Prep Bulletin
A Snapshot into Spelling
Learning Intention: To identify the sound or sounds in a word that don’t follow a pattern.
Learning Experience Overview
In this learning experience the students were exploring the irregular word ‘was’.
When we are learning irregular words, we go through a step by step process to learn the word by heart. We follow this process because the words are difficult to remember or figure out the spelling because they do not follow a pattern, they are irregular. We call them heart words.
To start the lesson, students wrote the word on their page. Then followed the 7 step process.
Step 1: Circle the letter or letters that do not follow the pattern. The word ‘was’ is pronounced as /woz/. There is a /w/ sound at the start and the ‘a’ is pronounced as /o/. The ‘s’ is pronounced as /z/. Therefore the students circle the letter ‘a’ and ‘s.’
Step 2: Say the word out loud 3 times.
Step 3: Say the letters in the word and point to them as you say them.
Step 4: Write the word and say each letter as you write it. Do this 3 times.
Step 5: Spell the word with your eyes closed. Do this 3 times.
Step 6: Spell the word out loud 3 times.
Step 7: Find the word ‘was’ in a book. Write it every time you see it.
In this learning experience, students will work towards:
- Identifying letters that don’t follow a spelling pattern
- Matching phonemes (sounds) with graphemes (letters)
- Memorising the spelling of the irregular word
Examples of students work:
What you can do now to continue the learning at home from this experience:
- When reading books, see if your child can find the irregular word on the page.
- Discuss the meaning of the word and put it into context by reading the sentence it is in.
- Identify and discuss the letters that do not follow the regular spelling pattern.
- Your child can also practise the irregular word using their spelling activity grid when completing homework throughout the week.
- Identify the irregular word ‘was’ in everyday life e.g. books, TV, in songs and signs.
Alyssa, Paisley and Julian
Prep Team
Alyssa.Thermos@education.vic.gov.au