A dictation is a spelling test in which the teacher (or a parent) reads words aloud and the child writes them down. The words below are the ones children in Class 3 and Class 4 most often need: everyday words they read in their books every week, plus the tricky ones that trip them up. Each class has 50 words in small groups, so you can practise one group a day.

How to Practise Dictation at Home: 5 Steps

5 Steps

1. Read the group together: say each word, spell it aloud and use it in a sentence.
2. Look, say, cover, write, check: the child looks at a word, says it, covers it, writes it from memory and checks it.
3. Dictate: read each word clearly twice, with a sentence: “because. I stayed home because it was raining. because.”
4. Check together: tick the right words and write each mistake three times correctly.
5. Revise on Saturday: dictate the week’s mistakes again.

Ten words a day is enough. Short, regular practice works much better than fifty words the night before a test.

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Dictation Words for Class 3

50 dictation words for Class 3
GroupWords
Schoolteacher, pencil, eraser, library, lesson, homework, classroom, holiday, question, answer
Home and familymother, father, brother, sister, kitchen, window, garden, cousin, uncle, neighbour
Nature and animalsflower, river, mountain, forest, rabbit, monkey, elephant, tiger, butterfly, peacock
Days and monthsMonday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, January, February, April, August, December
Tricky wordsbecause, friend, beautiful, people, laugh, again, would, could, every, through

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Dictation Words for Class 4

50 dictation words for Class 4
GroupWords
School and learningscience, history, geography, dictionary, exercise, practice, important, different, interesting, knowledge
People and placesdoctor, engineer, carpenter, village, country, hospital, museum, station, temple, market
Nature and weatherweather, thunder, lightning, autumn, environment, island, ocean, desert, insect, oxygen
Describing wordscareful, honest, polite, curious, delicious, enormous, famous, special, quiet, healthy
Tricky wordssurprise, separate, believe, receive, tomorrow, minute, straight, guess, busy, address

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Dictation Sentences for Class 3 and Class 4

Once a group of words is easy, dictate it in sentences. Sentences also practise capital letters, full stops and commas. Read each sentence once in full, then slowly in short parts, then once more so the child can check. The words from the lists above are in bold.

Dictation sentences for Class 3

  1. My teacher gave us homework on Monday.
  2. I keep my pencil and eraser in a red box.
  3. We saw a peacock in the garden.
  4. My cousin lives near a big river.
  5. The school library is closed on Friday.
  6. A beautiful butterfly sat on the flower.
  7. My uncle and our neighbour are good friends.
  8. The elephant walked slowly through the forest.
  9. I could not answer the last question.
  10. We will visit our grandparents again in December.

Dictation sentences for Class 4

  1. Science is my favourite subject, but history is interesting too.
  2. Look up each new word in the dictionary.
  3. The doctor works at the hospital near our village.
  4. We heard thunder and saw lightning in the sky.
  5. Please be careful and quiet in the museum.
  6. My mother made a delicious dinner as a surprise.
  7. I believe it will rain tomorrow.
  8. Write your address on the envelope.
  9. Plants give us oxygen, so we must protect the environment.
  10. The train will leave the station in ten minutes.
Tip

After the sentences, check the small things too: a capital letter at the start, a full stop at the end, and capitals for days and months. Count a missing capital or full stop as a mistake, so the child learns to look for it.

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Spelling Rules That Help

  • i before e, except after c: believe, friend, but receive, ceiling.
  • Silent letters: knife, write, lamb, light, hour, listen.
  • Double letters: rabbit, butterfly, address, tomorrow (one m, two r), necessary (one c, two s).
  • Days and months start with a capital letter: Monday, January.
  • -ful has one l: beautiful, careful, helpful.
  • Words that sound the same but are spelt differently (there / their, right / write) are homophones; learn them in pairs with a sentence each.
Tip

Make spelling a game: play the Spelling Bee word game for five minutes after each dictation. Children hear a word, type it and see at once whether it is right.

✍️ Quick Practice — Find the Correct Spelling

  1. (beautifull / beautiful)
  2. (Wensday / Wednesday)
  3. (freind / friend)
  4. (tommorow / tomorrow)
  5. (becaus / because)
  6. (recieve / receive)
Show answers

Answers: 1. beautiful  |  2. Wednesday  |  3. friend  |  4. tomorrow  |  5. because  |  6. receive

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