first grade spelling

I think I've figured out Sparkle's weekly spelling lists. Each list has ten words plus one bonus words.

The first five words on the list come from a high frequency word list. The school has a list of high frequency words with five words for each week. The list probably doubles for reading as well as spelling.

The second five words on the list are from a word family. All five words have the same basic ending, but a couple of the words also have a suffix, like 'ed.'

The bonus word is one of those motivational words. There is a big display near the entrance of the school with these words in big letters.

We practice these spelling words using the same method that we used for spelling. We analyze the spelling of each word, and then I dictate sentences using the words. Any misspelled words are analyzed again and Sparkle uses them in an original sentence.

Although the spelling load is light for Sparkle, I don't feel the need to supplement much. The high frequency words are good practice because they are high frequency and present a variety of spelling rules/patterns. The word families are okay, but at least a few of them have a suffix that we can discuss. The bonus word is usually multi-syllabic so it provides practice analyzing a longer word and doubles as vocabulary study.

(Oh, and that not supplementing much, well, when making dictation sentences sometimes I have to use a harder to spell word to create a sentence that makes sense. If she gets it, great. If not, then great, another chance to learn something.)