Dear Families,
It is time to start spelling! The two traditional classes will be doing
spelling together. On Monday, each child
will get a list of spelling words to study for the week. Your children will then take a test for those
words on Friday. If they get 100% or 1 word
wrong they will move onto the next list.
If they miss two or more, they will have those words again for another
week. We do this for two reasons. First, it is important to learn the sight
words because they are the ones that are most often used in reading and
writing. Second, we want spelling to be
useful and if a child takes a test and just moves on no matter how they did,
there is no learning involved.
Here is how we the lists will work. For the most part, each list will be 10
words. However, since we are using the
FRY list, when we did the beginning of the year assessments, we tested the
children on spelling these words. If a
child knows 15 or more of a group of 20 words, we will give them all 20 to
practice so they can then move on to the next group. Otherwise it will be a list of 10. Once we start with word families, the list
will change to 5 sight words from the FRY list and 5 words appropriate to skill
level from the vowel we are studying that week.
Spelling will not be for a grade. This is more for growth and development. When we grade writing assignments, this is
when spelling will be part of their grade.
Mrs. Berk will be giving all of the spelling tests. Each Friday afternoon, the children will
spend 30 minutes in Mrs. Berk”s room taking spelling tests and finishing other
work they have not completed from earlier in the week. While this is happening, Ms. Taylor will be
doing an arts integration activity with the students related to the science or
social studies unit we are studying.
After 30 minutes we will switch.
Arts integration is an activity that has a fine arts activity (music,
art, drama) embedded with concepts from science or social studies. Mrs. Taylor taught arts integration for many
years at a different school.
The children will be able to practice their words in class
during word work, but they should also practice at home each day. There are many different ways to practice:
·
Trace the words in a cookie sheet of salt or
sugar.
·
Make words out of playdough.
·
Write the words on a dry erase board (no more
than 3 x each)
·
Find the words while reading a book one day.
(before or after you have read the story)
·
Practice them orally.
·
Spell them with their body.
·
Type them on a computer.
·
Use sign language
Some of these may seem a bit different, but they use
kinesthetic memory, auditory memory and visual memory to attach the word to
their schema so they can recall it. If
you have any questions, please let us know and we will pass you on to the
correct teacher to answer it. One last comment, we want everyone to be
successful with spelling. Not all
children will be successful with 10 words.
If spelling is stressful, please contact us so we can readjust.
Thank
you and happy spelling!
Mrs.
Berk and Ms. Taylor