How can you tell they’ve got it: Spelling Contracted Forms?

If they’ve got it, you’ll see things like: Write 'can't' for 'cannot', 'didn't' for 'did not' with apostrophe correctly placed; Distinguish 'it's' (it is) from 'its' (possessive) in a sentence; Expand a contraction back to its full form and explain which letters are missing. Or just try it together: When your child writes a short form like "can't" or "didn't," do they put the apostrophe in the right place to show where letters are missing?

English Spelling & Word Study Ages 6–7

Spelling Contracted Forms

Your child can spell short forms like can't and didn't, putting the apostrophe where the missing letters used to be.

In curriculum terms

Spell contracted forms correctly by placing the apostrophe where letters are omitted (can't, didn't, I'll, it's, etc.)

Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

Write 'can't' for 'cannot', 'didn't' for 'did not' with apostrophe correctly placed
Distinguish 'it's' (it is) from 'its' (possessive) in a sentence
Expand a contraction back to its full form and explain which letters are missing

🖨 Print this page to keep the checklist — it prints beautifully.

Try this together

When your child writes a short form like "can't" or "didn't," do they put the apostrophe in the right place to show where letters are missing?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on

Segmenting words into soundsages 4–7Basic encoding ability needed to spell contracted forms

Reading Contractionsages 5–6Spelling contractions builds on reading contractions

Spelling Contracted Formsthis skill · ages 6–7

Unlocks

Apostrophes: Contraction and Possessionages 6–7Must understand contractions before using apostrophes in writing

Apostrophes for possessionages 6–8Understanding apostrophe in contractions helps understand its use in possession

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.

Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E3LA11medium confidenceYear 3 · Language

understand that apostrophes signal missing letters in contractions, and apostrophes are used to show singular and plural possession

AC9E1LY15low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

recognise and know how to use grammatical morphemes to create word families

AC9E1LY13low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

spell one- and two-syllable words with common letter patterns

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

EN1-SPELL-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 1

EN2-HANDW-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 2

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E3LA12high confidenceEnglish · Level 3 · Language strand

VC2E1LY15low confidenceEnglish · Level 1 · Literacy strand

VC2EFLY15low confidenceEnglish · Foundation · Literacy strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

Alternative Spellings for Soundsages 6–9 Apostrophes for possessionages 6–8 Suffixesages 6–7 Apostrophes for possessionages 7–10

All Spelling & Word Study skills →