Friday, May 1, 2009

Free Spelling Curriculum

Good Afternoon friends,

Thank God it's Friday! I don't know about you, but by the end of the week I am ready for a break! What my family and I like to do is concentrate on 4 days of assigned learning, and leave our Fridays for field trips, book club, fun learning games and nature study. That said, we do our Spelling test and Math first thing in the morning and then the fun begins!

Are you looking for free spelling curriculum? I've come across a few sites that I really like and I'd like to pass those sites on to you.

The first site is http://www.splashesfromtheriver.com/spelling/index.htm

This site uses the Basic Cozy Spelling Course, and according to the website, it's geared for children in grades 6-8. This course has been used in public school for grades 7, 8, and 9 so it can also be used for slightly older children. The thing I really like about this site is that it includes the course outline, and also clear instructions on teaching spelling rules. This site also includes dictation exercises that accompany the spelling lessons (very nice :-) ).

The other site my children and I really like is http://www.spellingcity.com/

From the site:
SpellingCity.com has:
- Over 42,000 spelling words and ten spelling games!
- A REAL person who says each vocabulary word and sentence
- Free home pages for teachers and parents so they can save their lists.
- How To Videos to explain to teachers and parents how to use SpellingCity.com.
- A free forum and newsletter with more spelling resources!
- Ten spelling and vocabulary games to play online or to print.

After taking the online spelling test, students can print out a report, retake the entire test, or get tested only on spelling words that they got wrong the first time.

TeachMe spells and displays the word in ways that stimulate memory for visual and verbal learners.

Printable Games include WordSearch, UnScramble, WhichWord?, Sentence UnScramble and MissingLetter.

Printable Handwriting Worksheets for combined spelling and handwriting practice can be created from any saved list (this feature only works if the list is saved). Choices includes three sizes of lines, capitals or small letters, script or cursive, and with directional arrows on or off. How cool is that?

We have been using spelling city for about a year, and we all love it! We can use the lists that are online, or I can take spelling words from the books they are reading (or from the Basic Cozy Spelling Course) and save my own list for the children to use.

If you know of any other really good free spelling curriculum, please post your suggestions for all to see. Thanks and have a great weekend!

3 comments:

  1. My kids love Spelling City, too! We use the games for review. What I love is that I can type in a customized list, so they can work on their current spelling words for the week, and they enjoy the game format. SC will even dictate a test when I need that, too.

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