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Spelling Archives - All About Spelling - All About Learning Press

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Browse this collection of blog posts on how to teach spelling and explore the elements of the All About Spelling program.

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A lot or a little?

The parents' guide to what's in this app.

Kids can learn essential literacy skills like letter sounds, letter combinations, spelling, and word recognition with this well-crafted app for emerging readers and writers. The four activities build on one another, giving kids a chance to first develop skills and then practice them in either the creative Storyboard activity or the fun Alpha Spy game. The app's careful and clear narration makes letter identification tasks understandable and accessible to young kids. With its focus on the building blocks of literacy, Montessorium: Intro to Words is a solid tool for helping young kids begin to read and write.

Once kids know what to do, it's simple for them to pull letters or phonograms (letter combinations) from a scrolling bar at the top of the screen and form words. It would have been helpful, though, to have some instructions up front, since it can take some trial and error to figure out exactly what to do.

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Montessorium: Intro to Words - App Review

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Jump to navigation The parents' guide to what's in this app. Kids can learn essential literacy skills like letter sounds, letter combinations, spelling, and word recognition with this well-crafted app for emerging readers and writers.

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Phonological Awareness Activities for Pre-K and Preschool - PreKinders

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If there is one thing we have noticed over the past 10 years in school, it is the spelling of our students. It has seemed like the students coming to us are having such a difficult time knowing how to spell words. We have been strong advocates for what we call "Word Work": breaking words down into patterns and using them correctly in context.

We have developed four resources that will help you teach word work and spelling to your students in a fun and engaging way. No more pre-test Mondays and post-test Fridays! That is a thing of the past!

Here are the resources that will be of benefit to you in the classroom:

This resource contains 18 word work activities for your students to use with any activity involving the use of words for better comprehension and understanding. The cards include working with homonyms and homographs, synonyms and antonyms, prefixes and suffixes, word find puzzle, writing a song, rhyming words, and much more.

Also included in the document is a handy check off sheet so you know what choice your students have made with the activities.

With this activity, students will have fun being able to make choices during the week. Instead of assigning your students with the same activity each day, give them choice of how they want to show that they are mastering the spelling patterns. There are nine choices on the sheet in a tic tac toe format. Enjoy!

The intention of this activity is to have students think about words and the letter combinations that make up words.

There are 50 "Challenge" cards included. The cards work best if they are printed off on a heavier paper and then laminated. The cards can also be bound together for a station or they can be stacked loosely also- whatever works best for you.

Each card contains four pictures. Students are to look at the pictures and decide what they have in common. The letters to choose from are listed towards the bottom of each card. For most cards, not all 11 letters will be used. The number of letters in the word are located at the very bottom of each card.

Here is a great resource to use when teaching your students patterns in spelling or word work.

Here's what is included:
1. Description cards for students that include the task that they have to do for each of the 10 days.

2. A student packet where the students show evidence of their word work or spelling that you can collect.

3. A quiz on Day 10 to check accuracy and mastery of a spelling pattern.

These resources have helped our students become better spellers, and we know they will help your students too!
Pin for later:

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Word Work and Spelling in Grades 3-5 - Wise Guys

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If there is one thing we have noticed over the past 10 years in school, it is the spelling of our students. It has seemed like the students coming to us are having such a difficult time knowing how to spell words.

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Create teacher-prepared books easily (and attractively) for emerging readers to use, or have students create their own books or lists for any topic. Older students can create personal word walls for spelling lists, vocabulary words for content areas, literary terms, vivid words to use in writing, and much more. Teachers can get lesson plan ideas incorporating Alphabet Organizer from ReadWriteThink. Alphabet Organizer can also be used by content-area teachers to incorporate reading strategies into their lessons and help kids organize and remember information.

Continue reading Show less

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Alphabet Organizer Review for Teachers | Common Sense Education

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Create teacher-prepared books easily (and attractively) for emerging readers to use, or have students create their own books or lists for any topic. Older students can create personal word walls for spelling lists, vocabulary words for content areas, literary terms, vivid words to use in writing, and much more.

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Songs for Teaching Phonological & Phonemic Awareness

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Songs for Teaching Phonological & Phonemic Awareness

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These phonemic awareness songs are available from a variety of albums:

Concepts of Words and Syllables
Animal Hand-Clap Rap - Liz Buchanan
The Apes, The Monkeys and The Chimpanzees - Vincent Nunes
A Vowel Sound in Every Syllable - Jennifer Fixman
Chickadee And Chipmunk - Hap Palmer
Clap, Stomp & Chomp (Syllable Song) - Jack Hartmann
Clap Our Syllables - Jack Hartmann
Count and Move - Jack Hartmann
Face to Face - Fran Avni
Names in Motion - Jack Hartmann
Just One Word - Fran Avni
Sports Syllable Song - Jack Hartmann
Syllables - Stephen Fite
Syllable Song - Fran Avni and Nancy Schimmel
Words - Danny Weinkauf

Recognition and Production of Rhymes
Betty Spaghetti - Kymberly Stewart
Build a Word - Jennifer Fixman Rhyme Time - Fran Avni
Do's and Don'ts - Fran Avni
Exercise When We Rhyme - Jack Hartmann
From Here To There - Margot Bevington
Funny Rhymes (Long Vowels) - Ron Brown
Going Down the Road - Little Miss Ann
Good for You - Nancy Schimmel and Fran Avni
I Gave That Bear A Rocking Chair - Vincent Nunes
Make a Rhyme, Make a Move - Jack Hartmann
Name Game - Fran Avni
Over the Deep Blue Sea - Susan Salidor
Random Rhymes - Fran Avni
Rap, Clap and Rhyme - Jack Hartmann
Rhyme and Dance - Jack Hartmann
Rhyme and Move - Jack Hartmann
Rhyme Riddles - Marla Lewis

Rhyming Square Dance - Music with Mar.
Rise & Rhyme - Culture Queen
Say the Number - Stephen Fite
Stop When It Doesn't Rhyme - Music with Mar.
Time to Rhyme - Johnny and the Raindrops
Workout When We Rhyme - Jack Hartmann

Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia - Stephen Fite
Onomatopoeia Alphabet - Jack Hartmann

Word Families -- Phonograms -- Onsets and Rimes
All Together - Jack Hartmann
Beginning Sounds Workout - Jack Hartmann
Bop 'Til We Drop (OP Word Family)- Hap Palmer
Bounce - Hap Palmer
D-O-G: Walking the Dog (OG Word Family) - Hap Palmer
Exercise to Onsets & Rimes - Jack Hartmann
Family of Words - Jack Hartmann
Let's Make Words - Jack Hartmann
Let's Rhyme with the Animals - Ron Brown
My Playful Pig (-ig Word Family)- Hap Palmer
My Ramblin' Cat (-at Word Family)- Hap Palmer
The Name Game - Jack Hartmann
One Little Word - Hap Palmer
Phon-ercise - Dr. Jean
Random Rhymes - Fran Avni
Rime Time - Dr. Jean
Rug in the Middle of the Room - Fran Avni
Word Families - Liz Buchanan
The Word Family - Dr. Jean
The Word Family Song - J.W. Snyder
Word Family Workout - Jack Hartmann
Word Play - Jack Hartmann
Words! - Ron Brown

Recognition, Segmenting, Blending, and Manipulation of
Phonemes and Syllables
AI-AY - Ron Brown
(AR) Bossy R - Ron Brown
AW - Ron Brown
Apples and Bananas - Traditional
Bb - Greg Whitfield
Beginning and Ending Sounds - Jennifer Fixman
Beginning Blends - Jennifer Fixman
Bitty Bi Bo Bu - Dr. Jean
Change It! - Music with Mar.
Chunk It - Jack Hartmann
Compound Word Wiz - Jennifer Fixman
Compound Words - Mr. R's Songs That Teach
Compound Word Workout - Jack Hartmann
Digraph Dance - Jack Hartmann
Down by the Track (Segmentation of Phonemes) - Nancy Schimmel / Fran Avni
Drop It! (Phoneme Deletion) - Fran Avni
EE - Ron Brown
ER-IR-UR - Ron Brown
Echo Game - Ron Brown
Echo the Letter Sounds - Jack Hartmann
Eemo Imo - Skip West
Fiddle Around with the Middle Sound (Phoneme Substitution) - Fran Avni
Hat and Cat - Fran Avni
IGH - Ron Brown
_ight - Jennifer Fixman
I Lost a Sound (Deletion of Phonemes) - Nancy Schimmel and Fran Avni
ING - Ron Brown
Letter Blender - ABC's & Much More
Letter Sounds A to Z - Jack Hartmann
Miguel the Magic Monkey (Beginning Sounds) - Jack Hartmann
OA - Ron Brown
OI-OY - Ron Brown
Old MacDonald's Blend Farm - Stephen Fite
On Your Lap (Phoneme Addition and Blending) - Nancy Schimmel and Fran Avn
Pp - Greg Whitfield
Phoneme Deletion Freeze - Jack Hartmann
Phonogram Funk - Jennifer Fixman
Pineapple - Fran Avni
The Secret Word - Hap Palmer
SH - Ron Brown
Sing an Echo Song - Margie La Bella
Syllable Song - Fran Avni and Nancy Schimmel
TH - Ron Brown
Take a Word Apart - Fran Avni
Tell Me All The Sounds - Liz Buchanan
There's a Starfish Hidden Under My Bed - Fran Avni
Tongue Twister - Fran Avni
The Tongue Twister Song - The W.L.A. Children's Choir
Tongue Twisters - Jack Hartmann
Tooty Ta - Dr. Jean
Tooty Ta (open version) - Dr. Jean
Topsy Turvy (Phoneme Manipulation) - Fran Avni
Two Little Sounds- Hap Palmer
Who Knows the Alphabet Sounds? - ABC's & Much More

Book suggestions:

See more of our Language Arts & Reading Skills Song Lyrics

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That Build Phonological Awareness (Including Phonemic Awareness)

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Children's Songs and Educational Music for preschool, elementary, middle and high school. Lyrics, mp3 downloads, DVDs and CDs.

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I have been working on some new ideas for my students to do during their Daily Five "Word Work" rotation. A couple days ago I posted about my Word of the Week Graphic Organizer. Another idea I had was inspired by a couple different sources. I first saw the idea for a Boggle bulletin board on Pinterest. Click here to see the pic. Then I saw a post on Clutter-Free Classroom that further inspired me.

Here is a picture of the Boggle Bulletin Board that I put up today:

{I'll have more pics from my room when I finish later this week!!!}

I printed up the following letters on card stock, cut them out, and laminated them. I printed 3 of each letter since a letter may appear more than once in a game of boggle. The extras are being kept in the blue cups.

My plan is to change the letters {bi}weekly. Each week students will be given the following handout to complete as an option during word work:

{Click the pic to share!}

This will probably be a "last choice" for word work. But, I thought it would be fun for my students to see how many words they can find each week {or two}!!!

I have seen so many wonderful classroom pics. I'm almost done with my mine. It's looking great and I can't wait to share pics later this week!!!

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Boggle Board w/ Printable!!! - Create Teach Share

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I have been working on some new ideas for my students to do during their Daily Five "Word Work" rotation. A couple days ago I posted about my Word of the Week Graphic Organizer. Another idea I had was inspired by a couple different sources. I first saw the idea for a Boggle bulletin board...

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Rocket Speller mixes up academics and fun to help kids with letter recognition and spelling. The app includes five levels and the choice of upper- or lowercase letters, and also includes the choice of letter name or phonetic sound and the choice of word category. Levels 1 and 2 offer visual cues where kids actually see the letters in place and just need to match and drag. They hear the letter's name (or the sound in the phonetic option) when it pops into place. In level 3, kids hear the name of the letter when they tap the space, and levels 4 and 5 offer help only if kids are struggling.

Zip, the alien, flies onto the screen along with a picture of an object. Kids fill in the blanks to spell the name of the item by dragging and dropping the right letters into place. Levels get increasingly more challenging -- from Level 1, which includes words with three to six letters and shows the letters (so kids are basically just matching the letters) on up to level 5, which includes seven- to 10-letter words with no visual or auditory hints. After kids spell three words correctly, they get to choose a piece of their rocket. Once the rocket is complete, kids get to launch it and catch stars as they soar through the sky.

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Rocket Speller Review for Teachers | Common Sense Education

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Rocket Speller mixes up academics and fun to help kids with letter recognition and spelling. The app includes five levels and the choice of upper- or lowercase letters, and also includes the choice of letter name or phonetic sound and the choice of word category.

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Why Phonological Awareness is Important in Reading and Spelling

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Why Phonological Awareness is Important in Reading and Spelling

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Why Phonological Awareness Is Important for Reading and Spelling

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This fact is well proven: Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing system (Ehri, 2004; Rath, 2001; Troia, 2004). Phonological awareness is even important for reading other kinds of writing systems, such as Chinese and Japanese. There are several well-established lines of argument for the importance of phonological skills to reading and spelling.

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Activities are in alphabetical order, scroll down to Spelling Inventories and choose the grade level you need.  Class Rosters are also available.

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When reading intervention is required for getting a student back on track, Neuhaus Education Center provides teachers with knowledge for why students are struggling and how to reach them, using classroom-ready tools and resources for actionable solutions. It's an intentional investment in reading success that ensures Literacy for All.

Recommendations for Virtual Instruction

Depth of Oral Language

This chart can be used to demonstrate the idea of words with similar meanings but different intensities. Students can sort these words for "problem" into three piles: big problems, little problems, medium problems.
Open/Download Depth of Oral Language Chart (PDF)

Diamante and Cinquain: Two Poetry Forms for Teaching

These patterns for the diamonte and cinquain poems can support the teaching of parts of speech.
Diamante and Cinquain Patterns (PDF)

Games

Games that support reading skills
Definition Concentration

Grammar
Identify parts of speech from a picture.
Handwriting

These stroke descriptions aid in the formation of manuscript letters.
View stroke descriptions for manuscript letters (PDF)

These stroke descriptions aid in the formation of capital letters.
View stroke descriptions for capital letters (PDF)

These stroke descriptions aid in the formation of cursive letters.

Hints from Hailey

"Hints from Hailey" are a series of videos that dives into each component of Neuhaus Reading Readiness (RR), Accurate and Automatic Reading (AAR), and Oral Language and Listening Comprehension (OLLC). These short video clips are intended for teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators who have already been trained by Neuhaus instructors and are seeking to improve their knowledge and use of Neuhaus curriculum so that students will become successful readers.
How to use Hints from Hailey Start the Year Off Right! Accurate and Automatic Reading Videos Hints Handout for AAR AAR Mastery Check Videos Hints Handout for AAR MC Oral Language and Listening Comprehension Videos Hints Handout for OLLC Reading Readiness Videos Hints Handout for RR Advanced Scientific Spelling Videos Hints Handout for SS
Instructional Charts (Small)

These small versions of the classroom charts are sized to use with small groups of students. All of the files below are sized for 8.5 in. by 11 in. cardstock. Neuhaus instruction these to be used for: Accurate and Automatic Reading; Basic Language Skills; Language Enrichment; Multisensory Reading and Spelling; Reading Readiness; Scientific Spelling; Structured Handwriting; and Written Composition.

The Layers of English

This display is a visual for teaching the history of English and the languages that contributed to English as it is today.

Mastery Check Gradebooks

Reading Readiness Mastery Check Gradebook
Use this Reading Readiness Mastery Check Gradebook to keep track of student data for the Reading Readiness Initial Mastery Check, Reading Readiness Advanced Mastery Check I, and Reading Readiness Advanced Mastery Check II. The gradebook document will open as "read only." Please save a copy to your files before using.

Accurate and Automatic Reading Mastery Check Gradebook
Use this Accurate and Automatic Reading Mastery Check Gradebook to keep track of student data for all AAR Mastery Checks. The gradebook document will open as "read only." Please save a copy to your files before using.

Language Enrichment Mastery Check Gradebook
Use this Language Enrichment Mastery Check Gradebook to keep track of student data for all LE Mastery Checks. The gradebook document will open as "read only." Please save a copy to your files before using.

Language and Literacy for Young Learners Curriculum Based Gradebook
Use this Language and Literacy for Young Learners Curriculum Based Measure Gradebook to keep track of student data. The gradebook document will open as "read only." Please save a copy to your files before using.

Mastery Checks - Accurate and Automatic Reading

Mastery Checks - Basic Language Skills

Mastery Checks - Language and Literacy for Young Learners

Mastery Checks - Language Enrichment

Mastery Checks - Reading Readiness

Naming Screening and Benchmarks

A quick two-minute screening can be administered individually to students (grades 2-6) to measure their oral language. Includes naming categories and benchmarks.
Open/Download Naming Screening and Benchmarks (PDF)

Question Starters for Deeper Thinking

These are examples of question starters that encourage students to delve more deeply into what they have read and make deeper connections. These question starters were compiled by Elizabeth Sledge and based on research by Benjamin Bloom and Robert J. Marzano.
Open/Download Question Starters (PDF)

Quick Tips from Neuhaus

Alphabet letters, building blocks, and so much more! Neuhaus has developed educational videos to support our teachers and families as a trusted shoulder-partner.
View Video Playlist (YouTube)

Rapid Recognition Chart Generator

Enter a list of six words, letters, sounds, or Final Stable Syllables, and generate 5 Rapid Recognition charts to use with your students. To use the Rapid Recognition Chart as an assessment, time the number of student readings of the chart within one minute.
Open/Download Rapid Recognition Chart Generator (Excel)

RTI Powerpoint Slides for Presentations

This presentation on the history and purpose of Response to Intervention are for use by teachers and administrators for professional development, courtesy of Mary E. Dahlgren, Ph.D.

RTI pdf's for Teachers and Administrators

Practical and "do-able" strategies for meaningful screening, meticulous progress monitoring, and rich resources for effective intervention were taken from the workshop, Really Terrific Information on Response to Intervention, Mary E. Dahlgren, Ph. D., at Neuhaus Education Center, July 7-8, 2010.

Scaffold Cards for Independent Reading

After students have developed good metacognitive thinking skills for reading, question generation guided by these cards and careful teacher modeling can aid independent reading in both narrative and expository text.

Silly Cats are O.K.

Silly Cats are O.K. is a mnemonic for the elements of a story. Use this fun form to help your students summarize any narrative.

Spelling Word Analysis Chart

Word Analysis Chart for analyzing spelling words for regularity, irregularity or those that follow spelling rules

Stories for Making Inferences

Have students guess the missing sentence and practice using clues for making inferences.
Stories for Making Inferences

Story Map

The Story Map offers another method for summarizing narratives.

Story Retelling Pictures

Ready-made pictures to print or show in a PowerPoint to accompany retelling activities in The Colors and Shapes of Language

Ready-made pictures to print or show in a PowerPoint to accompany retelling activities in Developing Metacognitive Skills

Story Retelling Rubric
Rubric for evaluating story retelling
Syllable Division Steps

Use these steps to guide syllable division and help students read longer words with ease.

Text Complexity

Use this guide to evaluate text complexity of both literary and infomrational text so that you can scaffold student understanding of complex text.

Word Bingo

Word Bingo is an activity in Multisensory Grammar. Enter a list of 24 words and generate 22 unique bingo cards and a scrambled list of your words. Great for word origin and parts of speech practice.
Open/Download Word Bingo Card Generator (Excel)

Word Profiles

Word profiles including syllables, phonemes, letters, graphemes, syllable types, origin, derivatives and figurative language can be used with the passages from Practices for Developing Accuracy and Fluency or as a guide for general vocabulary building. Use the Word profile form for in-depth study of words and keeping your own personal dictionary.

Words for Webs

This is a list of suggested semantic webs, multiple meaning webs, and derivative webs to be used in conjunction with stories in Practices for Developing Accuracy and Fluency.
Print the Word Web Wizard and use it with web forms from Developing Metacognitive Skills.

Word Webs and Charts

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When reading intervention is required for getting a student back on track, Neuhaus Education Center provides teachers with knowledge for why students are struggling and how to reach them, using classroom-ready tools and resources for actionable solutions. It's an intentional investment in reading success that ensures Literacy for All.

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What Is Phonological Awareness?

It's a big term, but it's really quite basic: phonological awareness is the ability to hear and identify the various sounds in spoken words.

Kids who have strong phonological awareness can do things like rhyme, count syllables, and blend sounds into words. And most important of all, kids with strong phonological awareness learn to read much more easily, making their first attempts at reading more successful. This early advantage sticks with kids as they continue through their school career.

Phonological awareness is so incredibly important that it is one of the Big Five Skills for pre-readers, and it's one of the first things I work on with children before teaching them to read.

How Phonological Awareness Develops

Kids don't just pop out of the womb ready to run (although with some kids it may feel that way!). Instead, babies learn to stretch their little limbs, turn over onto their bellies, crawl, and walk-and then, eventually, they are off and running.

In the same way, phonological awareness develops gradually over time. Kids start with the easiest skills-like understanding that spoken language contains words-and then move on to skills like rhyming. Eventually they develop more advanced skills like manipulating sounds and are able to play word games like " Go Find It."

Quick Check for Phonological Awareness

Here are six skills that indicate that your child is phonologically aware.

Your child is able to rhyme. If you say the word , your child can respond with words that rhyme like , or .

Your child understands word boundaries. If you say the sentence Don't let the cat out , your child is able to separate the sentence into five individual words.

Your child can clap syllables. If you say , your child knows to clap once. If you say , your child knows to clap three times.

Your child can blend sounds to make a word. If you say the sounds , your child can respond and say the word .

Your child can identify the beginning sound in a word. If you ask your child to say the first sound in , your child is able to respond with the sound /p/.

Your child can identify the ending sound in a word. If you ask your child to say the last sound in the word , your child is able to respond with the sound /m/.

Of course there are more advanced phonological skills, such as segmenting and sound manipulation, but the skills above are the important ones to have before beginning reading instruction.

6 Fun Ways to Develop Phonological Awareness!

If your child hasn't yet acquired the skills on the checklist above, you can help her develop them through informal activities such as listening to great books and playing oral language games. Here are a few ideas for you!

Help your child hear the first sound in a word with our free "Go Find It" game.

This engaging phonological awareness activity is a great way to help your child learn to identify the beginning sound in a spoken word.

Practice word boundaries with building blocks.

Say a sentence such as My puppy has long ears. Have your child build a tower by adding one block for each spoken word.

Practice sound substitution with our free "Dinner Time" game.

In addition to helping kids practice sound substitution and rhyming, this fun game will provide lots of giggles for kids and parents alike!

The majority of a young child's day should be filled with play, real-life activities, and physical exploration. Add in just a touch of daily intentional instruction in the five reading readiness areas (including phonological awareness), and your child will have a huge advantage when it comes time to read.

Phonological Awareness Is One of the Big Five Skills

Phonological awareness is one of the five critical skills for reading readiness that we call the " Big Five Skills." The other four skills are:

If you're ready to tackle the rest of the Big Five Skills, be sure to check out the All About Reading Pre-reading program. Your student will enjoy special games, crafts, and story time read-alouds, and you will love the way your student effortlessly learns essential pre-reading skills.

Do you have any questions about print awareness? Post in the comments below!

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Fun Ways to Develop Phonological Awareness (+FREE Downloads!)

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Phonological awareness helps children learn to read more easily. Check out our free download and learn how to help your child develop this important skill!

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Having a kindergarten stamping station has always been a fun treat for my students.

I made my first stamping unit in October of 2011! WOW! It has undergone a few revisions over the years, but we still love it.

Reading and Phonics Stamping

The students can stamp sight words (this page is editable so you can add your own words.)

Stamping Phonics

This is part of the phonics set of stamping activities. These are the skills included in this set:

* Phonics STAMPING Center ~ Beginning Sounds!
* Phonics STAMPING Center ~ Blends!
* Phonics STAMPING Center ~ CVC Short Sounds!
* Phonics STAMPING Center ~ Digraphs!
* Phonics STAMPING Center ~ Long Vowels and Vowel Teams
* Phonics STAMPING Center ~ Ending Sounds!

You can see the Phonics stamping bundle activities HERE.

Math Stamping

These Number stamps are awesome and I get them HERE.

Thematic Stamping

You can find this series of stamping activities HERE!

Storing the stamps

You can store the stamps in their original container or move them over to a case like this one. I got this in the fishing section of WalMart.

I have not found this specific bin, but you can see if this one might work.
ArtBin
Click HERE to see my stamping words files.

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Kindergarten Stamping Center ideas for the win!

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Having a kindergarten stamping station has always been a fun treat for my students. I made my first stamping unit in October of 2011! WOW! It has undergone a few revisions over the years, but we still love it. The students can stamp sight words (this page is editable so you can add your own words.)

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Sight Words, Reading, Writing, Spelling & Worksheets

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Hangman is another timeless game we've all play one time or another. This classic game can also assist a child in obtaining a sight word vocabulary. This is a fun game that can reinforce the sight words you child is currently learning.

Create Sight Word Hangman

Sight word hangman is a very affordable game that can be quickly created within seconds using a piece of paper and pen. You could also use our templates below. Using Dolch's pre-primer sight words, we created 5 hangman games. We segregated his words based on the number of letters and for obvious reasons, we excluded two words, "I" and "a."

Play Sight Word Hangman

Prior to playing hangman, review each sight word. In addition, review the letters of the alphabet, specifically, the name, sound and form. For example, point the letters, "Aa" and ask the following questions:

What letter is this?

What sound does it make?

If your child is interested review the entire alphabet. Also, teach your child that every word must contain a vowel.

Hangman Strategy:

1. Find the vowels, e.g., "a", "e", "i", "o" or "u" (and sometimes "y").

2. Select very common or common consonants. The table below lists the consonants and their frequency.

Sight word hangman games are easy to play and many will win. Hopefully, your child wins the game, enhances their sight word vocabulary and has fun! Playing sight word games, like hangman helps a child automatically recognize high frequency words in an enjoyable and entertaining environment.

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Hangman is another timeless game we've all play one time or another. This classic game can also assist a child in obtaining a sight word vocabulary. This is a fun game that can reinforce the sight words you child is currently learning. Create Sight Word Hangman Sight word hangman is a very affordable game that [...]

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Memorization wrong path to proficiency in spelling

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Memorization wrong path to proficiency in spelling

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This is an article from the Houston Chronicle written by Suzanne Carreker.

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The recent article by Chronicle reporter Ericka Mellon about how schools are dropping weekly spelling tests in favor of teaching methods that focus less on memorization and more on understanding why and how words are constructed has created quite a stir. The article prompted letters to the editor and an editorial supporting the more traditional approach.

Noah Webster, noted lexicographer, once wrote, "Spelling is the foundation of reading and the greatest ornament of writing." Webster's quote so succinctly captures the importance of spelling instruction. Students' spellings provide insight as to how well students are connecting sounds to reliable patterns in the language. Students who have a sense of how the language works spell more accurately and use more sophisticated words. The trick is how to provide students with instruction that will lead to improved spelling.

The goal of spelling instruction is to heighten students' consciousness of sounds in words and frequently recurring patterns that spell those sounds. Reliable spelling patterns need to be taught. This instruction is enhanced by teaching students about the origins of words.

A common misconception about English is that the language is hopelessly irregular and the only way to learn to spell the language is to memorize it. However, memorization is not the key to spelling proficiency.

First, English is not as irregular as it may seem. Approximately 50 percent of English can be spelled by knowing simple sound-letter correspondences. Another 37 percent is regular except for one sound, as in "knit" or "doubt" or "team." When word origins are factored into the mix, such as Greek words that spell "f" as "ph" (photograph, philodendron), only 4 percent is truly exceptional.

A second argument against memorization is that recent research does not support spelling as a rote, visual-memory skill. For example, studies have shown that students spell perfectly regular words (stamp, went, think) better than words of the same length and frequency that are not perfectly regular (said, they, there). If spelling proficiency were based solely on visual memory, students would spell all those words equally well.

Think about the last time you tried to spell a word that you could not remember how to spell. Undoubtedly, you sounded out the word and matched letters to those sounds. Once you had the word on paper, you looked at it and assessed whether or not it looked right.

What you did to spell that less-than-familiar word is what current reading research advocates for students learning to spell. Research suggests that students must perceive the sounds in spoken words (you did that as you sounded out the unfamiliar word). Students then must appreciate that the sounds are represented in printed words with letters (you demonstrated this understanding as you wrote down your approximation of the word).

With the understanding of sounds and letters, students can sound out unfamiliar words. More importantly, students begin to build words in memory (when you decided your spelling looked right, you were comparing your spelling to spellings of similar words you held in memory). Words held in memory can be instantly retrieved and are remembered because sound-letter connections have been made, not because the words have been memorized.

Spelling errors can help teachers make informed instructional decisions that will improve students' spelling. Going beyond "right" or "wrong" spellings provides the best measures of students' spelling achievement and understanding of language structures. For example, the student who spells "celebrate" as "selebrate" has greater spelling knowledge than the student who spells "celebrate" as "salaprat."

The American Federation of Teachers ( www.aft.org) provides two helpful articles on spelling and informed spelling instruction: "How Words Cast Their Spell" and "How Spelling Supports Reading."

Whether or not it is right or just, assumptions about a person's levels of literacy and intelligence are often based on spelling proficiency. Spelling instruction that is informed by knowledge of language structures, not based on mere memorization, greatly improves spelling proficiency.
Carreker is vice president of research and program development for the Bellaire-based Neuhaus Education Center.

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Memorization wrong path to proficiency in spelling

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The recent article by Chronicle reporter Ericka Mellon about how schools are dropping weekly spelling tests in favor of teaching methods that focus less on memorization and more on understanding why and how words are constructed has created quite a stir. Students' spellings provide insight as to how well students are connecting sounds to reliable patterns in the language.

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The "onset" is the initial phonological unit of any word (e.g. c in cat) and the term "rime" refers to the string of letters that follow, usually a vowel and final consonants (e.g. at in cat). Not all words have onsets. Similar to teaching beginning readers about rhyme, teaching children about onset and rime helps them recognize common chunks within words. This can help students decode new words when reading and spell words when writing.

From the Florida Center for Reading Research, download and print these activities:

These articles offer suggestions for how to use simple onset and rime activities to help students develop phonological awareness.

Construct-a-word: "ig" in Pig. The link below outlines a strategy that can be adapted to teach different onset and rime word patterns. This activity helps teachers isolate and teach the rime "ig" using the book If you Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff. There is an instructional plan that accompanies the activity and extension ideas included to advance the learning process.
See example >

Download blank templates

See the link below for more help building word families using onset and rimes.

Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (1996). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Chard, D., & Dickson, S. (1999). Phonological Awareness: Instructional and Assessment Guidelines.

Ellis, E. (1997). How Now Brown Cow: Phoneme Awareness Activities.

Goswami, U., & Mead, F. (1992). Onset and rime awareness and analogies in reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 2, 153-162.

Wise, B. W., Olson, R. K., & Treiman, R. (1990). Subsyllabic units as aids in beginning readers word learning Onset-rime versus post-vowel segmentation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 4, 1-19.

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The "onset" is the initial phonological unit of any word (e.g. c in cat) and the term "rime" refers to the string of letters that follow, usually a vowel and final consonants (e.g. at in cat). Not all words have onsets.

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Today I'm sharing a fun round up of sight word activities to try at home!
(This post contains affiliate links.)
Is your child resisting those sight word flash cards? I've got good news.

You don't need them!

Try one of these simple ways to practice sight words. These are all fun, creative ways to learn with minimal set up. Have fun!

1. Get a free printable Tic Tac Toe board and learn sight words four different ways. I love the variety in this post! (Finding the Teachable Moments)

2. Here's one of our favorites: write the sight words on sticky notes and slap them with a fly swatter. (Hands on As We Grow at PBS Kids)

3. Play "Where's the Bear?" with Dixie cups. (Sprinkles to Kindergarten)

4. Make a sight word parking lot! (Juggling with Kids)

5. Write sight words on sticky notes and use small toys as learning props. Brilliant! (Kids Activities Blog)

6. Get a free printable and play Roll a Sight Word. (I Can Teach My Child)

7. Play a sight word game with a muffin tin. (Growing Book by Book)

8. Circle sight words with bottle cap stamps. (Sugar Aunts)

9. Make popsicle stick sight words. (This Reading Mama)

10. Enter the words you want to practice, and print a set of free sight word dominoes! (Sight Words)

P.S. We love learning to spell our sight words with this fun CD collection.

P.P.S. I highly recommend this app for learning sight words.

More freebies!

&

© 2015 - 2017, Anna G. All rights reserved.

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10 simple sight word activities - The Measured Mom

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Today I'm sharing a fun round up of sight word activities to try at home! (This post contains affiliate links.) Is your child resisting those sight word flash cards? I've got good news. You don't need them! Try one of these simple ways to practice sight words.

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Jump to navigation

A lot or a little?

The parents' guide to what's in this app.

Kids can learn new vocabulary words, pronunciations, and detailed definitions of words they may have already heard or read with Spelling Bee. Then kids spell those words on the app's test. Kids can discover their current learning level in vocabulary by choosing a level and seeing if they are below, at, or above that level and adjusting the app's settings accordingly. The app offers good general practice, but is not particularly engaging. Spelling Bee's overall value is limited because kids can't input their own words as they can in higher-quality spelling apps.

Numerous settings allow users to choose quiz size (five, 10, or 20 questions); level (beginner, easy, medium, or hard); timer on or off; and vibrate on or off.

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Jump to navigation The parents' guide to what's in this app. Kids can learn new vocabulary words, pronunciations, and detailed definitions of words they may have already heard or read with Spelling Bee. Then kids spell those words on the app's test.

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Resources | Florida Center for Reading Research

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All About Spelling Program App: Letter Tiles

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All About Spelling Program App: Letter Tiles

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Our Letter Tiles app lets you build words, divide words into syllables, and hear the sounds of the phonograms. Just choose your program from the menu ( All About Reading or All About Spelling) and select which lesson number you are currently teaching. The appropriate letter tiles for that lesson will appear, making it easy for you to teach and easy for your student to learn.

The Letter Tiles app is specially designed for use with the All About Reading and All About Spelling programs.

Benefits for You:

Takes the place of the physical letter tiles and magnetic white board

So simple to use-just select which lesson your child is working on, and the tiles you need are automatically displayed

Letter tiles help you explain reading and spelling concepts very clearly

Saves your place between sessions

No more worries about lost letter tiles!

Easily teach lessons "on the go"

Benefits for Your Child:

Easily build and divide words for painless decoding

Drag and drop letter tiles from the bottom storage area onto the workspace

Color-coded letter tiles make it easy to see the role that each type of letter plays in a word

Listen to clearly enunciated phonogram sounds

Capitalizing words is a breeze!

The Letter Tiles app is intuitive to use, and it's a fantastic companion to the All About Reading and All About Spelling programs.

Choosing Questions

Can I see the features of the app?

Sure! Check out these tutorials:

Basic Features:

Advanced Features:

Purchasing Questions

Will the app work on my tablet?

The app is available for these tablets:

iPad: We are supporting all iPads released in 2013 to current models which are updated to iOS 13 and later.

Android tablet: We are supporting all tablets running Android version 5.0 to the most current model.

Amazon Fire: We are supporting most tablets since 2014 that are updated to FireOS 5 or later.

Do I have to purchase this twice to install it on multiple devices?

If all of your devices are associated with the same app store account, you can buy once and install the app on multiple devices. However, if your devices are associated with different accounts, each of those accounts will need to purchase the app in order to download.

If you are purchasing for different types of devices, you would need to purchase for each type of device. One app store purchase cannot transfer to another app store. For example if you purchase for iPad, you will need to purchase again for Android or Amazon Fire.

Is this the same app I got for free when I ordered?

No, these are two different apps:

The Phonogram Sounds App remains free-you can download it here. You can use this to help reinforce the sounds you are teaching or to learn the sounds before you teach them.

The Letter Tiles App is a movable tiles app that can be used in place of the physical Letter Tiles on days that you want to take reading or spelling on the go.

Troubleshooting

One of the features isn't working for me:

First, double-check that you have the latest version of the app downloaded. If your device is not set to automatically update apps, you will need to update the Letter Tiles app from the app store on your tablet. If that doesn't fix the issue, please contact us at support@allaboutlearningpress.com. We'll work with you to get this resolved!

How can I use this with the first edition of AAR 1? I don't want to select "All Tiles."

The easiest thing to do is just to bump up the lesson by 2 lessons (that works all the way until Lesson 48), or to simply choose the final lesson in level 1 if you want all of the level 1 tiles to show up. Here is a more exact correlation between the first edition tiles and the second edition tiles:

Lessons 1 and 2 tiles are the same.

Lesson 3: use tiles from lesson 4

Lessons 4-47: add 2 to your lesson number (use "6" for 4, "8" for 6..."22″ for 20).

Lesson 48: use 52

Can I use this with the first edition of AAR 2?

Yes you can. The easiest thing to do is just to bump up the lesson by 2 lessons (that works all the way until Lesson 42), or to simply choose the final lesson in level 2 if you want all of the level 2 tiles to show up. For a more exact match, here's a correlation chart:

Lessons 1 and 2 have the same tiles in both editions.

Lessons 3-9: use the lesson that is +1 (so for 3, use lesson 4, for 9, use lesson 10...)

Lessons 10-41: use the lesson that is +2

Lessons 42-51: +6

Other App Questions

Can you "save your place" for 2 separate children at different levels?

If one is using reading and the other is using spelling, when you toggle back to each subject, it will save the last lesson you referenced.

If both children are using just one of the programs, you'll simply need to select the lesson you want to work on from the dropdown menu and you're ready to go. It's really easy to switch between students.

Returns

If you are not satisfied with your app purchase from us we'd like to help! You can contact us for help with using our apps or if you're having trouble getting the app to work on your device. We'll do our best to help you get the most out of our apps. However if you would still like to return the app for a refund, you can follow the following guide for the store you purchased from.

All information on this page is subject to change without notice.

To get a refund from the Apple Store for iOS app purchases:

1. Find your receipt in your email by searching for "Your receipt from Apple."

2. Find the product name "Letter Tiles for Learning" and then click "Report a Problem."

3. Follow the onscreen steps.

This is usually the simplest method, but there are more methods listed in the Apple Store.

The iTunes Terms and Conditions specifically state that all sales are final. They do make some exceptions. Claims must be made within 90 days. You should hear back from Apple within a week as to whether your request for a refund is approved.

To get a refund from Google Play for an Android app purchase:

You can only return an app or game for a refund once. If you buy it again you will not be able to get a refund. If a refund is issued you will lose access to the item.

To request a refund within the first 48 hours of purchase:

1. Open a web browser (like Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) on your computer, tablet, or phone.

2. Copy https://play.google.com/store/account and paste it into the address bar of the web browser. Make sure this is in a web browser and not the Google Play Store app. You can't request a refund in the Google Play Store app.

3. Scroll down to "Order History" and find the order you want to return. To the right of the order, select More

4. Select Report a problem.

5. Choose the option that describes your situation, complete the form, and say that you would like a refund.

6. You will see a message saying "thank you for sharing your concerns." Later you will receive an email about your refund (often within 15 minutes).

To request a refund after the first 48 hours of purchase:

Please email us at support@allaboutlearningpress.com with the following information:

1. The app you're using.

2. The order ID number from the original receipt.

3. The issue you're having.

4. The response you'd like. For example, mention whether you'd like help fixing the issue or would like a refund for your purchase.

We are able to refund purchases made through Google Play within the last year.

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Our Letter Tiles app lets you build words, divide words into syllables, and hear the sounds of the phonograms. Just choose your program from the menu ( All About Reading or All About Spelling) and select which lesson number you are currently teaching.

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All about Spelling Program: Phonogram App

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All about Spelling Program: Phonogram App

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Use this free program on your computer, tablet, or phone. This app features clear pronunciation of the sounds of the phonograms (letters and letter combinations). Hear all 72 of the basic phonograms as taught in All About Reading and All About Spelling.

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All About Spelling Program: Letter Sounds A to Z App

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All About Spelling Program: Letter Sounds A to Z App

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No, we have three different apps:

The Phonogram Sounds app is a free app that is included with our programs. Use the app to reinforce the sounds with your child as you are teaching or to learn the sounds before you teach them.

The Letter Sounds app is a free app for beginning learners that can be used to teach the first sound for each letter in the alphabet.

The Letter Tiles app is a movable tiles app that is available for purchase for use in place of the physical Letter Tiles, or on days that you want to use reading or spelling on the go. The Letter Tiles app is available for tablets only.

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No, we have three different apps: The Phonogram Sounds app is a free app that is included with our programs. Use the app to reinforce the sounds with your child as you are teaching or to learn the sounds before you teach them.

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All About Spelling Program: Homophone Machine App

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All About Spelling Program: Homophone Machine App

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Our Homophone Machine app is an engaging learning tool that lets kids explore those tricky words that sound the same, like their and there. Just type any word, sentence, or paragraph into the Homophone Machine—and have a good laugh at the silly sentences you create!