There are many ways we practice our spelling words at school and they can be done at home too! Today I'd like to highlight "sorting".
The focus of spelling instruction is on the patterns we see in the word NOT memorizing how to spell the them for the test. That will not result in long term learning of how to spell it.
Each week we find different ways to sort the spelling words. Your child brings home a set of spelling cards. Cut them out and keep them in a ziploc baggie. You can use them for sorts. There are many ways to sort the words. You can sort by...
*the # of letters in the words
*the # of sounds in the words
*the word endings
*the vowels (long vs short) or by pattern (ee vs ea)
*the # of syllables in the words
*the blends (sl, gr, st, fr, bl, etc) and their location in the word
Here are 4 example sorts using this week's words:
1.
I sorted the words by the number of letters in the words.
3 letter 4 letter 5 letter
far park sharp
arm hard start
art farm
part
park
2.
I sorted by the word ending in each word.
ar ard ark art arm arp
far hard park start farm sharp
dark part arm
art
3.
I sorted by the number of sounds in the words.
2 sounds 3 sounds 4 sounds
arm hard start
art part
far farm
dark
park
sharp
4.
I sorted by where ar is in the word.
beginning middle end
art hard far
arm dark
part
dark
start
park
sharp
At home...
You can make a sort and ask them to tell you the rule.
OR
They can make a sort and you can guess the rule.
The focus of spelling instruction is on the patterns we see in the word NOT memorizing how to spell the them for the test. That will not result in long term learning of how to spell it.
Each week we find different ways to sort the spelling words. Your child brings home a set of spelling cards. Cut them out and keep them in a ziploc baggie. You can use them for sorts. There are many ways to sort the words. You can sort by...
*the # of letters in the words
*the # of sounds in the words
*the word endings
*the vowels (long vs short) or by pattern (ee vs ea)
*the # of syllables in the words
*the blends (sl, gr, st, fr, bl, etc) and their location in the word
Here are 4 example sorts using this week's words:
1.
I sorted the words by the number of letters in the words.
3 letter 4 letter 5 letter
far park sharp
arm hard start
art farm
part
park
2.
I sorted by the word ending in each word.
ar ard ark art arm arp
far hard park start farm sharp
dark part arm
art
3.
I sorted by the number of sounds in the words.
2 sounds 3 sounds 4 sounds
arm hard start
art part
far farm
dark
park
sharp
4.
I sorted by where ar is in the word.
beginning middle end
art hard far
arm dark
part
dark
start
park
sharp
At home...
You can make a sort and ask them to tell you the rule.
OR
They can make a sort and you can guess the rule.