Fundations

During our literacy block in the classroom, students have been focusing on a number of different spelling rules that come up in both our reading and writing.  As we practice words following this pattern, we continue to increase our fine motor and handwriting skills using the plane, sky, grass, and worm lines.  Here is a brief overview of what we covered in November and December and will continue practicing in January.

Students have learned about the floss rule and have learned that when we come to a one syllable word with a short vowel sound in the middle, and the word ends with f, l, or s, we have to double it. We call this letter a bonus letter.  Some common words that follow this pattern are miss, cuff, hill, puff, bill, kiss.

The class has been introduced to suffixes, and in particular the suffix that creates a plural word.  After learning about base words, students began to spell words and understand the meaning of the -s at the end of a word.  Examples include: chicks, bells, bats, ships, etc.

We have also been  building our knowledge of glued sounds. A glued sound (which you might see your child putting a box around) is one in which the letters carry their own sounds but are difficult to separate - hence they're 'stuck together.'  Last week, our focus was on -ing, -ang, -ung, -ong, sounds, while next week we will be looking at -ink, -ank, -unk, -onk glued sounds. Previously, the students were introduced to the -all, -am and -an sounds.