Spelling Words

We are still alive!  Life has been more than a little busy and I'm not really sure what I want to do with this blog, but for now, I might use it as a place to share ideas that we come across that seem to be working for us.  Sweet Pea is fully included in the 1st grade now and she is doing very well.  She has her struggles, but she is blessed with a great team and we are all working together to try to give her the educational support that she needs to be successful.

Spelling tests have been a major issue for us.  At first the tests weren't modified at all.  Full number of words (10), same complex sentence, everything was the same as every other student.  This did not work for Sweet Pea and she had almost no success with them.  We have started implementing different ideas over the course of the school year and I feel like we are finally getting traction.

What is working:

• We have shortened her list to only 6 words.
• Letter blocks to show general outline of words (you will see this used in the video).
• Her sentence is simpler and shorter.
• Her sentence is tested by:
• using word blocks that she picks from including punctuation
• then she copies the sentence that she created from the word blocks

We also have been creating videos to help her practice both her sight words and spelling words.  I used to make them all myself, but after hearing that she could use the app Explain Everything on the classroom iPad, I thought I would incorporate her into this weeks video.  Here is the final outcome and she is very proud of it!

A great program that we have also enjoyed using is Spelling City which is accessible via both their website and an iPad app.

Hope this helps others!