· 2 min read · Ages 5–11 · Kindergarten through Grade 5
Print this week's spelling test from any word list in a minute
Twelve words come home on Monday, and on Thursday night someone needs a test sheet with twelve straight lines. This is that sheet.
Every Monday a list of twelve words comes home in the folder, and every Thursday night I need a test sheet. For a while I drew numbered lines on notebook paper. The lines got crooked, the kid noticed, and the test became a negotiation about the paper instead of the words.
What the sheet looks like
The spelling test generator takes any list of up to 30 words and prints one of three sheets: a blank test with numbered lines, a sentence-dictation sheet with wide lines, or a study list to send home. If you do not have a list, there are starter lists from Kindergarten CVC words through Grade 5 tricky spellings. The Grade 2 list is long vowels and blends: snake, bright, cloud, thank, their, could.
Line height can be Normal or Tall, which matters more than it sounds for a six-year-old's handwriting. There is also an optional word bank that prints the words at the top of the page, so a kindergartner is matching and copying rather than spelling cold.
Why it works
- The right number of lines removes the "which number am I on" problem. You call the word, the child writes on the next line, nobody loses their place.
- Sentence dictation checks a word in context. Plenty of kids can spell their on its own and still write there in a sentence.
- The study list and the test come from the same pasted words, so Tuesday's practice and Friday's test match exactly.
Who it suits
Kindergarten and first grade get the word bank and Tall lines. By third grade switch to sentence dictation with the class list pasted in. This is a test sheet, not a teaching tool, so for the practice between Monday and Friday the spelling word work sheet does the actual drilling.
Print the study list and the test on Monday from the same list, and the week runs itself.