FREE Schwa Spelling Pages

These FREE Schwa Spelling Pages are a great way to help your learners practice spelling words that have the schwa sound.

You might also like our FREE Schwa Sound Printables.

Schwa Spelling Pages - Free from This Reading Mama

*The free download can be found at the end of this post. Look for and click on the teal download button.

What Exactly is Schwa?

Schwa can be a super tricky sound to identify, even for learners who don’t struggle with your typical phonics skills.

Here are some things to note about schwa:

It is nearly always found in unaccented words or syllables. Unaccented syllables are syllables that are not emphasized or stressed in words. For help locating them, this post is super helpful.
It is a relaxed {or “lazy”} sound and sounds like short u. Sometimes the two sounds are confused. The key difference is that schwa is found in unaccented words or syllables, not in the accented syllables.
It can be spelled using any vowel and even some vowel combinations. The schwa vowels are bold in these examples: away, elephant, uniform, occur, upon, fiction, vinyl, bargain. Note all the different spellings of schwa ~ not confusing at all, right?
It is sometimes easy to identify. {Yay for easy!} There are some common word patterns with schwa. Words like away, again, about, above, and afford all start with the unaccented a, which makes the schwa sound. Words that end with el, al, and le often end with schwa. Here are a few examples of this one: little, camel, pedal, and middle. There are other word patterns, too, so be sure to point them out to your learners when you discover them together!
Schwa is typically notated by the upside down e sign:

symbol for the schwa sound

Schwa Spelling Pages

In this FREE schwa pack, you’ll find both 2-syllable and 3-syllable words {3 pages for each}.

On each page, learners are asked to:

identify the picture
identify and highlight the correct spelling of the word
write the word
highlight or circle the syllable or syllables containing the schwa sound

Schwa Spelling Pages - for 2-syllable and 3-syllable words

The pack has TWO sets of the same pages, but they are formatted a little differently depending on the age of your learners.

Set 1 – print font and handwriting lines for younger learners
Set 2- type font and handwriting lines for older learners

A Couple of Questions and Answers for Schwa

Q: Is there a rule or generalization for spelling schwa in words that makes it easier to learn?

A: With some words, yes!

Examples include:

nation, creation, and lotion {among other words} all havethe -tion pattern with the schwa sound
away, around, and again all have the schwa sound spelled as a at the beginning of the word
middle, puzzle, and little all have the schwa sound in the second syllable
In general, most two-syllable words have the schwa sound at the END of the word. This is not a hard and fast rule!
Often, a three-syllable word will have the schwa sound in the MIDDLE of the word. Again, this is not a hard and fast rule!

Q: What is another tip for remember the spellings of schwa?

A: Overpronunciation of the unaccented syllables can be helpful.

So, instead of saying wagon like /wa-gun/, teach your learners to think /wa-gone/. Instead of /mittun/ for mitten, overpronunciate the second syllable and say /mit-ten/. Teaching learners to pronounce words a little funny in their head can be helpful for spelling many tricky words. For example, I still think, “veggie table” when I spell vegetable.