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For information:
Fred W. Duckworth, Jr.
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Invented spelling
At this level, encourage her learner to spell words the way they sound, which is called invented or inventive spelling. For example, your child may spell the word cat by writing ct.
Children usually start writing with consonants and beginning sounds first because these sounds are more distinct than vowels and ending sounds. When children use invented spelling, they are showing their knowledge of the sounds letters make.
Research shows that letting children use invented spelling as they begin to write allows them to focus on the purpose of writing: communication. As they learn the rules of spelling, they begin to apply them and make the transition to conventional spelling.
By the end of kindergarten your child will have learned to spell:
- Consonant-vowel-consonant words such as bat and fan
- His or her own name
What will my kindergartner learn about handwriting?
Since kindergartners' fine motor skills are still developing, initially introduce handwriting through a variety of tactile (how it feels) approaches.
Typical activities include writing letters in finger paints, in a box of salt, or in sand. You may also have your learner(s) write letters in mid-air with a finger or trace the letters at the blackboard or on paper.
Teach your learner how to hold a pencil correctly and begin instruction on how to form letters by teach the child to write the letters in his or her name. Have the student practice writing upper- and lower-case letters of the alphabet, learning how to correctly shape and space them.
You may want to teach how to write a letter as you teach the sound it makes. Teach an awareness of the fact that we write from left to right and from top to bottom.
Putting it all together
In addition to the mechanics of letters and sounds, teach your kindergartner(s) why people write. Read different types of writing aloud and discuss why the author wrote it.
Show students (make them aware of) how they use writing throughout the day for a variety of purposes: labeling a graph in math, writing a thank-you note to a class visitor, recording the results of a science project. Provide simple opportunities for students to use writing for real-life purposes.
You may wish to begin the morning with a shared writing activity in which the class brainstorms a sentence or two to write about the day. Write the sentences on a white board or on chart paper while your learner(s) follow along and give suggestions. As you write, you might model how to sound out a word or when to use a capital letter. As an extension to this activity, other skills can be addressed such as punctuation, prefixes and suffixes.
You may also want to have your kindergartners write in journals each day. At the beginning of the year, your students made need to draw pictures or write random letters. But by the end of kindergarten, they will hopefully be using invented spelling to write short sentences that tell a story or describe their experiences.
http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/ca/492
Let the Sun Shine on Spelling!
Now that your child is ready for first grade, spelling becomes an important part of the language arts experience. In kindergarten, your child experimented with "inventive" or "temporary" spelling, and will continue to do that during the first grade year as well. Yet your child will also begin to learn certain conventions of spelling, as well as how to correctly spell basic sight words. You will soon see your child begin to use some of the spelling words in his/her writing, along with many "practice" spellings. This is the necessary transition that occurs in the writing process; as more words and skills are committed to memory, they begin to replace some of the purely phonetic spellings. That doesn't mean your child will spell every word correctly before second grade, however!! Your child will still continue to use his/her phonics skills to spell unknown words, but will be responsible for using spelling words correctly.
Each Monday, your child will bring home a spelling list for the week, as well as an accompanying assignment that will help him/her learn to spell the new words. Generally, the words will follow a pattern or incorporate a newly-learned spelling skill, such as the short vowel "a" or the digraph "ch." Most weeks a new RED word will be introduced. These are basic sight words which do not fit the conventions of spelling and simply must be memorized. In addition, there will be simple sentences using the spelling words from the current and previous lists that your child will need to practice. Your child will then have the weekly spelling test on Friday on all of the spelling words. He/she will also be asked to write ONE of the sentences, remembering to use a capital letter in the beginning and punctuation at the end. Your child will usually receive his/her spelling test back that day, and I will simply rewrite any misspellings, and each child will receive a sticker. All children will be congratulated on his/her effort, but you as parents can reinforce those words which were missed.
To help your child study the spelling words, have your child write the word several times. Saying the word and then spelling it orally is also good practice. Have your child try writing the spelling word in one color, then over it in another color, and so on. Your child can practice writing the words on a chalkboard, with Play-doh, using magnets on the refrigerator, etc. Looking for small words within larger ones and pointing these out to your child is another good strategy, such as seeing the word "in" in "chin." Spelling the words in a sing-song, rhythmic way also helps! In school, your child will learn two strategies for spelling. For the phonetically-correct words (those that can be sounded out or fit a spelling rule), we learn to "finger spell" the word. The teacher "throws" the word to the student, who "catches" it and then says each sound as he/she extends one finger. When all sounds have been said, the fingers are put together and the word itself is said. For the sight words which do not fit a pattern, your child is told they are "rule breakers" and it is another part of the brain which remembers these! Then we "spell the word down our arm!" Beginning at the shoulder for the first letter, moving to the middle of the arm for the middle letters and the hand for the end letters, your child says each letter aloud. Then he/she returns to the shoulder, sweeps the hand down the arm and says the word itself. These little "tricks" help to commit the words to memory! And don't forget the old-fashioned method of practice - flash cards!
When the spelling words are introduced in school on Monday, your child will write each word in his/her Buddy Book which will serve as a spelling reference. Remember to save ALL spelling lists in a special folder or binder...twice yearly we'll have a 100-word spelling test, and having your lists will make reviewing easier! I'll also occasionally give a few bonus words on spelling tests that came from previous lists, so continual review and practice of old spelling words is important!
The following is a list of skills that are introduced as we work through our spelling program. Each list will reflect a spelling rule or skill that we've covered in class, including:
short vowels
C or K in the beginning of a short vowel word
CK at the end of a short vowel word
digraphs - SH TH WH CH PH
silent or "magic" e - long vowels
initial consonant blends (two and three letters)
vowel pairs AI AY EA EE OA OE
TrinityTutors.com
SPELLING
BOOK
These are the 31 Kindergarten Priority Spelling Words we suggest your learner(s) master by the end of the school year:
a
amatbedadgoIislikelook
amatbedadgoIislikelooklovememomnoseethetoyouwe
memomnoseethetoyouwedoanddog itnamecanwillcatyes
anddog itnamecanwillcatyes instop you
stop you Set 1
(Words with the short /a/ sound)
Week 1: am, an, as, at, ax
Week 2: cat, rat, sat, mat, hat
Week 3: bad, mad, pad, sad, lad
Week 4: cap, map, nap, tap, sap
Week 5: bag, wag, tag, rag, gag
Week 6: can, fan, pan, ran, van
Week 7: jam, ham, ram, yam, tam
Week 8: (choose 20 of the previous words to informally test, 4 per day)
Set 2
(Words with the short /e/ sound)
Week 1: bed, red, led, wed, fed
Week 2: den, hen, ten, men, pen
Week 3: jet, let, net, pet, yet
Week 4: beg, leg, peg, keg, egg
Week 5: fell, bell, tell, sell, well
Week 6: nest, test, rest, zest, jest
Week 7: tent, rent, sent, went, bent
Week 8: (choose 20 of the previous words to informally test, 4 per day)
Set 3
(Words with the short /i/ sound)
Week 1: if, it, is, in six
Week 2: sit, hit, bit, fit, lit
Week 3: fin, kin, pin, tin, win
Week 4: fig, big, pig, jig, wig
Week 5: bib, fib, rib, jib, nib
Week 6: hid, did, lid, kid, mid
Week 7: hip, sip, tip, dip, lip
Week 8: (choose 20 of the previous words to informally test, 4 per day)
Set 4
(Words with the short /o/ sound, plus names)
Week 1: on, ox, box, fox, pox
Week 2: got, cot, lot, jot, pot
Week 3: cob, job, mob, rob, sob
Week 4: nod, pod, sod, rod, God
Week 5: log, hog, dog, bog, job
Week 6: hop, pop, top, mop, sop
Week 7: Sam, Bob, Ted, Kim, Jan
Week 8: (choose 20 of the previous words to informally test, 4 per day)
Set 5
(Words with the short /u/ sound)
Week 1: up, pup, cup, us, bus
Week 2: cub, hub, rub, tub, sub
Week 3: dug, mug, tug, jug, hug
Week 4: run, sun, bun, fun, gun
Week 5: cut, hut, nut, but, jut
Week 6: dust, must, rust, gust, just
Week 7: bump, dump, jump, lump, pump
Week 8: (choose 20 of the previous words to informally test, 4 per day)
What should my kindergartner learn about spelling?
Begin by introducing your letter to all the letters of the alphabet early in the year. And, throughout the year, focus on one letter at a time and its sound.
Teach your kindergartner about spelling by connecting the sounds s/he hears in words to their letter representations.
Also, teach your kindergarten the sounds associated with the letters of his or her name.
Do activities that increase the child's awareness of the sounds of the alphabet, such as making a collage of cut-out magazine pictures that begin with a particular letter.
Spelling Activities
There are many different ways to keep spelling fun and interesting for your learner(s). Try to choose a variety of activities each week. Here are some ideas:
~ write the spelling word using different writing utensils: pens, pencil crayons, wax crayons, felt markers, chalk, bingo markers, etc.
~ use your finger to write the spelling word in a pan of sand, rice, pudding, outside in the snow, etc.
~ write the spelling word outside with sidewalk chalk.
~ find the letters for the word in a newspaper, cut out and paste on a new sheet of paper in the correct spelling.
~ use stencils to trace the word then color and decorate.
~ paint the spelling word on a large sheet of paper.
~ make the word out of playdough.
~ write the vowels in a word using a different color.
Spelling in Kindergarten
It is not unusual for some children to get their very first reading and writing experiences in kindergarten, which means that kindergarten instruction typically begins by introducing the letters of the alphabet — the most basic building blocks of writing. Children learn what sounds the letters make, how to form the letters (often studying the sound and form of a letter at the same time), and eventually, how to put the letters together to make words.
Not only do kindergarteners learn about spelling by learning the sounds that letters make in combination with many tactile activities, throughout the year they also participate in activities that help them begin to understand the purpose of writing, such as:
Listening to literature
Participating in shared writing, in which the teacher writes, and students contribute to the story verbally
Doing interactive writing, in which students and teacher compose and write text together
Writing in journals
Kindergarten begins to expand the journey of writing from 'magic writing,' where only the child alone can read it (such as scribbles and pictures) to emergent writing, where their message is readable by most adults."
Spelling Phonetically
Teaching students to spell phonetically helps them to consolidate the skills of reading, writing, and pronouncing words using the sound value of letters, letter groups and syllables. Thus, the child gains tremendously in confidence and knowledge.
The English language has about 44 sounds which are represented in numerous ways using 26 letters of the alphabet; which makes spelling in English a complex task. Nonetheless, me must accept the challenge. So, let’s get to it!
Introducing Sounds: the Order of Presentation
Were we to examine the sounds in alphabetical order, important letters like “o”, “s”, and “t” would be taught too late.
Were we to choose letter formation to determine our order (in which case, “c” would be followed by “o”, “a” would be followed by “d”, then
“g”, which is followed by “q”), letters representing similar sounds could not always be kept apart and confusion might result.. (Examples are “m”/”n” and “b”/”p”.)
Letter frequency calls for the letters that are used most frequently to be presented first. For example, the letters “o”, “s”, “t”, “a”, “r”, “e” are used in 50 percent of words in the English language and are therefore
introduced early.
Reliability order requires us to consider how many different sounds a letter can make. For example, though “s” is very common, it is not very reliable. We can see this in words like “is”, “Asia” and “sure.” On the other
hand, “v” is extremely reliable but not very frequent.
Acombined approach is probably best but each teacher
must decide for him or herself.
Introducing Sounds: the Method of Presentation
There are two important points to remember at this stage:
1. Whenever possible, move from the known to the unknown.
2. Teach the sounds of the letters and not their names.
We will introduce capital and lowercase letters at
the same time, but we will emphasize the lowercase because
they are used in 95 percent of reading materials.
We will also use anchor (mnemonic) words help your child to learn and
retain the initial sound of a word.
When it comes to /i/ we siggest you use “insect” as oppoese to “igloo” since it represents something with which more students are familiar.
We don’t use “X ray” because it doesn’t start with the phonic sound /ks/, and it begins with a capital letter.
To introduce a new letter use a double-sided flashcard that has the anchor picture on one side and the letter on the other. Move from the picture (known) to the sound (unknown), for example, from “apple” to “a”.
We see a learning cycle beginning to take shape: what
David Paul describes as “The Questioning Cycle” (1991).
The child “notices something new” (the apple flashcard);
wonders what it is (ringo? apple?); tries to find out what it is
(“appelu?”); and then “finds out” (“It’s an apple”). She has
now heard and pronounced the target sound (in the word
“apple”) and is ready to move onto letter recognition. Often
a child will give the name of the letter instead of the sound.
To deal with this, I pronounce “apple” as “aypple” and
some bright child always seems to guess the correct sound.
The learning cycle is not yet completed—the next steps
are for her to play with the new language and relate it to her
previous experience, by the use of songs, chants, matching
games, slam games etc., which will link the new language to
what she already knows. The child also practices writing the
letter and we introduce vocabulary extension; this too is playing
with the language. In the final step, the child has learned
the sound and the anchor word and she adds it to her English
language store, ready to be used at any appropriate time.
Blending and Segmenting
Segmenting is the ability to separate words into units of sound. Blending is the ability to join units of sound into words.
Sound blending
Sound blending can be introduced once the children have acquired the vocabulary and phonic sounds.
In the first stage of “speech blending” blend sounds to form single
syllable words, for example, “a-n-t”, “d-o-g”, “c-a-t” and “t-e-n-t”.
Technique: The teacher sounds out any known word and
the students call back the word they hear. Gradually
increase the space between sounds to about one second.
Play “Stand and say”, where the children stand and call
back the word.
Play “picture slam”, where the children find the appropriate
picture and call back the word. Do not use word cards
until the children are aware of and familiar with all the
sounds in use and have some blending skills.
Word building
Put the letter “a” on the board and have the
children read it. Next, put the letter “t” on the board far to
the right of the “a” and have the children read this sound.
Gradually move the letter “a” towards the letter “t” reading
each sound individually but gradually decreasing the time
between sounds until finally you link the two sounds
together into one syllable.
Set up practice activities: use a
column of vowels and move the consonant down the column
as the students read; have the students match pairs of
vowel/consonant cards in concentration, dictate vowel/consonant
“words”, etc.
Use a similar technique to introduce the CVC (consonant-
vowel-consonant) pattern. Next move on to your target
vocabulary and build the words up on the board, as follows:
“a”-”at”-”cat”, “o”-”og”-”dog”, “e”-”egg”, “o”-”ock”-
”sock” etc., using only single syllable words
Auditory processing
Start with the letters “a”, “e”, “I”, “o”, “u”, “b”, “c”,
“d”, “g”, “t”.
Each child should have a set of letter tiles.
Give them the word “cat” and have them make the word using the tiles.
Change one sound at a time and have them form the new words.
Once your learners are proficient with single
sound changes, move up to two sound changes and then
three.
Segmenting
Technique: give the child a picture of a cat and the letter
tiles “a”, “c”, and “t”. The child forms the word “cat”,
sounds it out, turns the tiles over, writes the word in her
notebook, turns the tiles back over to check her spelling and
starts a new set. This activity can also be done by using sets of pictures and letter tiles spread randomly on the table or floor, and having your learner(s) form the words.
Onsets and rimes
Before moving on to teach multisyllable words it is best
to do some work on onsets and rimes. Basically, onsets are
the consonant sounds which come before the vowel in a syllable.
For example, “ant” has a zero-consonant onset, “dog”
has a single-consonant onset, “frog” has a two-consonant
onset and “string” has a three-consonant onset.
Every syllable has a rime. A rime consists of the vowel
sound plus any following consonant or consonants. Rimes
are what we use to form “word families”, for example, the
“at” family: “bat”, “cat”, “fat”, “hat”, “mat”, “pat”, “rat”,
“sat”, “that” and “vat”.
Rather than require students to memorize initial consonant blends and word families we concentrate on teaching individual sounds and blending skills, so as not to confuse the child by overloading his or her memory.
Auditory processing
Start with the letters “a”, “e”, “I”, “o”, “u”, “b”, “c”,
“d”, “g”, “t”.
Each child or group should have a set of letter tiles.
Give the students a word, for example, “cat”, and have the
children make the word using the tiles.
Next, change one sound at a time and have the children form the new words, for example, “cat”- “cut”- “but”- “bet”- “bad”- “tad”- “tid”- “tod”- “bod”- “bid” and so on.
Once your students are proficient in realizing single sound changes, move up to two sound changes and then
three.
Onset-rime activities
1. Odd one out: In this aural onset activity you say, for example, “dog, doll, milk, desk”. Obviously “milk” is the odd one out but it may not be obvious to your students.
2. Onset or rime column: produce a set of cards with a
picture on one side and words on the other, with a space
between the onset and the rime, for example, “c ap”, “c
at”, “p ot”, “d og” and “n ut”.
Cut the card between the onset and the rime. Put the onset cards in a column with the picture facedown (see fig. 1).
The students then add the rimes to form words and then turn the cards over and check the pictures to see if the words are correct. “pot”, “dog” and “nut” will probably be correct but we could easily have half a “cat” and half a “cap” in the other two pictures. The children really enjoy this activity and it is a good activity for concentrating attention on the medial
vowel and final consonant.
3. Tic tac toe using rimes: make a set of rime cards, with
rimes on one side and pictures on the other (see fig. 2 and 3).
Use single syllable words. Initially, the child reads the rime,
turns the card over and completes the word. For example: “edbed”,
“og-dog”. In a more interesting version, the child reads
the rime and guesses the word before turning the card over to
check. So we may have, “ed-bed-bed”, “og-dog-frog” (followed
by laughter).
4. Picture guess: call out the rime and the children stand
and guess the word. For example, the teacher says “at” and
the child stands and says “cat”. The teacher says “That’s
right” or “Sorry, not ‘cat’ but ‘hat’” showing the picture
each time. If the students have more than one teacher, then
it is best to show the rime as you say it, so that the children
don’t become confused by differences in dialect.
By this stage many students will be able to read any single
syllable word that is based on the single letter sounds of
the alphabet, so it is important to give them every opportunity
to practice this new reading skill through the use of picture-
word card games and worksheets. If you want to check
that your students haven’t just memorized the words then
make a set of “monster cards” with pictures of aliens, dragons
or monsters on one side and nonsense words on the
other and use these in your card games (see fig. 4).
Syllables
A syllable is a unit of pronunciation consisting of a
vowel sound alone or with one or more consonant sounds
and pronounced with one impulse of the voice
The word “syllabication” refers to the division of words into syllables;
which is, in my opinion, more of an art than a science.
Syllable awareness activities
1. Sound blending (multisyllable and compound words):
this works in the same way as with single syllable words,
except that words are divided into syllables or words instead
of sounds. Multisyllable words are sounded as follows: “apple,
apple”; “al-bum, album”; “oc-to-pus, octopus”.
Compound words are separated into their component
words: “ant-hill, anthill”; “bed-bug, bedbug”; “egg-cup,
eggcup”. I divide words according to their spelling, which is
why “ap-ple” is used instead of “a-pple”. The students will
relate slow speed with spelling and natural speed with
speaking.
2. Syllable clapping and counting: practice vocabulary
by clapping out the syllables (softly); clap to show intonation.
Ask the children how many syllables or beats there are
in a word.
3. Rime links: this activity is an excellent introduction to
longer words and really builds confidence in young learners.
Have the child take a rime card and read the rime, take
another and read them together, take another and add to the
sequence and so on. For example, “ap”, “apot”, “apotin”
and so on. I string about 30 together and have all the students
try to read the sequence.
4. Word building (multisyllable and compound words):
we can build up the words, on the board, in a number of different
ways for example: “go”-”goril”-”gorilla”, “ril”-
”rilla”-”gorilla” or “la”-”rilla”-”gorilla”. Write words on the
board with spaces between the syllables e.g. “go ril la”, “jac
ket”, “hot dog” and “um brel la”, spacing them according to
their spelling not their pronunciation.
5. Dictation: teach the children the question “How do
you spell...?”. Use your fingers to show the number of syllables
in a word and then sound out the syllables slowly and
clearly. For this activity, it is important to sound out words
as they are spelled and not as they are spoken.
6. The king’s successor: the children stand in a circle with
a king or queen in the center. The king gives out “orders”,
such as “wal-king, wal-king, wal-king” and the children
walk to the beat, while chanting in unison. Continue with
words like “running”, “swimming”, “jumping” etc. making
sure the words are divided at the natural pause.
Homework
The teacher is responsible for setting homework, making
it interesting and checking it. Try designing worksheets for
homework, bearing in mind that your worksheet of the day
should mirror one of your last games or activities, so that
the child can directly relate the homework to what is going
on in the classroom. The importance of homework cannot
be overestimated, only the brightest of children succeed
without it and in our line of business all students need to
succeed.
References
Carmen, W. and L. Amy (1999) Alphabet Starters. Singapore:
International Thompson Asia ELT
Hopkins, F. (1990) Get Ready! Oxford: Oxford University Press
Nakata, R. (1997) Let’s Go Starter. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Nakata, R., K. Frazier and B. Hopkins (1992-1997) Let’s Go series,
Starter-6. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Paul, D. (1991) Finding Out 1: Teacher’s Book. Oxford: Heinemann
Paul, D. (1991a) Finding Out 1: Class Book. Oxford: Heinemann
Paul, D. (1991-1993) Finding Out series, 1-5. Oxford: Heinemann
The author has produced hundreds of worksheets and
posters, which are available free and can be downloaded at
All these worksheets and many others are available on
CD-ROM (Windows and Mac) Asmall donation is requested
to cover costs. If you are interested please contact David
at 9-1,3 Shibushi, Shibushi-cho, Soh-gun, Kagoshima-ken
899-7103
david@minos.ocn.ne.jp Tel/Fax 0994 73 3047
David Lisgo is the owner of West Side English School,
Shibushi, Kagoshima prefecture. He has been teaching in
Japan for 16 years and has a passion for material development.
He is the producer of “Blending a Hand”,
“Switchit” card games and the “Talk About” board
games, all of which are available on CD-ROM and some
of which can be accessed at the above web site.
http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/pdf/low_res_child_reader_K-3.pdf
4
Spelling and Fluency
Fluent readers seldom sound out words letter by letter, even when they encountering words they don’t know, but rather, tend to process them by recognizing letter clusters such as prefixes; suffixes; Latin and Greek root words; and rhimes (the parts of syllables that followed the initial consonants) such as -ight, -on, -ite, and -ake (Ehri, 1992).
For example, given a word such as kite, instead of sounding it out one letter at at time, fluent readers blend the initial /k/ sound with what they know about the sound of the rime -ite.
To help facilitate this kind of reading fluency and to work in concert with the characteristics of good readers, TrinityTutors.com takes an approach to spelling that focuses learners on identifying common letter chunks and recognizing them as “wholes,” thereby providing them with knowledge that they can use to help them not only with spelling, but with decoding as well (Godwami, 1998).
cat
cut
but
bet
bad
tad
tid
tod
bod
bid, etc . . .
