These words are specifically selected for your child from his or her own written work and/or from a list of the 200 most common words that a student should know by the end of grades 1 or 2.
Daily practise with reading and spelling these words will help to improve your child's language skills by increasing their existing bank of sight words and helping to build their confidence as readers and writers. Creating flashcards of their words to practise for a few minutes each night or making pairs of the words and playing memory games are only two of the ways you can help your child to master his or her new words. As your child learns each word, be sure to celebrate their accomplishments to help motivate their desire to continue learning even more new words. Words that have not been mastered may be sent home repeatedly for your child to practise again. Keeping a stack of you child's words to review occasionally would also help to ensure that he/she doesn't simply forget them after only a week or two. These words are not required work and will not be formally "tested" but I will occasionally read with students to see if their bank of words has increased.
Always be sure to keep learning as fun and stress-free as possible. If you find that the number of words that I've given is too much for your child, simply let me know and I will adjust their amount accordingly. After all, even learning one new word a week is better than none, right?
Practise of these words is voluntary but they do take time for me to prepare so if you'd prefer that your child not to receive any spelling words, just write me a note in his or her agenda to let me know. As always, I try to do what I think is in the best interests of my students, and if you ever have any questions or concerns, please feel free to talk to me anytime.
Sincerely,
Ms. Janice Bednarz
