Primary 5 spelling words: science and social studies

Primary 5 · 28 words · Updated 2026-09-16

1. experiment
2. magnet
3. mixture
4. evaporate
5. condense
6. temperature
7. skeleton
8. muscle
9. nutrient
10. digestion
11. habitat
12. predator
13. electricity
14. circuit
15. gravity
16. friction
17. continent
18. equator
19. climate
20. island
21. peninsula
22. volcano
23. earthquake
24. mountain
25. harbour
26. settlement
27. population
28. rainfall

How to practise these words

Subject words are different from ordinary spelling words because a child usually knows what they mean before they can write them, and that is an advantage worth using. Ask your child what the word means first, then ask them to write it; a word attached to an idea sticks better than one attached to nothing. Several of these are long but entirely regular, so break them into syllables and let your child build them piece by piece rather than guessing at the whole. Keep an eye on the ones that are not regular: "muscle", "island" and "circuit" all hide letters, and "temperature" loses a syllable when it is said quickly. It is worth doing this list in the same week the topic comes up in class, because the word and the lesson will hold each other up.

Where these words come from

These are terms that recur across primary science and social studies schemes anywhere in the English-speaking world: living things, forces and materials on one side, places, maps and communities on the other. They are chosen for how often a child has to write them rather than read them, and they are general subject vocabulary, not any particular school's list.