Beginning Spelling Tiles (2026 version)

We have created 56 magnetic tiles.

In this pack, you’ll receive 37 of the most common graphemes. We have also included:

* The tile “y” as a vowel in red font — for use in words like gym, sunny, and sky.

* The tile “e” in gray font to be used when representing “silent e” (we don’t encourage teaching a limited use of silent e for “magic e” or “mommy e”)

1) VCe words (examples: tape, fine)

2) plural canceling (examples: goose, tease)

3) use with soft “c” and soft “g” (fence, range)

4) prevent words ending in “v”, “u” “i”(love, due, tie)

5)  “le” ending (table, maple, bottle)

6) indicate voiced /th/ sound (bathe, clothe, breathe)

7) differentiate meaning “by” vs “bye”

* The “qu” tile for space saving and for helping students learn that q and u are almost always used together. Teacher should still encourage young spellers to listen for the two sounds /k/ /w/ represented by “qu”.

* The 4 affix tiles.

* The 12 blank tiles for flexibility and adding double consonants or advanced spellings near the end of the year.

This is an excellent tool to use as students are developing the neural pathway between the sound processor in the brain to the symbol processor in the brain. Hands-on spelling practice with explicit instruction and corrective feedback is the fastest way to pave this important pathway in the brain. 

We want the child to engage the sound processor as they touch and move the letter tiles. Instead of referring to the name of the letter, we encourage them to use the sound that the letter represents in that word.

Some sounds are continuants and we can produce those sounds until our breath runs out. The graphemes that represent those sounds are "m", "n", "s", "r", "v", "w", "sh", "h", "z", "wh" and all of the spellings of the vowel sounds. These are great ones for holding out the sound as they drag the tile to place it in a word. These are also fantastic sounds to place in the initial position of short VC and CVC words because the child can blend continuous sounds together more easily and develop the skill of blending.