Grade 2 Spelling

In Grade 2, children will continue to review and consolidate their phonic knowledge while learning some exceptions to rules and further alternative spellings for sounds. They will learn to spell a selection of prefixes and will add to the suffixes they learned in Grade 1. The consonant l-e syllable type will be introduced and they will learn more r-controlled vowels. Additionally, in Grade 2, children will begin to use dictionaries to check and correct spellings.

Spelling Contractions

Children broaden their knowledge of contractions in Grade 2. They will learn to spell contractions with is, am, not, and will.

Review:

• Is
• Am
• Not

Learn:

• Not
• Will

Practice Tip: Your child can play their way through lessons on nightzookeeper.com to help them practise their contractions skills!

Spelling Possessives

As well as using the apostrophe to spell contractions, children will learn to use the apostrophe to spell possessives. Children can join Ant on nightzookeeper.com for a rundown on where and when to put possessive apostrophes!

Long Vowel Sounds

Second grade students will recap the alternative spellings for sounds and learn some new alternative spellings. They will be expected to spell words that use all of these spellings.

Word Endings: Consonant l-e

This is a new syllable type that children will learn to spell in Grade 2. It is a spelling pattern that appears at the end of words.

-ble	-fle	-tle	-dle	-gle	-kle	-ple	-zle
bub/ble	waf/fle	tur/tle	can/dle	ea/gle	spar/kle	ap/ple	puz/zle

Prefixes

A prefix is a group of letters added to the beginning of a word. Adding a prefix to a word changes its meaning. Understanding what a prefix is and spelling words that have a prefix is a Grade 2 skill. The following prefixes are usually taught in Grade 2.

• re-
• un-
• mis-
• dis-
• pre-

Suffixes

A suffix is a group of letters added to the end of a word. In Grade 2, children will review adding -s, -es, -ed, and -ing to the ends of words. For words where a change is needed to the root word before adding -ing, this work will include the rule to drop the e and add -ing.

In the above example, children are asked to put this rule into practise by selecting the correctly spelled word to complete the sentence.

Other suffixes that are often taught in Grade 2 include the following:

• -er
• -est
• -ful
• -less
• -ly

R-Controlled Vowels

In this type of syllable, a vowel is followed by the letter r which changes the sound the vowel makes.

R-Controlled Vowel	Example	Image
ar	car
are	hare
air	chair
er	ladder
ear	ear
eer	deer
ir	bird
ire	fire
or	corn
ore	core
oar	oar
ur	nurse
ure	vulture

Diphthongs

A diphthong is a sound with two parts whereas a digraph is two letters that make one sound. In Grade 2, children need to relate diphthongs to spelling patterns.

• ou and ow
• aw and au
• oi and oy

Dictionaries

In Grade 2, children should be shown how to look for words in an age appropriate dictionary. Explaining the references and abbreviations in a dictionary helps children to get the most out of this tool. Most dictionaries will give information about a word’s part of speech, the number of syllables in a word and where the syllable break comes, and how to pronounce the word.

How Night Zookeeper can help

On nightzookeeper.com we’ve created a range of fun and interactive games that encourage children to practise their spelling skills. These games draw upon concise lists of age appropriate words that children should know by the time they graduate second grade. You can download these word lists below:

Age 7-8 word lists

Related articles:

Grade 2 Reading

Grade 2 Writing

Grade 2 Grammar

Grade 2 Punctuation