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Category: spelling

Why I Don’t Use Words Their Way for Spelling

Why don’t I use Words Their Way for my sole phonics and spelling curriculum? And why don’t I use Words Their Way for my weekly spelling lists and spelling test? I get this question often. You know that I love Words Their Way. (We now use our own comprehensive phonics

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Chunk Spelling

Spelling is one of those things that EVERYONE has an opinion about and very few people agree on. I think that the best way to learn how to spell is to spend extensive time reading and writing. I also believe that a weekly word list has very little carryover into

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Tic-Tac-Toe Spelling Homework (freebie)

A couple weeks ago I posted about the homework I do with my 2nd graders.  One thing that I send home each week is spelling practice.  The page is set up with a space for the students to write down their 10 spelling words for the week and then there's

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2nd Grade Common Core Morning Work

(See 1st Grade Morning Work here.) **We made a HUGE update to this product. Read about it in this post.** In my classroom, students begin the day by working independently in their morning work books for 10-15 minutes. Trying to design the original version of the morning work book in

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Words Their Way–Resource List

There is a newer Words Their Way post with more information. Click to see it now. I thought it would be nice to have all the Words Their Way resources in one post. I'm also including a link to the sort sequences that I use to organize my binder. Letter

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Words Their Way–Record Book

I finally got around to making a new record book for my Words Their Way groups. My last one lasted me several years, but it was finally full. So here's the newbie. I got the cute clipart from Lettering Delights. I like to keep track of which group is one

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April Fool’s Day!

Ha ha! The joke's on us! We didn't get this posted in time for April Fool's day fun, but hopefully you can get some use out of it regardless. It's a homophone riddle book for your little jokers to complete. Print the pages, cut in half, and staple in order.

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Words Their Way–Word Study

Edited to add: Please see the NEWER POST about WTW that has all this information + much, much more! After all that prep work it’s finally time for the kids to do some learning! With Words Their Way, the focus is on sorting the words. It’s a great way for the

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Words Their Way–Organization

Edited to add: Please see the NEWER POST about WTW that has all this information + much, much more! One of the most helpful bits of WTW advice is something I heard in a workshop: do what you can. If you feel like you can manage 8 different groups with weekly

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Words Their Way–Assessment

Edited to add: Please see the NEWER POST about WTW that has all this information + much, much more! On the last Words Their Way post, Mrs. Ibarra commented: I have a copy of this book, but our Reading program does word sorts and uses them as spelling words too. It

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Words Their Way–Overview

Edited to add: Please see the NEWER POST about WTW that has all this information + much, much more! For all its craziness, the English language is based on patterns. So it makes sense, when we're teaching little ones to read and write, to focus our instruction on those patterns. That's

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