Spelling Program

Our spelling program has officially begun. Today children brought home a list of words. This week, the words came from three places. Five of the words are words they chose from a list we provided. They are all words that follow the spelling rule we are teaching this week. The other five words come from an individualized list. Every day for two weeks the children took a pre-assessment of "trick words". (Most words on the list do not follow phonetic patterns or rules.) The words they were not able to spell correctly were placed on a list called "Words to Learn".

Some children did very well on the pre-assessment and therefore had very few words on their "Words to Learn" sheet. They were provided with challenge words to choose from. Children will continue to be challenged as spellers at their level next week as we begin choosing 2 words from our writing. These will be words the children identify as being misspelled. They will find the correct spelling and focus on that spelling for the week.

As we've discussed before, all children have strengths and struggles. The children have individualized lists so they can choose words that are "just right" for them. The words should be ones they are close to knowing. (They can't spell them accurately, but their spellings are only off by a few letters.)

We teach children that we should spell correctly out of respect for their readers. "Dictionary" spelling is much easier to read than invented spelling. We want readers to easily read and understand what we're trying to say. Please be sure that your child studies 5-10 minutes each night to help them improve their spelling.