpected

Dictation sentence: The giant cloud did not stop our swimming, but we cried at the end.