Free heart words worksheets

A heart word is a common word that is not spelled the way a beginning reader would expect, so one part of it has to be learned by heart. The science-of-reading way to teach one is not to memorize the whole word. The child says it, writes one letter or letter team in a box for each sound, then draws a small heart above the box holding the surprise. In said the s and the d are ordinary and get no heart; the ai says short e, so the heart goes over that box alone. These eight sheets practice that routine on 20 words.

What's in this set

1. What is a heart word? Said mapped into three boxes (s, ai, d) with the sounds written underneath and the heart over the ai, four notes on why the s and d get no heart, then the, was, from and have to map. Answer key.
2. Map 10 heart words, set 1. The, of, was, said, you, are, they, from, have, one. Each row has the word, a strip with the right number of sound boxes, a shaded band above it for the heart, and a line for what the tricky letters say. Two of the ten take two hearts. Answer key.
3. Map 10 heart words, set 2. Come, some, there, where, were, who, what, does, want, been, same layout. This is where the ere words sit together: there and where say /air/, were says /er/.
4. Read it, spell it, write it. Eight words (the, of, said, you, have, they, come, there) in three columns: read it, cover it and spell it into empty boxes, then write it twice on the lines.
5. Heart word sentences. Ten sentences and a ten-word bank (are, come, have, said, the, there, they, was, what, you), each word used once, two blanks needing a capital letter. Answer key.
6. Find the heart words. A 75-word decodable story about ducks at a pond. Ten bank words appear 23 times and have to be circled, with a count box for each, plus two extra tasks. Answer key with the story marked up.
7. Blank mapping template. Twelve empty rows with a line for the word, a five-box strip to use as much of as the word needs, and a line for what the letters say.
8. Heart word check sheet. All 20 words in two tables with a tick box for read, a tick box for spell, a date column and scores out of 20.

Frequently asked questions

What is a heart word?

A high-frequency word with a part that does not follow a spelling pattern the child has been taught, so that part is learned by heart while the rest is sounded out. The name comes from the heart drawn above the irregular grapheme.

How are heart words different from sight words?

Sight word lists like Dolch and Fry are simply the most frequent words in print, and most of them are decodable. Heart word teaching takes the few that are not and marks which part is odd, instead of asking a child to memorize whole words by shape.

Does the heart go over the whole word?

No, and that is the point. In said only the ai is hearted. Two words in this set, are and one, do get a heart over every box, and the key explains why: are is a single sound, /ar/, and in one the o carries two sounds and the final e is silent.

What grade are these for?

Kindergarten through grade 2 for most children. Older struggling readers use the same sheets without them feeling babyish, because the task is analytical rather than cute.

Do these worksheets have answer keys?

Five of the eight: the worked example, both mapping sets, the sentences and the story. Each key shows every grapheme, every heart and a note on the tricky letters. The other three pages have nothing to mark.

Can I use these in a classroom?

Yes. The PDFs are free for classroom and home use and may be photocopied for a group. Please link to this page rather than re-uploading the files.

More phonics and word work

Heart word mapping uses the same boxes as the Elkonin boxes worksheets, which is where to go if a child cannot yet split a regular word into sounds. For the regular words that look tricky but are not, use the CVC words worksheets and the digraphs worksheets. For the wider high-frequency lists see the sight words worksheets, and for spelling practice the spelling worksheets.