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Dear Families,
Our goals:
As writers, our spelling is the face our work shows to the world. It’s the first thing someone reading our work will notice. If we
take care with our spelling, no one will notice it at all. Just because it’s not the most glamorous part of writing, doesn’t mean
it won’t be fun to study! This year, your child will learn about:
• Homophones: words that sound the same but mean different things
• Latin and Greek Root Words: the building blocks of much of our language
• Dictionaries: how do you use one?
Our strategy:
You might remember memorizing spelling or vocabulary words in school. The
strategy we use in our class focuses more on the structure and meaning of words
than it does on memorization. It’s all about understanding! We call this “word study,”
and (good news): it’s FUN! We’ll learn about spelling rules by learning about the
bases of our language. Click here for more information about word study:
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/word-study-learning-word-patterns
How it looks:
At the beginning of the year, we’ll figure out your child’s individual spelling understandings based on a fourth-grade word-
bank. We’ll start where your child is and we’ll mold our learning around each individual’s needs. Every week, your child will
be given a list of words that is personalized to those needs. Each week, the whole class will have a root word to study. We’ll
use that root word in our curriculum in as many ways as we can. Each day, we will study a new vocabulary word, that relates
to what we’re studying in literacy, math, science, or social studies. Every morning, we will begin the day with a discussion of
our word lists. Students will share their ideas about and difficulties with the words on their lists.
You are always welcome in our classroom. Please email, call, or drop in during our open house to talk more. I look forward
to helping your child build a lifelong love of our fascinating, complicated, funny language!
Your friend,
Mariah Brashar.
Forever learning to long for the endless immensity of the sea of learning