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Floss rule activity

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Teach your spellers about the FLOSS rule with this free game!

Have you heard of the FLOSS rule? It’s one that we often teach beginning spellers.

The floss rule says that we double the final consonant when three conditions are met:

  • The word is one syllable.
  • The word has a short vowel.
  • The word ends in f, l, s, or z.

It’s called the FLOSS rule because most words that follow this pattern end in f, l, or s.

Examples of words that follow the FLOSS rule:

  • gruff
  • sniff
  • fluff
  • cuff
  • hill
  • doll
  • grill
  • pill
  • bell
  • shell
  • well
  • drill
  • grass
  • toss
  • glass
  • cross
  • chess
  • press
  • dress
  • fuzz
  • fizz
  • frizz

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There are also a few words that should follow the FLOSS rule, but don’t:

  • bus
  • egg
  • add
  • gas

I used this game with my mid-year first grader.

As it turned out, he could spell most of the words in the game without needing to consult the FLOSS rule.

But it was still good thing for him to carefully analyze each word. Let me show you what I mean.

To play, we took turns moving around the board using a die.

When he landed on a picture, he said its name. Then he pulled out his recording sheet.

For each word, he asked himself three questions:

Is it one syllable?

Does it have a short vowel?

Does it end with the f, l, s, or z sound?

If he had three yes’s, the word followed the FLOSS rule and needed a double consonant at the end. If not, it needed only a single consonant.

There are two tricky words built into the game, and they are marked with a star. Bus and egg do not follow the FLOSS rule. If they did, BUS would be spelled buss, and EGG would be spelled eg.

When I landed on bus, this is what I recorded on my answer sheet.

So what do you think? Could this game help your spellers become confident with the FLOSS rule?

Teaching tips

  • Teach the FLOSS rule to the whole class in one or more focused lessons before introducing the game.
  • Practice using the recording sheet as a class before expecting students to use it on their own during the game. It takes a little practice to get the hang of it.

Get your free Floss Rule Spelling Game!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

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Reader Interactions

29 Comments

  1. Sarah Fernandes

    Hello! This looks like a great game! I have a somewhat related question…do you know of a similar rule for 2 syllable words? Two of my kiddos (grade 5, grade 2) have double consonant words in their spelling lists this week, but as stated, they are mostly 2 syllable words, i.e. tennis, wobble, address, gutter, yellow, matter, pattern, common, puppetry, summit…I understand this isn’t exactly related to this post so no worries if you’re unable to help. If you are though, I’d greatly appreciate a point in the right direction!

    Reply to this comment

  2. Jocelyn

    Thank you for this fantastic game, my children really enjoyed playing it. However, we were all confused about the word ‘princess’ as it didn’t fit the rule of needing to be ‘one syllable’. Would this word be another exception to the rule word? Or, we live in New Zealand so maybe our accent is the issue?

    Reply to this comment

  6. erin wicklund

    What a fun way to review “bonus letters” as they are called in our phonics program.
    I can’t wait to play this game with my first and second graders.
    I also enjoy many other games you have created! Thank you so much!

    Reply to this comment

  9. Michelle Toth

    Actually, I think the FLS words do NOT need to be doubled. All the words you listed (drill, sniff, etc) already have the last letter doubled. I think the rule is, double letters other than words ending in FLS. For example sit, sitting, bed, bedding, hem. hemming.

    Reply to this comment

  11. Susan

    You read my mind!!! It’s exactly what I need right now and honestly, I love to use use your materials over most other things on the internet and Teachers Pay Teachers.
    Thanks so much!
    Susan

    Reply to this comment

  12. Karen W.

    This is a great resource for practicing the floss rule. Just a couple clarifications. I think the floss rule is called floss because it just refers to words that end in f, l, s, or z. Bus does not follow the rule because it used to be called an omnibus. Gas does not because it used to be gasoline. There are a few exceptions (like yes), but generally if a word has only one vowel and ends in f,l, s, or z, the last letter will be doubled.

    Reply to this comment

  15. MARY RYAN

    Thank you for the great freebie! I teach English language learners, and they would definitely benefit from learning this rule and practicing with your fun and engaging materials. I love all your materials!

    Reply to this comment

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