Message from the author Bob Fleming's with many teachers, I have often been both frustrated and annoyed when trying to follow a formal spelling programme. Frustrated because the programme had not been designed to cater for the students' specific needs; annoyed because there had been no real purpose or direction in the programme other than to give the students a list of unrelated words to learn in order to be tested. To overcome both of these feelings I decided to devise spelling activities that would be reinforcing, user-friendly and provide a basis for improving spelling skills. They also needed to be fun, interesting and motivating to the students. The words would have relevance to everyday use so that students would easily learn their meanings and know how and when to use the words correctly and effectively.The dictionary would become the students' key resource, and hopefully, best learning tool. To these ends I have included a variety of activities including wordfinds and crosswords along with basic exercises to help consolidate the skills being developed. The words have been collected from a range of sources such as standardised high interest word lists.
Some are what I call 'everyday' words, topic words, and, in the latter levels, extension words. The first lists consist of single syllable words in order to introduce students to the 'sound' of words as much as to the 'look' of words. From there, the words progress to simple two syllable words, and words containing basic blends and simple suffixes. These words are ones that I regard as more easily said than read. They include days of the week, family members, colours and plurals.