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How to Teach Contractions

Cartoon girl making contractions on a whiteboard

Would you like to help your child avoid some of the most common errors in written English? Today we’re talking about the misuse of contractions, especially when it comes to words like it’s vs. its and you’re vs. your.

You’ve probably seen these mistakes; maybe they’ve even made you cringe.

Giving your child a solid foundation in the way contractions are formed and what they actually mean—that is, which letters the apostrophe replaces—will go a long way toward helping him or her avoid these common mistakes in the future.

What Is a Contraction?

A contraction consists of two words that are combined to form one word. To “contract” means to “make smaller,” and that is what we do when we form contractions: we take two longer words and contract them into one shorter word.

When Do We Use Contractions?

Contractions are informal “shortcuts” that we often take in our everyday speech. Instead of saying “Do not tease the dog,” we shorten it to “Don’t tease the dog.”

Those same shortcuts can be used in informal writing when we want our writing to reflect our way of speaking. In formal writing, however, it’s best to avoid contractions.

6 Ways to Teach Contractions

Teaching contractions might seem complicated, but these helpful tips can make this concept easy to teach!

  1. Use a rubber band to demonstrate to your student the concept of expanding and contracting. When you stretch the rubber band, it expands; when you let it go, it contracts. That’s what we’re doing when we contract words – we’re just making them smaller.
  2. Demonstrate the concept of contractions by writing he is on a piece of paper, or use letter tiles if you have them. Cross out the i and replace it with an apostrophe. Read the new word to your student to show how the pronunciation changes from he is to he’s.
  3. Explain that an apostrophe is a type of punctuation mark. One of its jobs is to help us form contractions. However, many students put the apostrophe in the wrong spot, as in ar’nt. Understanding that the apostrophe must always take the place of the omitted letters will help prevent such errors.
  4. Write or build the words she will. Cross out the wi and replace those letters with an apostrophe. Explain to your student that she’ll is a shortcut, a shorter way of saying she will.
  5. Underscore the importance of the apostrophe by removing it from the contraction she’ll. Point out that without the apostrophe, the word is shell and not she’ll. Never forget the apostrophe!
  6. Finally, in All About Reading we include an engaging activity sheet where students create contractions out of printed strips of paper. The strip starts out with a pair of words, such as I am.

    Child holding paper with words 'I am'
    The student folds the word strip on the solid line to reveal the contraction, such as I’m.

    Child folding paper to form the contraction 'I'm'

Download Our Lessons on Contractions

Download Lesson 27 of All About Reading Level 2 to see how we teach contractions in our reading program.

AAR Level 2 Lesson 27 Teacher's Manual excerpt

AAR Contractions

AAR Level 2, Lesson 27, Teacher’s Manual

AAR Level 2 Lesson 27 Activity Book excerpt

AAR “Fun with Contractions”

AAR Level 2, Lesson 27, activity sheet

Download Lesson 29 of All About Spelling Level 3 to see how we teach contractions in our spelling program.

AAS Level 2 Step 27 Teacher's Manual excerpt

AAS Contractions

AAS Level 3, Lesson 29, Teacher’s Maunal and activity sheet

Below is a list of contractions you can teach and practice with your child.

click to download your alphabetical list of contractions

Download and print this contractions list!

Do your children use contractions properly, or are they still figuring them out?


Six Ways We Make Spelling Easy Report

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Sarah

says:

I am enjoying all your advice, and reviewing the rules and lessons that I teach. I can see that some of the colorful rules pages have been updated since I ordered the AAS levels that I am working with. For example, the many jobs of silent E has a visual with the letter tiles in red and blue instead of just the yellow list of rules that I have been using. Is it possible to get a PDF with the new, more colorful list? I think it is much clearer.

Robin

says: Customer Service

Sure, Sarah! You will find the Jobs of Silent E page in the All About Spelling Level 2 sample pages. It is Appendix G, page 65 of the PDF.

Valerie

says:

These resources are great! Thanks for sharing!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Valerie! Thank you.

GEORGINA AMA DZIGBORDI ANANGAH

says:

Thanks for sharing this with us. It’s really helpful

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Georgina! I’m glad it’s so helpful!

Stephanie Vapalil

says:

I’m glad these tips are helping me alot as I’m teaching grade 2

Robin

says: Customer Service

It’s great to hear that these tips are helping you, Stephanie! Thank you.

Lynn

says:

I like the suggestion of taking the apostrophe out to see what the word becomes without it.

Robin

says: Customer Service

I’m glad this tip will be useful, Lynn!

Regina

says:

Great tips!

Robin

says: Customer Service

Thanks, Regina!

Malinda McKenzie

says:

Thank you!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Malinda!

Kimberlie

says:

These are great tools for helping my new reader and writer.

Robin

says: Customer Service

I’m glad these are helpful for your student, Kimberlie! Thank you.

Jennifer

says:

This will help my child so much!

Amanda Rosen

says:

I love the idea of using a rubber band to demonstrate what a contraction does!

Robin

says: Customer Service

Thank you, Amanda!

Katy

says:

Very helpful, thanks so much!! We love this program!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Katy!

Lauren

says:

Thank you for this. It’s so helpful!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Lauren! I’m glad it’s helpful!

Amber Sandeford

says:

We just covered contractions in level 2. Using the words separately then folding them up to the shortened contraction was so helpful. When we got to the flash cards and fluency practice pages it was a breeze!

Robin

says: Customer Service

Amber,
Thank you for letting us know that this activity worked well for your student and helped make reading contractions easy!

Shelly Bergman

says:

This is so helpful for my little learner! I love how easy it is for her to understand.

Robin

says: Customer Service

Wonderful to hear, Shelly! I’m so glad this was helpful!

Erin Estep

says:

So helpful! Thank you!!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You are very welcome, Erin! I’m glad this his helpful!

Ashley

says:

Definitely have a student in mind that will benefit from this!!

Robin

says: Customer Service

Great, Ashley! I’m glad this will be helpful for your student!

Brittany

says:

I love these various ways of teaching something so tangibly!

Elisha

says:

Love these tips !

Snehal

says:

Wonderfully explained

lynne barrett

says:

I love this! Thank you!

Robin

says: Customer Service

You’re welcome, Lynne!

B hess

says:

Love it!!

Carolyn K

says:

We just finished this lesson, the paper strips were really useful for him to see how contractions work. I’ll have to try some of these other activities!

Robin

says: Customer Service

I’m so glad to hear that this activity was helpful for your student to understand contractions, Carolyn! Thank you for letting us know that they worked well!

Meg

says:

These are great tips!

Melanie

says:

My daughter is still determined to not use contractions in her writing. This might be helpful, thanks!

Robin

says: Customer Service

I hope this helps, Melanie. Writing can definitely sound too formal when contractions are never used.

Morgan

says:

This is so helpful! Thanks!

Sam

says:

Helpful tips!

Angela Allford

says:

Helpful for this busy mama. Easy to use and fun!

Robin

says: Customer Service

We understand busy mamas, Angela! Glad this is helpful, easy, and fun!

Katie Mathes

says:

Love this!

Kasey

says:

Great tips!

Elizabeth Ray

says:

Great ideas