Spelling and Sight Words
Fundations Spelling Words
* New Spelling Words are introduced every Monday.
* Spelling Worksheet is given out every Monday. * Spelling review is given every Friday. |
Fundations Trick Words* New Trick Words are introduced every week.
* Trick Word cards are given out every Tuesday. * The cards are kept in a sealed plastic bag in their backpack. Please practice reading the words. These words are words we will be working on all year long. You can practice in the following ways:
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Rainbow Words Worksheet
(USE THIS PAPER FOR SPELLING WORDS, SIGHT WORDS, AND ABC ORDER) STUDENTS WRITE THE SPELLING OR SIGHT WORDS ONCE WITH A PENCIL. THEY THEN CHOOSE THREE DIFFERENT COLORED CRAYONS THEY WOULD LIKE TO TRACE EACH WORD WITH. FOR EXAMPLE, IF A STUDENT CHOOSES RED, BLUE, AND GREEN SHE/HE WOULD TRACE THE WORDS ONCE IN RED, THEN AGAIN IN BLUE, AND ONE LAST TIME IN GREEN. RAINBOW WORDS! HAVE FUN!!!! |
Spelling
"Hey, how do you spell…?" is a familiar refrain around homes with school-age children. Since correct spelling can be a roadblock to the creative process, I allow invented spelling in the first few months. But the next step is to help children move from misspelling words (wud, kant, shood) to conventional spelling—all the while keeping their spontaneity and enthusiasm for writing intact.
To excel at spelling, your child should be familiar with consonants, vowels, and the common combinations. We will be studying word families (phonograms) or certain spelling rules. (Remember i before e except after c?) Words with silent letters, plurals, double consonants, tricky vowel combinations, and compound words will also appear on their spelling lists.
Weekly spelling reviews will be given every Friday
It is time to mention homophones —those pairs (or sometimes triplets) of words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings (like know and no). Homophones can be tricky for children when they write, so it's good to help your young writer recognize which/witch, one/won, to/two/too, use/yews. ;-)
Apostrophes are important elements in spelling. They appear in contractions such as they're (they are) and in possessive nouns such as baby's. Spelling as incorrect if apostrophes are missing (or are present when they should not be). Often children see them as extraneous marks rather than parts of a correctly spelled word. This may be a good point to reinforce apostrophes with your young writer. While you're at it, remind him or her to use capital letters in order to spell proper nouns correctly.
Most of the time children need to spell out words when writing, but sometimes it's acceptable to use abbreviations—or shortened forms of word spellings. Here are the ones that your first grader will come across most often:
They will often use abbreviations in writing charts, schedules, and letters.
Spelling relies on a variety of language arts skills—some reading, phonics, writing, and vocabulary. So, a few errors here and there shouldn't cause alarm. If you don't see improvements over time, however, be sure to speak up. With practice and proper instruction, most children can master the basic spelling rules. The more children can see words written, the more they will begin to develop an innate sense about spelling.
"Hey, how do you spell…?" is a familiar refrain around homes with school-age children. Since correct spelling can be a roadblock to the creative process, I allow invented spelling in the first few months. But the next step is to help children move from misspelling words (wud, kant, shood) to conventional spelling—all the while keeping their spontaneity and enthusiasm for writing intact.
To excel at spelling, your child should be familiar with consonants, vowels, and the common combinations. We will be studying word families (phonograms) or certain spelling rules. (Remember i before e except after c?) Words with silent letters, plurals, double consonants, tricky vowel combinations, and compound words will also appear on their spelling lists.
Weekly spelling reviews will be given every Friday
It is time to mention homophones —those pairs (or sometimes triplets) of words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings (like know and no). Homophones can be tricky for children when they write, so it's good to help your young writer recognize which/witch, one/won, to/two/too, use/yews. ;-)
Apostrophes are important elements in spelling. They appear in contractions such as they're (they are) and in possessive nouns such as baby's. Spelling as incorrect if apostrophes are missing (or are present when they should not be). Often children see them as extraneous marks rather than parts of a correctly spelled word. This may be a good point to reinforce apostrophes with your young writer. While you're at it, remind him or her to use capital letters in order to spell proper nouns correctly.
Most of the time children need to spell out words when writing, but sometimes it's acceptable to use abbreviations—or shortened forms of word spellings. Here are the ones that your first grader will come across most often:
- Days of the week and months of the year (Mon., Jan.)
- Names and titles (Mr., Dr.)
They will often use abbreviations in writing charts, schedules, and letters.
Spelling relies on a variety of language arts skills—some reading, phonics, writing, and vocabulary. So, a few errors here and there shouldn't cause alarm. If you don't see improvements over time, however, be sure to speak up. With practice and proper instruction, most children can master the basic spelling rules. The more children can see words written, the more they will begin to develop an innate sense about spelling.
Adapted from www.KZ.com
Phonics and Word Study
What is phonics anyway? When you tell your child to "sound it out," you are saying to use phonics–which means identifying the sounds that correspond to the letters in a word. Sometimes people also use the term decoding to describe this same process. Playing a simple game like "find all the things in this room that begin with b" provides a great way to practice phonics skills.
Here's a quick rundown of the phonics skills that are taught in the early elementary years.
Once your youngster is able to read and write simple words, he or she is ready to tackle bigger ones. One way to pronounce big words is to divide them into parts, called syllables, and then say each part. A syllable is a word or word part that contains a vowel sound. Buzz has one syllable; buzzer has two.
Prefixes can help beginning readers understand the meaning of words they may be seeing for the first time. Prefixes are word parts that are added to the beginning of a base word and that add meaning to the word. Re- is a prefix that means again; so write becomes rewrite which means to write again. Other examples of common prefixes are co-, meaning together, as in cooperate, and il-, meaning not, as in illegible.
Suffixes are word parts that are added to the end of a base word and that add meaning to the word. The suffix -ful means full of or having. Help becomes helpful which, predictably, means to be full of help. Other examples of common suffixes are -dom and -ness, which mean state or quality, as in freedom and kindness, and -ment, which means action or process, as in government or agreement.
Sometimes two words are combined to form a single word, called a compound word. Your second or third grader should be able to tell the meaning of a compound word by thinking about the words that make up the compound, as in the word rainbow.
These sound-symbol relationships are important, for these skills are fundamental to all reading success (and enjoyment). But remember also that all children, even siblings, develop skills at different rates, so don't be discouraged. Most children do a remarkable job of catching up when they have the proper support at home and in school.
Adapted from www.KZ.com
What is phonics anyway? When you tell your child to "sound it out," you are saying to use phonics–which means identifying the sounds that correspond to the letters in a word. Sometimes people also use the term decoding to describe this same process. Playing a simple game like "find all the things in this room that begin with b" provides a great way to practice phonics skills.
Here's a quick rundown of the phonics skills that are taught in the early elementary years.
- Short vowels--a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y, as in bag, set, him, top, cup.
- Long vowels--a, e, i, o, u with new sounds, as in cake, seen, time, bone, cute.
- Consonants—all the letters in the alphabet except the vowels. They each have a single sound except c and g, which have hard sound as in cat and garden and a soft one as in circus and gentle.
- Consonant blends—two or three letters that blend together to make a sound, such as bl, sk, nd, spr as in blind, skin, desk, or sprain.
- Consonant digraphs—two letters that combine to make a new sound, such as th, sh, ng as in thing, shine, or finish.
- Vowel diphthongs—two vowels sounded so that both vowels blend together as one sound, such as oi and ou as in coin and loud.
- Vowel digraphs—two vowels that together make a long or short sound or have a special sound of their own, such as ea in steady, ie in piece, and ey in obey.
Once your youngster is able to read and write simple words, he or she is ready to tackle bigger ones. One way to pronounce big words is to divide them into parts, called syllables, and then say each part. A syllable is a word or word part that contains a vowel sound. Buzz has one syllable; buzzer has two.
Prefixes can help beginning readers understand the meaning of words they may be seeing for the first time. Prefixes are word parts that are added to the beginning of a base word and that add meaning to the word. Re- is a prefix that means again; so write becomes rewrite which means to write again. Other examples of common prefixes are co-, meaning together, as in cooperate, and il-, meaning not, as in illegible.
Suffixes are word parts that are added to the end of a base word and that add meaning to the word. The suffix -ful means full of or having. Help becomes helpful which, predictably, means to be full of help. Other examples of common suffixes are -dom and -ness, which mean state or quality, as in freedom and kindness, and -ment, which means action or process, as in government or agreement.
Sometimes two words are combined to form a single word, called a compound word. Your second or third grader should be able to tell the meaning of a compound word by thinking about the words that make up the compound, as in the word rainbow.
These sound-symbol relationships are important, for these skills are fundamental to all reading success (and enjoyment). But remember also that all children, even siblings, develop skills at different rates, so don't be discouraged. Most children do a remarkable job of catching up when they have the proper support at home and in school.
Adapted from www.KZ.com