Contractions Worksheets

About this resource

do + not = don't. Contractions look small, but a child has to know which two words are inside, which letters the apostrophe took away, and where the apostrophe goes. This is a full contractions kit for first and second grade: match two words to one, sort by ending, cut and glue, write the letters that are gone, fix a missing apostrophe, write the contraction, and squeeze two words in a sentence, with primary handwriting lines and room to work on every writing page.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (34 pages)

• 17 student pages in 8 page types (below), each with a big "My name" line and one short instruction
• 37 contractions, each made from its two words by one rule table (13 with not, 7 with will, 9 with is or let us, 1 with am, 3 with are, 4 with have); the word list page shows every one with the letters the apostrophe takes away; 90 practice items across the pages
• 18 different sentences (Fix It and Squeeze a Sentence), all invented and short
• 24 cut-and-glue pieces: six a page, four pages, each page a block that takes 3 straight cuts
• 1 word list, 3 answer keys generated from the same table as the pages
• 1 tracker (16 rows), 1 class progress grid (15 rows), 1 team note, 1 home page, 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (17 starters)
• 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here, a how-to-read-a-page page, and a back page

THE EIGHT PAGE TYPES (dots show the level, never color)

1. Contraction Helper (1 dot) — do + not, she + will, we + are, I + am, each with the letters the apostrophe takes away crossed out.

2. Match It (1 dot, 3 pages) — six two-word tiles on the left, six contractions on the right; the child draws a line.

3. Sort by Ending (1 dot, 2 pages) — cut six words and glue each under its ending: n't, 'll, 's on Set A; n't, 're, 've on Set B.

4. Glue It (2 dots, 2 pages) — cut six contractions and glue each next to its two words.

5. Which Letters? (2 dots, 2 pages) — two words, the contraction, and a box: write the letters the apostrophe took away.

6. Fix It (2 dots, 2 pages) — a sentence with the apostrophe missing from an underlined word; write the word right.

7. Write It (3 dots, 3 pages) — two word tiles and a primary-lines box: write the contraction.

8. Squeeze a Sentence (3 dots, 2 pages) — two words are underlined in a sentence; a word bank of the three answers and two primary lines to write the sentence.

Contractions come in sets of six (three on a sentence page). No two pages share more than two contractions, and on every Match It and Glue It page no two items start with the same word.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction with a picture, large rounded letters, and writing boxes on primary lines at least 0.6 inch tall (0.68 to 0.78 inch on the Which Letters?, Fix It and Write It pages). The first word is always teal and the second word is always coral, so a child can see which is which. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. Cutting is limited to Sort by Ending and Glue It (the binder tabs too): six pieces a page, touching edge to edge, Sort pieces 2.3 by 1.3 inches and Glue It pieces 1.9 by 1.25.

Type In, Or Print

The name and date lines, the tracker, the class grid, the team note, the home page and the word-list note box are type-in fields in any PDF reader. The letters a student writes in the boxes are pencil work. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

First and second grade classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher working with an older student who still needs contractions. The home page sends the same job to a family; the team note hands off what changed since the last meeting.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

Contraction practice with the record-keeping around it. It is not a probe, a goal bank or a score sheet, and not a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. The pack leaves out can't and won't, the 'd words (which can stand for two different pairs) and a few rarer ones, so every answer has one pair of words; the word list page says which and leaves a line for your program's own wording.