3rd grade spelling words worksheets

Thirty-six weekly lists for 3rd grade, fourteen words each: ten from the week's pattern, two review, two challenge. The year moves from long-vowel spellings through diphthongs and r-controlled families into soft c and g, silent letters, contractions, prefixes, suffixes, and the plural and -ing rules that real writing leans on.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core L.3.2.f.

Choose a week to print

All 36 weekly lists are below; each prints with its practice columns.

Tap to see another week's sheet.

The 36 weeks

How the weekly lists work

Read each word. Cover it, write it, then uncover and check.

Week 1 begins: makeshapetraderainpaintchain

All 36 weekly lists are fixed, so a class stays on the same words; the practice columns are yours to print as often as needed.

The lists are fixed on purpose: the whole class studies the same words toward the same Friday. Each week's sheet prints as many copies as you need.

What's on each sheet

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

Third grade is where rule-talk pays: before writing, have your child say WHICH rule the word uses ("drop the e, add -ing"). The week's two challenge words preview next year's patterns; treat them as bonus points, not requirements. Misses go to next week's review slots and that's the whole system.

Watch for: A spelling list is not a memory dare; it's a pattern with examples. Study the pattern first and the words become predictions, not facts to cram. The two review slots aren't filler: familiar words keep confidence up, and from week 2 on they bring back exactly the words about to be forgotten.

Common questions about spelling words

What spelling rules does 3rd grade actually cover?
The workhorses: drop the e before -ing, double the consonant after a short vowel, change y to i for plurals, soft c and g, silent kn/wr/mb, and the prefix-suffix system (un-, re-, -ful, -less, -ly). Each gets its own week here, with review weeks knitting them together.
My third grader aces Friday and misspells the same word Monday. Why?
Friday measures short-term memory; writing measures habit. Close the gap by using missed words in real sentences the following week. The review slots in each list exist for exactly that, and a word spelled right inside the child's own sentence tends to stay right.

Related worksheets

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Aligned to Common Core L.3.2.f. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 137, updated August 2026.

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