This fifth grade spelling words game helps children practice 20 fifth grade spelling words by playing: unscramble the letters, pick the correct spelling, race cars or sprint through true and false sentences. The words include accident, agreement, attention and brilliant and Wednesday, and the wrong choices are realistic mistakes such as a dropped letter or a swapped vowel. Free, with no sign-up.
Fifth grade spelling words game: see how it plays
The grade 5 spelling game opens in Word Scramble and has three more modes. The printable list has all 20 words with a place to write each one.
Word scramble game and three more modes: how the fifth grade spelling words game works
All four modes use the same 20 words, so a child meets each spelling several times in different ways. These examples come from this list:
| Mode | What the child does | Example from this list |
|---|---|---|
| Word Scramble | Taps the letter tiles in order, ten words a round; hearing the word first costs a point | mgntoiaiain becomes imagination |
| Balloon Pop | Pops the one correct spelling before the balloons drift off; three misses end the round | committee, commttee, commmittee, cummittee |
| Answer Race | Picks the right spelling to move a car forward; the first to 15 beats three computer cars | encourage or encoruage |
| True or False | Judges spellings for sixty seconds; a streak of five or more scores double | necesary is false, necessary is true |
The wrong spellings are made by dropping a letter, doubling a letter, swapping two neighbors or changing a vowel, the same slips children make in their own writing.
Fifth grade spelling word list: all 20 words in the fifth grade spelling words game
The words are 8 to 11 letters long, with an average of 9.2 letters. The shortest are accident and separate and the longest are imagination and temperature. Use the list for a weekly spelling test, or print the word list and play the game for practice.
| No. | Word | Letters | Spelling tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | accident | 8 | double c |
| 2 | agreement | 9 | agree + ment |
| 3 | attention | 9 | double t, tion ending |
| 4 | brilliant | 9 | ant ending, double l |
| 5 | celebrate | 9 | cel-e-brate |
| 6 | committee | 9 | double m, double t, double e |
| 7 | community | 9 | double m, y ending |
| 8 | dangerous | 9 | danger + ous |
| 9 | discovery | 9 | discover + y |
| 10 | education | 9 | ed-u-ca-tion |
| 11 | encourage | 9 | en + courage |
| 12 | experiment | 10 | experi + ment |
| 13 | government | 10 | govern + ment, the n is in the middle |
| 14 | imagination | 11 | imagine + ation, drop the e |
| 15 | knowledge | 9 | silent k |
| 16 | necessary | 9 | one c, two s: one collar, two sleeves |
| 17 | restaurant | 10 | rest + au + rant |
| 18 | separate | 8 | there is a rat in sep-a-rate |
| 19 | temperature | 11 | tem-per-a-ture |
| 20 | Wednesday | 9 | Wed-nes-day, silent d |
Spelling patterns in the fifth grade spelling words game
Words are easier to learn in groups that share a pattern. These are the patterns in this list:
| Pattern | Words | What to teach |
|---|---|---|
| Double letters | accident, committee, community, necessary, attention, brilliant | Check the doubled letters one by one: cc in accident, mm, tt and ee in committee. |
| The ending -ment | agreement, government, experiment | A base word plus -ment: agree, govern, experiment. |
| The endings -tion and -ation | attention, education, imagination | The ending says /shun/ but is always spelled tion. |
| The endings -ous, -ant and -age | dangerous, brilliant, restaurant, encourage | Learn each ending as a unit. |
| Silent letters | knowledge, Wednesday | The k in knowledge and the d in Wednesday are written but not said. |
| Hard words with a trick | separate, necessary, temperature, celebrate, discovery | Use a memory trick: there is a rat in separate, and necessary has one collar and two sleeves. |
Wikipedia’s spelling article explains why English spelling has so many patterns and exceptions, and why teaching patterns works better than memorizing each word alone.
Fifth grade spelling practice: a 4-week plan
Twenty words are easiest to learn in four weekly groups of five. Introduce one group per week, review the earlier groups, and use the game for the final check:
| Week | Words |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | accident, agreement, attention, brilliant and celebrate |
| Week 2 | committee, community, dangerous, discovery and education |
| Week 3 | encourage, experiment, government, imagination and knowledge |
| Week 4 | necessary, restaurant, separate, temperature and Wednesday |
Each week adds its group to the earlier ones. The patterns to point out:
- Week 1: accident (double letters), agreement (the ending -ment), attention (double letters and the endings -tion and -ation), brilliant (double letters and the endings -ous, -ant and -age), celebrate (hard words with a trick).
- Week 2: committee (double letters), community (double letters), dangerous (the endings -ous, -ant and -age), discovery (hard words with a trick), education (the endings -tion and -ation).
- Week 3: encourage (the endings -ous, -ant and -age), experiment (the ending -ment), government (the ending -ment), imagination (the endings -tion and -ation), knowledge (silent letters).
- Week 4: necessary (double letters and hard words with a trick), restaurant (the endings -ous, -ant and -age), separate (hard words with a trick), temperature (hard words with a trick), Wednesday (silent letters).
End each week with a short test of that group plus two words from earlier weeks.
Grade 5 spelling words: where the fifth grade spelling words game fits at school
| Level | What children are expected to do |
|---|---|
| Grade 5 (US) | Language standard L.5.2.e: spell grade-appropriate words correctly, consulting references as needed |
See the Common Core grade 5 language standards for the full wording. In England, several words in this list, such as knowledge, appear on the statutory spelling list for pupils in Years 3 and 4.
Fifth grade spelling words game: frequently asked questions
What are fifth grade spelling words?
They are words that children are expected to learn to spell in grade 5. This game uses 20 of them, including accident, agreement and attention.
How many words are in the fifth grade spelling words game?
There are 20 words in the list, and each round of Word Scramble uses ten of them, chosen at random.
Which words in this list need the most practice?
The words that belong to more than one spelling pattern: necessary (double letters and hard words with a trick); attention (double letters and the endings -tion and -ation); brilliant (double letters and the endings -ous, -ant and -age). Start each week with these.
Which spelling pattern has the most words?
Double letters has the most, with 6 words: accident, committee, community, necessary, attention, brilliant.
What do the wrong spellings look like?
They are slips a child might really write. For committee the choices include commttee (a dropped letter), commmittee (a doubled letter) and cummittee (a changed vowel), and for encourage one choice is encoruage (two letters swapped).