FOCUSED PHONICS for THIRD introduces third graders to the common alternative spelling patterns for 30 familiar phonics sounds. This look inside the LONG A or (AE phoneme) will give you an idea what’s inside each of the 30 packs.
Each sound pack focuses on the spelling of 16 words. These are sight words, high-frequency nouns and other grade appropriate spelling words. Graphically, these words are represented as posters and student-sized cards. The phonemes that the spelling words use are also represented graphically as a poster and a phoneme strip.
The target phonemes are highlighted on the posters but not on the student cards. You will use the students cards to lead a Write the Room activity and your students will use the cards to sort by phoneme (phoneme headers are included).
Each pack has 10 more activities to reinforce the spelling patterns. They include:
Your students should identify the target phoneme in each word on HIGHLIGHT the SOUND. I like my students to also note other phonemes or spelling patterns that might trip them up. We use one color for the target phoneme and different colors for everything extra.
Similar to sorting my phoneme with the student cards and headers, on this sheet your students will write the words under the appropriate phoneme header. Some words may end up being written twice–notice “airplane” appears under the “ai” and “a-e” headers.
Again, focusing on the phoneme that makes the LONG A sound in each word. Repetition is key to learning these tricky phonetics. Following the phoneme focus, are 4 word work sheets–UNSCRAMBLE, SECRET CODE PICTURES, TEXT BOXES and a CROSSWORD PUZZLE. Each pack includes crossword puzzles with and without the word list.
Before the weekly phonemic spelling test, I like to have my students use the words in sentences that I provide. This is a quick assessment activity–it not only allows you to see which spelling words your students are struggling with, but which sentence mechanics (capitalization, punctuation, word spacing, etc.) need to be reinforced. All 16 spelling words are in the five sentences.
And finally, a test sheet. This can be done independently. By the end of the week your students will be very familiar with the word pictures that are used for each of their spelling words.
You have couple options for how you have your students work on their spelling mistakes. Of the two WORD LISTS you see below, one can be glued into your student’s spelling notebook and corrections can be made in their notebook. The other can be hole-punched and stored in a 3-ring binder. Practice corrections can be made directly on the sheet.
The FOCUSED PHONICS for THIRD BUNDLE has a BONUS: Word Lists and Tracking! Here you will find a third option for your students’ spelling practice. I’ve included an editable PowerPoint file that includes a spelling practice sheet. Type your student’s name on the sheet, print, and have them log their own mistakes. Or use the sheet track each of your student’s mistakes. You’ll also find the WORD LISTS in this file. Use the red tabs to mark the words your whole class needs to revisit and check the packs that you have completed. Its all in the BUNDLE!