"Spell By Color"

Free Structured, Phonics-Based Spelling Program

1-2-2012: Welcome to the new location for Spell By Color and Medieval Alliance.

Note: This spelling program is not connected to our educational game, Medieval Alliance. The spelling program is something I began developing in 2010 in order to meet my own homeschooling needs and then decided to make available on the web so that other homeschoolers (or really anyone wanting something to use at home) can access it.

Year Two, Part One is now ready: See Page 4 for details Page 4 (notes)

Brief Description of Spell By Color:
This program uses color-coding to reinforce organized instruction in the rules of spelling.

Year One is geared toward 3rd grade but can be used for 2nd grade (if reading well) or 4th grade (if just starting organized spelling instruction or needing to catch up a bit after using a program that was not rules-based).

There are a total of 31 weeks in Spell By Color Year One, averaging 4 lessons per week (a few of the units have 3 or 5 lessons, most have 4). This gives you a few weeks remaining to focus on sight words that don't fit well into any spelling rule but are age-appropriate to learn.

1-2-2012: I am currently in the process of developing Spell By Color Year Two (see Page 4 of this web site for more details).

Background
After not finding a spelling program that (1) taught the rules of spelling clearly and explicitly and (2) fit my teaching style and my son's learning style, I decided to develop my own.

The first few files below contain instructions, a sample lesson, and the program's scope and sequence. The remaining files contain sets of lessons (one file per spelling rule) and answer keys for each of those lessons.

Prerequisite: These lessons assume the child has an understanding of the basic phonetics - the sounds that each individual letter can make as well as dipthongs (vowel combos such as ou and oi) and consonant blends (combos such as tr, dr, and ng).

6-20-2011: Year One for Spell by Color is now complete. See page 4 for notes on edits that have been made to some of the files since they were originally uploaded.

One last note: Editing your own creation is always a challenge - the brain likes to see what you think ought to be there rather than what is actually there. Please feel free to email me if you catch any errors or typos.

Questions? e-mail us at jetted4@gmail.com

Note to schools and homeschool co-ops: My primary focus in making Spell By Color Year One available for free is for it to be a resource for homeschool families to use. I am more than happy for schools (public or private) or homeschool co-ops to use the program as well; however, I ask that you offer a donation (on the honor system) when using the program for group settings such as those. (see the donation button on the top right of this page).

(04-23-2012) Important Note, Please Read: I am this week in the process of reformatting the lessons for Year One to be titled by Week instead of Rule Number (to make it easier to follow the flow without needing the Scope and Sequence document). I will also be making a change to week 21's rule (rule 9a) in order to make it fit better with more advanced rules that are introduced in Year Two. This change will have some impact on lessons following week 21. These changes will be completed by the end of this coming weekend (04/29/2012). Otherwise, the content of the lessons will remain the same as in the current version.

The following are the changes that have been made to Spell By Color, Year One:

1) Changed the titles of the units to be based on week number instead of rule number. This change makes it easier to follow the flow of the lessons without needing the Scope and Sequence file.
2) Changed the color assignments for Year One Week 21 (formerly rule 9a) in order to prepare for more advanced lessons on the same topic in Year Two. This change has some impact on lessons after Week 21 (for lessons that review previous rules). Important: If you have already gotten past this point in the lessons, please take a day to redo a couple of the lessons from week 21 just for the current rule (words ending in the 'k' sound: red vs brown) in order to practice the change.
3) Changed the color assignment for Week 25 (formerly rule 11) in order to be consistent within the colors available from a single crayon manufacturer. Important: If you have already gotten past this point in the lessons, please take a day to redo a couple of the lessons from week 25 just for the current rule (s(es) suffix for words ending in ch, sh, s, x, z) in order to practice the change.

Philosophy
I already mentioned above my preference for a structured, rules-based spelling program. After being introduced to the idea by a friend a few years back, I have also become a firm believer in separating writing/composition practice from spelling practice at the younger ages (the perfectionistic tendencies of my youngest have merely served to reinforce this belief). When a child completes their writing independently during the early years, it can't help but give them opportunities to practice incorrect spelling as well as incorrect punctuation.

If, instead, your child dictates to you what they want to write, you write it down, and then they copy what you wrote down for them, they get the benefit of seeing and practicing correct spelling as well as correct sentence structure and punctuation (note: there are many approaches to selecting topics to write about - including summarizing history reading, copying classic literature, retelling favorite stories...). Then, spelling is practiced in a separate time block. Another benefit of this approach is that when younger children are practicing writing, they are free to focus on the *content* of the writing if they are dictating to you instead of constantly stopping to try to figure out how to spell almost every word. This gives them the freedom to write something more complex (rather than just sticking to simple sentences that use the limited selection of words they already know how to spell). This approach is especially helpful for the perfectionist who cares *too much* when he gets something wrong (I speak from experience, here). Then, once they have developed a solid foundation in their spelling, you can alternate between [1] having them write their own compositions independently (they may still need spelling corrections here and there at this point but would be old enough to learn how to self-correct as they write using a dictionary) and [2] having them copy something more advanced than they may be ready to compose themselves.

 Jett Educational Games
Located in Belcamp, MD