English - Spelling
Following the principals from the Jane Considine Spelling Book program from Year 2 onwards, teaching consists of a combination of investigations and short activities. These activities expore and revist spelling rules and statutory spells for each phase. Teachers teach spelling for fifty minutes per week.
We do not do a weekly spelling test, but teachers will ask children to quick write the 'Go Grapheme Grafters' words from the previous week where time permits.
Spelling is taught in two weekly blocks, with the focus of each week below.
Week 1
- Investigation (30 minutes) Children have a hypothesis to test – they sort words into a table in their books and prove or disprove the hypothesis. Children are expected to write a sentence to conclude their investigation.
- Go Grapheme Grafters (GGG) Teachers share 15 words (taken from the National Curriculum spelling rules and statutory spelling words for the phase) with the class. They sound them out reinforcing the phonics teaching from Key Stage 1. Children identify the sound that has the trickiest grapheme e.g. s = ce or n = gn and together the class identify up to 4 words with the same sound = grapheme combination.
Week 2
Children are given 5 x 10 minute daily activities that revisit a wide range of strategies/ patterns / rules that enable children to make connections between words. Children complete these activities at the back of the book.
