Y3/4 Spelling list for half term 1
In Key Stage 2, instead of asking you to learn a short list of spellings each week, you will be given a longer list (roughly 40 words) that we will focus on in that half-term. Don’t worry, we’re not asking you to learn them all in one week. Instead, we’ll ask you to focus on learning these words over the course of the entire half-term. There’s a few reasons for this:
- We want you take responsibility for your own learning and start to figure out how you learn best (there’s some ideas below). Even if that means making some mistakes along the way.
- Lots of research suggests that learning more spellings over a longer time leads to better remembering how to spell them in the long-term.
- Similarly, lots of research suggests that if you learn something for a week and don’t come back to it you’ll likely forget it anyway
- We won’t have a ‘formal’ test each week. Instead, we’ll mix it up. We might ask you to test each other on the words you’ve been learning. We might test the words at random and then you’ll know which words you need to practise more and which words you’re confident with. We might just think about some of the words and share ideas for how we’re going about learning them.
- Ultimately, we want this to be about learning – and not just getting them right in a test.
How you decide to do this is up to you. You might decide to focus on the trickiest words first. Or, you might decide to learn 8 words a week and really focus on these whilst still practising the others, too. For some of you, you might already feel confident with some of the words so might choose to not practise these at all. However you decide to do it is up to you. The important thing is that you’re learning them and learning how you like to learn them best.
Every Friday, we’ll spend time practising or testing (informally) or discussing all things spelling so be ready (one of our 8 Rs for learning) to join in!
If you need some ideas for practical things to do, check out the Super Spelling Strategies Guide on the school website.
Half-term 1
This half-term, our spellings are linked to the rules and strategies we’ll be learning in class:
- alternative ways for writing the ‘ay’ sound
- alternative ways for writing the ‘ee’ sound
- ‘double up for a short vowel sound’
- ‘drop the e for ing’
- ‘drop the y for an i’
- adding the suffixes ed, ing
- homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently)
Each Friday, you’ll be tested on 8 of the words from the list below.
famous | believe | accident | breathe | answer |
library | passion | notice | were | possess |
century | address | favourite | appear | here |
their | weight | complete | ordinary | wear |
straight | they’re | surprise | busy | increase |
session | possible | there | hear | where |
suppose | mission | eighth | extreme | occasion |
fraction | different | attention | learn | possession |
New spelling list for half term 6!
HT6
Year 3,4
This half-term, our spellings are linked to the rules and strategies we’ll be learning in class:
- alternative graphemes: tion, sion, ssion, cian
- alternative graphemes: i, ie, y, i-e
- homophones: he’ll, heel, plain, plane, groan, grown, rain, rein, reign
- alternative graphemes: sc
- spelling patterns: que
- alternative graphemes: u spelled ou
Each Friday, you’ll be tested on 8 of the words from the list below.
he’ll | scenery | bicycle | mosque | enough |
heel | decide | possession | direction | mission |
describe | plain | height | surprise | fascinate |
league | plane | scissors | increase | magician |
exercise | fatigue | groan | unique | country |
guide | confusion | grown | rain | science |
passion | tongue | fraction | rein | rogue |
picturesque | politician | optician | reign | rough |
Half term 5 – new spelling list
Year 3,4
This half-term, our spellings are linked to the rules and strategies we’ll be learning in class:
- alternative graphemes: sh (ch, ss, ti, s)
- alternative graphemes: k (ch)
- adding prefixes: mis, re
- adding prefixes: sub, tele, auto
- spelling patterns: gn, kn
- homophones: piece / peace, main / mane, fair / fare
Each Friday, you’ll be tested on 8 of the words from the list below.
position | submarine | re-centre | television | gnash |
piece | mention | autobiography | technology | kneel |
peace | automatic | possession | misheard | character |
misbelieves | main | reconsider | pressure | substitute |
disappear | mane | ache | gnome | special |
knot | stomach | fair | misremember | submerge |
anchor | re-group | fare | should | rebuild |
known | architect | build | telephone | teleport |
Half term 4 spelling list
Half-term 4
This half-term, our spellings are linked to the rules and strategies we’ll be learning in class:
- alternative graphemes: ai, ee, ie
- homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently)
- adding suffixes: ed, ing, er, est, ly, ful, less, ness
- adding suffixes: ful, less
- apostrophes for contraction and possession
Each Friday, you’ll be tested on 8 of the words from the list below.
favourite | clumsy (er/est/ly) | break | fruit (ful/less) | son |
grate | straight | brake | shouldn’t | sun |
great | isn’t | believe | wouldn’t | don’t |
begin (ing/er) | doubt (ful/less) | build (ing/er) | complete | didn’t |
describe | heart (less) | haven’t | busy (er/est/ed/ing) | increase |
thought (ful,less) | bicycle | surprise | increase | thank (ful/less) |
eight | appear | separate (ly,ed,ing) | weight(less, ness) | one |
ate | rest (ful/less) | achieve | wait | won |
Instead of learning eight different words each week, we’d like you to learn these 40 words over the whole half-term. Lots of research suggests that learning more spellings over a longer time leads to better remembering how to spell them in the long term.
How you decide to do this is up to you. You might decide to focus on the trickiest words first. Or, you might decide to learn eight words a week and really focus on these whilst still practising the others, too. For some of you, you might already feel confident with some of the words so might choose to not practise these at all.
However you decide to do it, is up to you. The important thing is that you’re learning them and learning how you like to learn them best.
Each week, the children will be tested on 8 of the words. These tests aren’t pressured. They might just help you figure out which words you need to practise more.
If you need some ideas for practical things to do, check out the Super Spelling Strategies Guide on the school website.
Half term 2.1 – spelling list
Half-term 3
This half-term, our spellings are linked to the rules and strategies we’ll be learning in class:
- alternative graphemes: o, ow, oa, o-e
- alternative graphemes: oe, ue
- adding prefixes: un, dis
- adding suffixes: ly
- homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently)
- spelling rule: double up for a short vowel sound
Instead of learning eight different words each week, we’d like you to learn these 40 words over the whole half-term. Lots of research suggests that learning more spellings over a longer time leads to better remembering how to spell them in the long term.
How you decide to do this is up to you. You might decide to focus on the trickiest words first. Or, you might decide to learn eight words a week and really focus on these whilst still practising the others, too. For some of you, you might already feel confident with some of the words so might choose to not practise these at all.
However you decide to do it, is up to you. The important thing is that you’re learning them and learning how you like to learn them best.
Each week, the children will be tested on 8 of the words. These tests aren’t pressured. They might just help you figure out which words you need to practise more.
If you need some ideas for practical things to do, check out the Super Spelling Strategies Guide on the school website.
notice | regular | though | accident | two |
witch | (dis)believe | wear | peculiar | different |
difficult | their | particular | we’re | accidental(ly) |
(dis)possess | suppose | (dis)appear | too | popular |
possible | appear | hear | famous(ly) | (un)certain |
there | (un)important | occasional(ly) | regular(ly) | surprising |
which | they’re | where | (un)kind | (dis)allow |
continue | here | to | although | issue |
Autumn 2 – Spelling list
Year 3,4
Half-term 2
This half-term, our spellings are linked to the rules and strategies we’ll be learning in class:
- alternative ways for writing the long vowel ‘u’ sound
- more homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently)
- suffixes (for example, changing the root word ‘great’ to ‘greater’ or ‘greatest’
- plurals (more than one of a noun)
- apostrophes for contraction (eg can’t is less formal than cannot)
- apostrophes for possession (eg Brian’s bag, the school’s logo)
Each Friday, you’ll be tested on 8 of the words from the list below.
continue | funnier/funniest | potato(es) | bicycle(s) | writer |
library’s | peculiar | you are / you’re | group’s | rescue |
witch | have not/ haven’t | bus(es) | knew | I would / I’d |
which | where | braver / bravest | century(ies) | has not / hasn’t |
regular | wear | answer(s) | they are / they’re | later / latest |
address(es) | we’re | do not / don’t | particular | conclude |
I will / I’ll | building’s | happier/happiest | will not / won’t | groups(s) |
heart’s | nicer / nicest | Earth’s | hotter / hottest | you will / you’ll |
Spellings for this half term…
Instead of learning eight different words each week, we’d like you to learn these 40 words over the whole half-term. Lots of research suggests that learning more spellings over a longer time leads to better remembering how to spell them in the long term.
How you decide to do this is up to you. You might decide to focus on the trickiest words first. Or, you might decide to learn 8 words a week and really focus on these whilst still practising the others, too. For some of you, you might already feel confident with some of the words so might choose to not practise these at all.
However you decide to do it, is up to you. The important thing is that you’re learning them and learning how you like to learn them best.
Each week, we’ll choose eight random words to test you on. These tests aren’t pressured. They might just help you figure out which words you need to practise more.
Learning spellings in this way might feel quite different – or even scary – but it shouldn’t. In fact, you’ve actually got less words to learn this half-term than you normally would.
We’ll keep thinking about this in school and we’ll regularly talk about how we can best practise these words at home.
If you need some ideas for practical things to do, check out this ‘Super Spelling Strategies Guide’ : Some-super-spelling-strategies
Half-term 1
This half-term, our spellings are linked to the rules and strategies we’ll be learning in class:
- alternative ways for writing the ‘ay’ sound
- alternative ways for writing the ‘ee’ sound
- ‘double up for a short vowel sound’
- ‘drop the e for ing’
- ‘drop the y for an i’
- adding the suffixes ed, ing
- homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently)
Each Friday, you’ll be tested on 8 of the words from the list below.
famous | believe | accident | breathe | answer |
library | passion | notice | were | possess |
century | address | favourite | appear | here |
their | weight | complete | ordinary | wear |
straight | they’re | surprise | busy | increase |
session | possible | there | hear | where |
suppose | mission | eighth | extreme | occasion |
fraction | different | attention | learn | possession |
New spelling list!
This half-term, instead of learning eight different words each week, we’d like you to learn these 40 words over the whole half-term. Lots of research suggests that learning more spellings over a longer time leads to better remembering how to spell them in the long term.
How you decide to do this is up to you. You might decide to focus on the trickiest words first. Or, you might decide to learn 8 words a week and really focus on these whilst still practising the others, too. For some of you, you might already feel confident with some of the words so might choose to not practise these at all.
However you decide to do it, is up to you. The important thing is that you’re learning them and learning how you like to learn them best.
Each week, we’ll choose eight random words to test you on. These tests aren’t pressured. They might just help you figure out which words you need to practise more.
Learning spellings in this way might feel quite different – or even scary – but it shouldn’t. In fact, you’ve actually got less words to learn this half-term than you normally would.
We’ll keep thinking about this in school and we’ll regularly talk about how we can best practise these words at home.
If you need some ideas for practical things to do, check out the Super Spelling Strategies Guide on the school website.
possession
attention confusion fraction mission explosion because decide describe exercise |
surprise
increase height beautiful medal meddle mist missed who’s whose |
accident
bicycle decide sentence experience centre friend guard guide guest |
natural
material actual arrival personal mammal guess people really every |
Spellings – Term 3.1
This half-term, instead of learning eight different words each week, we’d like you to learn these 40 words over the whole half-term. Lots of research suggests that learning more spellings over a longer time leads to better remembering how to spell them in the long term.
How you decide to do this is up to you. You might decide to focus on the trickiest words first. Or, you might decide to learn 8 words a week and really focus on these whilst still practising the others, too. For some of you, you might already feel confident with some of the words so might choose to not practise these at all.
However you decide to do it, is up to you. The important thing is that you’re learning them and learning how you like to learn them best.
Each week, we’ll choose eight random words to test you on. These tests aren’t pressured. They might just help you figure out which words you need to practise more.
Learning spellings in this way might feel quite different – or even scary – but it shouldn’t. In fact, you’ve actually got less words to learn this half-term than you normally would.
We’ll keep thinking about this in school and we’ll regularly talk about how we can best practise these words at home.
If you need some ideas for practical things to do, check out the Super Spelling Strategies Guide on the school website.
adventure
anticlockwise ball bawl capture caught delicious feature forward history |
immaterial
impatient impolite important impossible independent inexperienced infamous international machine |
mail
male measure mention naughty ordinary pleasure position possession pressure |
quarter
scene seen should special sugar supernatural therefore thought treasure |