Spell the Word with Classroom Objects

Spell the word for each picture. The child looks at one of a pencil, a book and a globe, says the word slowly, and fills the blanks with the letters for the sounds they hear — building the word letter by letter. This is encoding, not reading: the child produces the spelling rather than recognizing a word already written. Picture clues from the classroom objects anchor the meaning so the whole task is sounding-out and writing.

Writing the letters for the sounds in a word — encoding — is how Kindergarten children first learn to spell, and it is distinct from reading a word someone else wrote. This sheet practises it picture by picture, with the child building each word themselves. The classroom objects give clear, concrete clues so the only work is matching sound to letter, which is the single most useful thing a beginning speller can rehearse.

Children who like classroom objects settle into the sounding-out, and building each word gives a small win. When this feels easy, spell the words in spell the word with clothes, or try spell the word with feelings. You can also browse every spelling worksheet or the whole classroom objects collection for kindergarten — each sheet prints cleanly or plays online for free, and every word a child builds makes the next one easier to sound out.