Spelling Concepts

Week 1: Concept, Closed Syllables with Short Vowels.  When a vowel is "closed in" (followed) by a consonant, the vowel sound is short.  This forms a closed syllable.  The short vowels are taught by their mouth positions.  The mouth becomes rounder and opens wider as each vowel is pronounced.  i (key word it) e (key word echo) a (key word ax) u (key word up) 0 (key word odd).  This week's spelling words: bad, hat, am, an, ran, bit, led, gas, ten, six, job, lot, yes, yet, sat, *one, *once, *only
Week 2: Concept, Closed Syllables with Consonant Teams.  Closed syllable- when a vowel is "closed in" (followed) by a consonant, the vowel sound is short.  This forms a closed syllable. Consonant teams- two consonants that make one sound when put together are called consonant digraphs or teams. ch= choo choo team, sh= quiet team, th= bad brothers, wh= birthday team, qu = queen team, ng= king team.  This week's words: thin, shop, thus, wish, dish, fig, cat, rag, sap, than, then, them, this, when, that, *gone, *does, *wash.
Week 3: Concept, Short Vowel/Long Spelling.  Six consonants/consonant teams have long spellings: /f/ - ff, /l/ - ll, /s/ - ss, /k/ - ck, /ch/ - tch, /ge/ - dge.  In a one tap word, or one syllable word with a short vowel just before these sounds, the short vowel is hungry and demands the long spelling.  "One tap word, short vowel, long spelling"  This week's words: shell, fill, ledge, bill, check, edge, wedge, hill, match, rock, off, sell, chill, will, well, *add, *watch, *full.
Week 4: Concept, Complex Ends.  We have learned the pattern of consonant-vowel-consonant in a word.  Now we will learn that a word may be more complex, and end in two or more consonants.  Complex consonants are often referred to as blends.  In FAST we learn you blend the complex consonants for reading, but you segment them for spelling.  This week's words: wind, cost, lost, past, rest, test, west, soft, fact, act, felt, milk, picked, quickly, lifted, *eggs, *buy, *want.
Week 5: Concept, Vowel Suffix Power.  We are learning that vowel suffixes are suffixes that begin with a vowel.  Vowel suffixes are "bullies".  When a vowel suffix is added to a base word ending in a single consonant, the vowel suffix jumps over the consonant and makes the vowel say it's own name.  In order to protect the short vowel sound in the base word, we double the consonant.  This week's words: getting, betting, sitting, sitter, hotter, hottest, fitting, fitted, sunny, humming, hummed, bedding, mapping, mapped, boxer, *pushed, *pulled, *into.
Week 6: Concept, All King Think Words.  We have learned that a closed syllable is one where the vowel is closed in by the consonant(s).  The vowel sound is short in closed syllables.  However, some consonant sounds distort the vowel.  In all and walk, the letter a has a short o sound.  In bank the vowel has a long a sound.  In sing, the vowel sound is a long e sound.  This week's words: call, all, ball, hall, fall, shall, tall, wall, talk, walk, chalk, bank, song, long, thing, *wrong, *among,*length.
Week 7: Concept, Complex Fronts.  We are learning that words can end in two or more consonants, which are called Complex Ends.  Words can also begin with two or more consonants or Complex Fronts.  This week's words:  Fresh, flat, class, grass, glass, crops, cross, drop, dress, step, plan, skin, skim, swim, trip, *any, *anything, *eye.
Week 8: Concept, Vowel Tag,  We are now learning spelling words with more than one syllable.  In order to divide words into syllables, we play vowel tag.  The vowel is running the way we read.  The vowel tags the consonant after it and makes a closed syllable.  This week's words: within, visit, travel, suffix, planets, object, level, finished, itself, hundred, himself, cannot, British, children, happened, *pretty, *woman, *women.
Week 9: Concept, Magnetic Silent E.  When a silent e is added to the end of a closed syllable, it gives away its power and makes the vowel in front of it say its name.  The e, however, stays silent.  This week's words: bones, drive, hole, tone, stone, lake, late, life, line, mile, mine, plane, place, quite, ride, *minutes, *divided, *sometimes.
Week 10: Concept, Magnetic Silent E. When a silent e is added to the end of a closed syllable, it gives away its power and makes the vowel in front of it say its name.  The e, however, stays silent.  This week's words: rope, rule, safe, save, scale, shape, side, size, smile, cube, include, tube, waves, wide, wife, *someone, *clothes, *whose.
Week 11: Concept, Concept Review.  This is a review lesson.  The words for this week share common elements with words that have been previously studied.  This list shows this week's words, and, in parenthesis, the words from earlier lessons.  This assessment will help determine if the students have mastered the spelling concepts in the last 10 lessons.  This week's words: wet, wit, shot, dill, hedge, tact, welt, tapping, stalk, drag, grasp, banish, date, nine, hive.
Week 12: Concept, Open Syllables and Prefixes.  We have learned that an open syllable is one that ends in a vowel.  The vowel can run a long way.  It is very proud, so it says its own name or a long sound.  Prefixes are parts that are added to the beginning of a word to change the word's meaning.  This week's words include these prefixes: be-, de-, ex-, pro-, and re-.  This week's words:  go, she, so, we, also, belong, became, beside, describe, developed, exactly, express, provide, result, relent, *idea, *little, *yourself.
Week 13: Concept, Open Syllables.  We have learned that an open syllable ends in a vowel. The vowel is proud that it can run a long way, so it says its own name or its long sound.  We've also learned that when a is open (as in the words "ago",, "across", etc) it often has the short u sound.  Prefixes are parts that are added to the beginning of words to change the meaning of words.  This week's words: ago, across, along, arrived, students, represent, silent, moment, create, even, locate, notice, amaze, event, *equal, *total, *finally.
Week 14: Concept, Long E. We have learned that the best spelling for the long e sound in a one syllable word is ee.  However, ea is a very close "rest" spelling for this sound.  This week's spelling words focus on the ea spelling.  This week's words:  beat, deal, eat, teacher, increase, least, leave, reached, really, repeated, reason, sea, seat, speak, stream, *view, *would, *shoes.
Week 15: Concept, R Family. We have learned that the best spelling for the /er/ sound is er.  There are five spellings for the /er/ sound (er, ir, ur, ar, or), but the best spelling is er.  This week's words: after, center, consider, different, members, modern, never, over, perhaps, river, terms, sister, verb, western, winter, *father, *period, *because.
Week 16: Concept, R Family. The R Family has five spellings for the /er/ sound: er, ir, ur, ar, and or.  This week's lesson will focus on the er spelling.  This week's words: answer, better, covered, desert, determine, ever, government, interest, interesting, letters, matter, pattern, summer, underline, understand, *separate, *world, *shoulder.
Week 17: Concept, R Family. The R Family has five spellings for the /er/ sound: er, ir, ur, ar, and or.  Two of these spellings, however, are the teenagers in the family.  They will say the family sound, but they prefer their own sound.  The spelling or says /or/, as in for.  The spelling ar says /ar/, as in car.  This week's words: arm, army, chart, dark, far, farmers, garden, march, hard, mark, park, party, stars, started, yard, *dollar, *similar, *particular.
Week 18: Concept, R Family.  The R family has five spellings for the /er/ sound: er, ir, ur, ar, or.  Two of these spellings, however, are the teenagers in the family.  They will signal the family sound, but they prefer thier own sound.  The spelling or signals/or/, as in for.  The spelling ar signals /ar/, as in car.  This week's words will focus on the or spelling.  This week's words: born, corn, corner, before, order, correct, forest, form, north, report, horse, important, major, northern, torn, *factor, *doctor, *color.
Week 19: Concept, Vowel Diphthongs.  Vowel  diphthongs are vowel teams that have neither long vowel sounds nor short vowel sounds.  This week, we will focus on ou an ow.  Both of these diphthongs signal the same sound, the "ow" sound.  Ou is the spelling used at the beginning and middle of words: ow is the spelling used at the end of words.  However, ow is also used before l, er, and n.  This week's words: amount, around, compound, count, flowers, found, house, pounds, power, round, sound, south, thousands, town, mound, *our, *vowel, *crowd.
Week 20:  Concept, Long A. We are learning that the best spellings for the long a sound are: a in an open syllable, a_e when there is a consonant sound (raise), ai before l and n, ay at the end of a word.  This week's words: away, contain, details, explain, main, paint, paper, pay, plains, clay, remain, sail, tail, retain, spray, *wait, *raised, *afraid.
Week 21: Concept, Long O Spelling.  The best spelling for the long o sound at the end of words is ow.  The ow spelling can be used at the beginning or middle of words if it is before l, er, or n.  We remember this as the l-er-n (learn) principle.  This week's words: below, blow, elbow, flow, own, following, grow, low, row, show, shown, slowly, snow, window, yellow, *owe, *through, *idea.
Week 22: Concept, Concept Review.  This lesson is a review lesson.  The words for this week share common elements with words that have been previously studied.  This list shows this week's words and, in parentheses, the words from earlier lessons.  This assessment will help determine if the students have mastered the spelling concepts in the last ten lessons.  This week's words: relent, silo, motel, locust, teal, heave, streak, jester, sliver, perform, herb, hover, undertake, lark, stow.
Week 23: Concept, Kind Old Words.  Words that end in -ild, -old, -ost, often have the long vowel sound.  This week's words: almost, blind, behind, both, child, cold, find, gold, hold,kind, mind, most, old, wild, rewind, *thought, *brought, *enough.
Week 24: Concept, IGH as Long I.  The spelling igh is called a "three letter walker".  Only the vowel i is pronounced; it has its long sound.  This week's words: bright, delight, design, fight, flight, fright, high, light,might, night, right, sigh, sight, sign,tight, *four, *area, *trouble.
Week 25: Concept, Long I.  The best spelling for the long i sound at the end of a one-syllable word is y.  This week's words: by, cry, dry, fly, fry, my, myself,pry, reply, sky, shy, sly, spy, try, why, *sure, *sugar, *laughed.
Week 26: Concept, ei and ey.  There are other spellings for the long e sound: ei- is used at the beginning or middle of words, ey- is used at the end of words.  The old saying "i before e except after c" applies.  This week's words: key, alley, valley, donkey, ceiling, turkey, either, neither, received, perceive, *friends, *money, *honey.
Week 27: Concept, Long A. We are learning that there are spelling patterns where one letter is silent: wr at the beginning of a word signals /r/, kn at the beginning of words signals /n/, mb at the end of words signals /m/.  This week's words: write, writer, written, wrong, wrote, wrap, wreck, knife, knot, know, unknown, knee, lamb, climb, climbed, *toward, *course, *language.
Week 28:  Concept, Suffixes (Back of the Board).  We are learning that there is a common tion, which is pronounced /shun/.  There are a variety of ways to spell this suffix, but the most common is tion.  This week's words: addition, condition, direction, station, information, nation, position, question, section, solution, action, subtraction, fraction, lotion, motion, *new, *together, *although.
Week 29: Concept, Scribal O.  We are learning that the short u sound is often spelled with o before v, n, m, and th,  It is believed that the words on this week's list were originally spelled with a u instead of an o.  The scribal o story explains that long ago when scribes hand wrote books, it was difficult to read the u when it was next to v, n, m and th.  The scribes added a line above the u.  Early printing press operators could not put a line above the u so they use o instead.  This week's words: above, another, become, brother, done, from, front, love, mother, months, other, some, something, sometimes, son, *move, *movement, *America.
Week 30: Concept, Captain Words/ Contractions.  We are learning that some words that end in -ain, are pronounced as if they end in -un.  We are also learning about contractions, which are shortened forms of two words that have been combined.  This week's words: certain, captain, curtain, mountain, fountain, again, bargain, against, I'm, I've, I'd, she'd, we'd, they'd he'd, *its, *years, *poor.