Order of Units for Reading:
Literacy Lab (fiction reading - Magic Tree House)
including narrative writing, story elements (characters, setting, plot), comparing and contrasting, literal and nonliteral language, and prefixes and suffixes
Weather and Climate (informational reading - weather research)
including informational writing, text features, text structures, facts, asking and answering questions
Traditional Tales (fiction reading focusing on Cinderella and other fables, folktales, and myths)
including narrative writing, story elements (characters, setting, plot, theme), comparing and contrasting, literal and nonliteral language
Sports and Society (informational reading - sports research and text structures)
including opinion writing, text structures, text organization, facts vs. opinions
The following sites are ones that students can use to practice spelling words. Spelling is not an explicit part of our instruction, but these sites can help students improve and build upon Word Work stations in class.
Online Spelling Practice
1) http://www.abcya.com/dolch_sight_word_spelling.htm
This site is primarily for high frequency sight words. There are multiple levels. Feel free to dip below your “grade level” for some reinforcement and extra practice.
2) http://www.abcya.com/spelling_practice.htm
This is a multiplayer game. The words are random, though, and don’t have a pattern or rule.
This site may not be the best, but it has TONS of word lists organized by a rule. Starting in the first grade word lists are your short vowel sounds and it builds from there. You can choose a list and then play games to spell the words on that list. The site isn't too user friendly, but the words are pretty good.
You have a lot of power on the words you practice on this site. You can type up a list of words (i.e. high frequency words, commonly misspelled words, a list of the words from one of the sorts, etc.) and then there are about 10 activities to practice them, including alphabetizing.
5) http://www.wordcentral.com/games/alpha-bot.html
Listen to a word being spoken and click the letters to spell the word. You don’t have control over the words, but there are three levels.
6) http://www.spellingcity.com/
Teachers cannot see the student versions super easily on this site. Let us know what you think!
7) http://www.visualthesaurus.com/bee/
This site seems neat because it is adaptive and it remembers the words you have spelled correctly or incorrectly. BUT, be warned, it starts off with some hard words! You have unlimited guesses to get the word correct, but it might be a bit frustrating at first.