Kindergarten Spelling Words
100+ essential spelling words for kindergartners (ages 5–6) — Dolch pre-primer sight words, word families, color words, and number words.
What Spelling Skills Do Kindergartners Learn?
Kindergarten is where the spelling journey begins. The focus isn't perfection — it's building a foundation of letter sounds, word patterns, and high-frequency words that children will use every day. By the end of kindergarten, a typical student should be able to:
Dolch Pre-Primer Sight Words (40 Words)
The Dolch pre-primer list is the first sight word milestone every kindergartner works toward. These 40 words make up a huge percentage of the text children encounter in early readers — knowing them by sight (and spelling) unlocks reading fluency faster than anything else.
Practice Tip: Introduce 5 new sight words per week maximum. Use the "look, cover, write, check" method — show the word, cover it, have your child write it from memory, then compare. Short daily repetition beats weekly cramming at this age.
Word Families (30 Words)
Word families are groups of words that share the same ending pattern (rime). Teaching kindergartners that "cat," "bat," and "hat" all belong to the same "-at" family is one of the most effective early spelling strategies — once they know one word, they can spell the whole family.
Practice Tip: Write the family ending (-at) on a card, then swap the first letter together: "What if I put a 'b' in front? What word do we get?" Kids who learn this pattern can decode hundreds of new words independently.
Color Words (10 Words)
Color words are high-frequency and highly motivating for young learners because they connect directly to things kids see and love. Many color words don't follow simple phonics rules ("blue," "white," "purple"), so they need to be taught as sight words as well as spelled.
Number Words (10 Words)
Number words appear constantly in early writing and reading. Several are phonetically irregular ("one," "two," "four," "eight") and must be memorized. Pairing the written word with the numeral helps reinforce the connection.
Practice Tip: "One," "two," and "eight" are the trickiest because they're so phonetically irregular. Teach these as pure sight words using flashcard repetition rather than trying to explain the phonics — there isn't a satisfying rule.
Practice All These Words on SpellCrush
SpellCrush reads every word aloud so young learners hear it before they type it. Kids earn stars, XP, and rewards that make spelling feel like a game — not homework.
Start Free Practice →Weekly Practice Schedule for Kindergartners
At ages 5–6, consistency matters far more than duration. Five minutes every day beats thirty minutes once a week. Here's a gentle structure that keeps it fun:
Frequently Asked Questions
How many words should a kindergartner be able to spell?
By the end of kindergarten, most children should recognize and spell all 40 Dolch pre-primer sight words and be able to write simple 3-letter CVC words (cat, dog, sun). Spelling 50–80 words total is a strong kindergarten outcome.
What spelling patterns do kindergartners learn?
Kindergartners focus on the alphabet, letter sounds, simple CVC words (3-letter short-vowel words), word families (-at, -an, -it, -ot, -ug), Dolch pre-primer sight words, color words, and number words.
How long should spelling practice be for a kindergartner?
5–10 minutes per day is ideal for 5–6 year olds. Attention spans are short at this age — short, playful sessions with lots of praise are far more effective than longer drills. Always end on a correct answer to build confidence.
My kindergartner already knows all the sight words — what next?
That's excellent progress! Move on to the 1st grade Dolch list (41 words) and start introducing consonant blends. Check the 1st grade spelling words page or use SpellCrush's free assessment to find their exact level.
What are the Dolch pre-primer sight words?
The 40 Dolch pre-primer words are: a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you.
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