Spelling words for 2nd grade: 16 weekly lists

Week 1Long a with ai and ay

Use ai inside a word and ay at the end for the long a sound.

1. rain
2. train
3. paint
4. wait
5. tail
6. mail
7. day
8. play
9. stay
10. gray
11. today
12. away

Week 2Long e with ee and ea

The long e sound is often spelled ee or ea.

1. tree
2. sleep
3. green
4. wheel
5. teeth
6. read
7. team
8. beach
9. clean
10. dream
11. leaf
12. eat

Heart words (learn by heart): people

Week 3Long o with oa and ow

The long o sound is often spelled oa inside a word or ow at the end.

1. boat
2. coat
3. road
4. soap
5. goat
6. toast
7. snow
8. grow
9. show
10. slow
11. yellow
12. window

Week 4Long i with igh and y

The long i sound can be spelled igh, or y at the end of a short word.

1. night
2. light
3. right
4. high
5. bright
6. sigh
7. my
8. fly
9. try
10. sky
11. cry
12. shy

Week 5Bossy r: ar

When r comes after a, the a says ar, as in car.

1. car
2. star
3. farm
4. park
5. yard
6. barn
7. shark
8. start
9. card
10. dark
11. hard
12. smart

Week 6Bossy r: or

When r comes after o, the o says or, as in corn.

1. corn
2. fork
3. horse
4. storm
5. short
6. sport
7. born
8. north
9. porch
10. torn
11. horn
12. morning

Week 7Bossy r: er, ir and ur

The letters er, ir and ur all make the same sound, as in her, bird and turn.

1. her
2. fern
3. verb
4. bird
5. girl
6. first
7. shirt
8. turn
9. burn
10. hurt
11. nurse
12. purple

Week 8Oo two ways

The letters oo can sound like moon or like book.

1. moon
2. food
3. spoon
4. zoo
5. room
6. pool
7. book
8. look
9. cook
10. foot
11. good
12. wood

Heart words (learn by heart): could

Week 9Ou and ow

The letters ou and ow can both say ow, as in out and cow.

1. out
2. loud
3. house
4. cloud
5. mouth
6. round
7. cow
8. now
9. town
10. down
11. brown
12. owl

Week 10Oi and oy

Use oi inside a word and oy at the end, as in coin and boy.

1. coin
2. oil
3. join
4. point
5. soil
6. noise
7. boy
8. toy
9. joy
10. enjoy
11. voice
12. royal

Week 11Adding ed

Add ed to show something already happened.

1. jumped
2. played
3. looked
4. wanted
5. helped
6. rained
7. called
8. filled
9. kicked
10. picked
11. rested
12. landed

Week 12Adding ing

Add ing to show something is happening now.

1. jumping
2. playing
3. reading
4. singing
5. eating
6. looking
7. helping
8. sleeping
9. walking
10. painting
11. drawing
12. resting

Week 13Double the last letter

When a short word ends in one vowel and one consonant, double the consonant before ed or ing.

1. running
2. sitting
3. hopping
4. stopped
5. clapped
6. swimming
7. shopping
8. getting
9. planned
10. hugged
11. digging
12. grabbed

Week 14Drop the e, add ing

When a word ends in silent e, drop the e before you add ing.

1. making
2. baking
3. riding
4. hiding
5. smiling
6. hoping
7. skating
8. sliding
9. writing
10. taking
11. waving
12. shining

Week 15Contractions

A contraction joins two words, and the apostrophe takes the place of the missing letters.

1. can't
2. don't
3. isn't
4. didn't
5. won't
6. it's
7. that's
8. let's
9. he's
10. we're
11. they're
12. you're

Week 16Soft c and soft g

When c or g comes before e, i or y, it often makes its soft sound, as in city and gem.

1. city
2. face
3. nice
4. race
5. ice
6. cent
7. page
8. cage
9. gem
10. giant
11. large
12. stage