Why teach 100 first words when you can teach 100 first spellings and a few very common suffixes, which can be used to make thousands of words? Includes 100 key spellings used in one-syllable words, with duplicates of high-use spellings, plus a page of suffixes (see picture below). Click here for a more complex version for use in multisyllable word building.

Each piece includes example words for the sounds it represents e.g. the spelling “ea” has the small words “seat”, “head”, “great” and “Sean” on it. The spelling “oo” has the words “look”, “boot”, “flood” and “brooch”.

Use this alphabet to practice building and changing words e.g. use “f”, “r”, “i” and “dge” to make “fridge”, then change it to “ridge”, change that into “bridge”, or use “n”, “igh” and “t” to make “night”, then change it to “light”, then “flight, then “fright”, then “right”, then “sight”, then “slight”.

This set is also a useful way to demonstrate that there are multiple ways to spell many sounds, for example the sound “ay” spelt “ay” as in “day”, “a…e” as in “make”, “ai” as in “rain”, “eigh” as in “eight”, “ey” as in “they”, “ei” as in “veins” and “ea” as in “break”.

The basic colour-coding of this alphabet is from the colours of a traffic light: green means go (beginning spellings), orange means caution (vowel spellings, the hardest thing about English spelling), red means stop (ending spellings). Yellow spellings can be used as either beginning or ending spellings. The set now also includes 14 blue suffixes: s, es, ed, ing, er, est, en, ‘s, y, ly, less, ness, ment and ic.

Download this six-page pdf, print it in colour, laminate it, cut it up and use magnetic tape to create a moveable alphabet that will stick to your fridge or whiteboard, or adhesive hook velcro to attach it to noticeboard fabric.

To make a larger set for classroom or group use, print at 200% on A3 paper. Use magnetic tape to attach it to a metal storage cupboard or filing cabinet.

Supplied with 10 pages of word sequences/chains to make, which firstly use just a few spellings to make short words (e.g. change ‘at’ to ‘sat’ to ‘sit’ to ‘it’), and gradually up to longer and more complex one-syllable words (e.g. change ‘splint’ to ‘sprint’). These follow the same teaching sequence as the Spelfabet Level 1 version 3 workbook, and the program Sounds-Write.

Please note that this alphabet is supplied as a pdf file which you download from this website, and print yourself.