Spelling List and Guide

Parents and guardians,

We are just starting to write our letters appropriately and learning letter sound relationships. I am pushing using correct capitalization, and some of the toughest lowercase letters are b,d,p, and q. What I use in class to help with b,d confusions is this:

  First, I tell them we read from left to right and run my finger across to the letter. Then I ask them, "which comes first, the Butterfinger or the donut?" This helps them put the correct sound to the letter when forming their lowercase letters. 

Also, if yur chiuld iz speleng lik thiz it is okay, and it is called inventive spelling. :) I am looking for it to make sense phonetically, and I am starting to look for vowels in each of their words. Feel free to show them the correct way to spell the words, and as the year progresses they will start learning patterns in words which will help improve their spelling along with spelling rules.

Additionally, please remind your child to make LOWERCASE letters unless it is the first letter of a sentence, a special name, or proper noun (we discuss these in class). 

Here are the Saxon Kindergarten spelling lists that are sent home with your child. The black words are the traditional spelling words that follow our skill, and the blue words are sight words. Feel free to work ahead, however, we learn spelling rules to help them spell. For example, the FLOSS rule we'll learn so they know that two f's, l's, and s's go after a short vowel in a one syllable word  (pass, bill, riff). This is your resource so you can come back and look even if you lose your spelling list that is sent home.

Thank you so much for reading this information and helping your child grow this year.

Saxon Phonics Survival Guide

Saxon Phonics is a proven program to help your child learn how to read and spell. It is a very detailed program with many rules, so to help you know how to help your child I have found a guide you can refer to. We will not learn all of this, but for what we do cover it is detailed in this guide. For example, we code short vowels with a breve, and we know the spelling rule that a vowel followed by a consonant will be short and coded with a breve. Please refer to this anytime work is sent home and you want to know more about a rule or why something is coded a certain way.

Saxon Coding Guide and Spelling Rules

We will not hit all of these skills in kindergarten this year, but this is great to know and have for the future.

I will post more information soon! Thank you again for all of your support this year!

Fluency

As you know, being able to read fluently helps you comprehend text. Fluency is BIG in first grade, so I'm just preparing our children as they are ready. We will be working in the classroom to help increase fluency as your child is ready, however, I know many of you would like to work on it at home. Here are some great activities you can do with your child to help increase their fluency. I will also keep updating this page as I find more resources.

FLUENCY PYRAMIDS

Click to enlarge. Have your child start at the top and read to the bottom. Set a goal and make a game out of it! I bought these off of TeachersPayTeachers.com from the creator Kristen Guyette.

FLUENCY STRIPS

Click to enlarge. I have uploaded all of our silent e skills for your child to practice. You have the option to time them, or you can just use them as practice. I bought these off of TeachersPayTeachers.com from the creator Kristen Guyette.

GAMES

Comic Strip Capers  

This is a game where you are interacting with the story. You must choose which word makes sense with the story. Some words can be tough, but they do define some of the words

Fractured Fairy Tales
In this game students can change a fairy tale. They may need help filling in the boxes. Once they are finished, read and reread with expression.

 LISTENING TO STORIES

Storyline Online

This is a great website where your child can choose a book and hear it read fluently. The only issue I have with this website is that is does not show you the text in the book. So, what you can do is click the "cc" subtitles button on the video. Now your child can hear a fluent reader and can read along!

Helping Your Child READ

As you know, I do believe reading out loud independently is the best way to practice and support reading growth (many ideas are in your homework folder). However, these are some fabulous FREE online resources to engage your child. I've posted before about ways to support reading at home with which level to start with (here is that link), here are the links in order by skill. My goal is for us to have crisp, solid vowel sounds and to be able to recognize blends. This list begins just with letters and sounds. Once your child has mastered sounds, move on to the next! Once your child masters word patterns, move on to the next! Once your child masters reading words and sight words in isolation and in sentences, move on to the next! Then your child is ready to work on reading bigger texts to work on fluency and comprehension.  In class we eventually will be working on "chunks"  for those that are ready so they can start seeing word patterns and actually start reading bigger words. 

Here is a Starfall game to help your child recognize letters and sounds (level 1):

https://www.starfall.com/h/abcs/?mg=m

Here is a fabulous Starfall page with fun games and stories with word patterns (level 2):

https://www.starfall.com/h/ltr-classic/

Here's a Starfall page for children ready to read more sentences with sight words with interactive games (level 3):

https://www.starfall.com/h/fun-to-read/

*includes rhyming, poetry, music, and riddles

Here is a Starfall page with stories to help boost your child's fluency and comprehension (level 4):

https://www.starfall.com/h/im-reading/

IF your child is ready to read multi-syllable words and recognize digraphs:

Here is a link to a Starfall video that shows how to break a word down into chunks:

http://www.starfall.com/n/skills/chunking/load.htm?f

*this is advances for many beginning Kindergarten readers

*Extra games for Kindergarten practice:

https://www.starfall.com/h/index-kindergarten.php

I will continue adding free online resources. If you know some please let me know! 

Help! What is my child's reading level?

One FREE website that has fun, educational games is Starfall. It ranges from levels 1 - 4 to give all readers support (use this link to see the levels 1-4 listed below). For some of us, reading doesn't click until later in the year. For others, we're already reading everything in sight. This website is for everyone and everything in between. Here's my guide to what level your child might be if you're not sure:

1: I am not sure about all of the sounds the alphabet makes. Sometimes I get letters confused and I forget what they look like. When I write I often forget the vowel and have to ask what the letters look like. Between you and me, I don't even know what a vowel is or why they are special!

2: I know my sounds and letters pretty well. I may get a few mixed up (b's and d's come with time for every reader). I'm not even sure which way to read. When I read words, even if I don't know the word, I keep on reading and do not question why it didn't sound right. I sometimes even guess the word!

3: I can feel that I am getting a lot better at reading.  I don't guess words, I always look at all of the letters and make all of the sounds. If I don't know a word I say it slowly until it makes sense. I even change the vowel sounds to see which sound makes sense when I read if the first way didn't work. I may not always get the word the first time, but I try my best and use all of the skills that I know. I am reading word by word and sometimes I do not know what I read at the end of the story because I had to go back and reread some words. I am getting better about rereading to figure out what the story is about, though!

4: I am reading and I am reading fast! I always make sure that the words make sense, I am confident in my ability to read, and I ask if I there's a word that really seems to stump me (or use a resource). I read fast and accurate enough to know exactly what the story I read is about. If I do not understand something I go back and reread.

I hope those descriptions help you and that you know which one is your child. If you're still not sure contact me and I can help you. The only problem I see with using this site is that for established readers it does not ask any questions to gauge whether or not the child understood the story. Remember, this is just one resource to use and there are many out there. Here is the link to the leveled Starfall 1-4 website page: https://teach.starfall.com/lv/resources/information/how-to-read

There is also a phonics progression on http://www.readingbear.org/ that progresses similarly to Starfall. The difference is that is has a quiz at the end of each section and a review. If you notice that your child is only struggling with certain skills you can use the menu on this website to choose those skills to work on.

If you would like suggestions on apps that I like please come ask me! I can show you what I use with my own children. I do truly believe that having your child read independently out loud is the best way to progress.

Hope you found this post helpful!

Sight Word Practice

Hello all! After talking to some of you about how you spend tons of time practicing sight words, I looked and found some resources that can be used in addition to going over the sight words in the homework folder. These websites are kid-friendly and can be an alternative to the traditional way of studying. Now if you are tied up with something your child can still get the practice they need! Also, if your child has already passed off on their words this is a good review and will help them build fluency.

http://www.abcya.com/dolch_sight_word_spelling.htm

http://www.abcya.com/sight_words_recognition.htm

http://www.starfall.com/n/matching/sight-words/load.htm