Spelling
Spelling CityThis year, we will be using SpellingCity.com in our classroom. SpellingCity is a website that helps students learn their weekly spelling and vocabulary words while having fun at the same time.
As a teacher, I will put up my weekly spelling lists on SpellingCity and your children can review the words, and play spelling and vocabulary games with their words to reinforce the learning process.
Many kids enjoy building their spelling skills with Spelling City. Please encourage your children to spend about twenty minutes, two nights in a row before their weekly test. Let’s work together as a team to ensure that your child becomes an independent, lifelong learner.
The spelling words in SpellingCity.com are from a program called Word Journeys.
WHAT IS WORD JOURNEYS?
This approach is student-centered interactive, inquiry based and grounded in developmental spelling research. Using assessment as a guide, instruction is based on what children already know as well as an understanding of how spelling develops. Through word sorts, comparing and contrasting words, students learn how words "work" and improve their spelling, decoding skills and are able to more accurately guess the meaning of new words.
WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP MY CHILD BE SUCCESSFUL IN THE WORD JOURNEYS PROGRAM?
Homework will consist of word sorts and other optional activities, however spelling homework is not formally assigned. Students do practice spelling at school, but need the reinforcement of practicing the sorts at home in order to reinforce and internalize the patterns.Students need to sort their words every day. Completing one of the activities below each night will help you to support your child's spelling growth.
- Sort the Words - The day that new words are introduced to you child, look for the refrigerator list. This list is kept at home and shows the main pattern for sorting during the week. Your child will also bring home spelling word cards each day. Make sure that the word cards are sent back to school daily as the children will be using them in both places each day. Practice sorting the words into categories. Have your child tell you how they know in which list the words belong.
- No Peek Word Sort - Lay down the category headers, then read a word aloud to your child. Have your child tell you what category the word goes in without seeing the word. Lay the word down in the category your child chooses, but give them a chance to change their mind if necessary. Repeat with the rest of the words.
- Word Hunt - During the day, students will have time to work on the Word Hunt or a variation of it. They look through books, newspapers, or other reading materials for words that follow the pattern we are studying. Students may finish this task at school, but if not they will need to complete it at home. Ask your child how many words they need to find per pattern and share the words they have found so far with you. Have them explain how each word fits the pattern.
- Blind Writing Sort - Students set up their paper making columns for each of the features being studied. Call out the words randomly. Students should write the word correctly in the correct category. For misspelled words, you should repeat as needed until the word is spelled correctly.
- Spelling City - Click on the link to the left. Have your child find the list they are currently studying. On this site students may play games with their words, type sentences and print the sentences, type a paragraph using spelling words, print a handwriting sheet using the spelling words, or take a practice test. Each activity done on this site counts as one homework activity.
- The Developmental Spelling Assessment (DSA) will be administered three times a year. This is a placement test that indicates what spelling patterns and features your child already knows and helps to clarify where they are in their spelling development.
- Weekly tests will include the words that have been studied.
| Grade Level | Typical Feature Level |
| First Grade | B-F |
| Second Grade | E-H |
| Third Grade | F-J |
| Fourth Grade | H-M |
| Fifth Grade | K-P |
| Sixth Grade | O-T |
