Spelling You See C: Wild Tales

Wild Tales will continue your student's journey through the skill development stage of spelling. For the first seven weeks, your student will continue to work with the nursery rhyme theme from Jack and Jill before transitioning into nonfiction passages about animals beginning in Lesson 8. Students will read a passage with the instructor each day. Guided reading helps readers of all ability levels become familiar with the passage. Students will also "chunk" the appropriate letter patterns indicated for that day's lesson and will have opportunities for copywork, free writing, and writing from dictation throughout the week.

Is Your Child Ready for Wild Tales?

This level is suggested for a student who knows letter sounds and spells many common words correctly.

Questions to ask:

• Is my student becoming comfortable with reading?
• Can my student comfortably write two or three sentences at a time?

Skills assessment:

The following passage is written at the minimum reading level for Wild Tales. Can your student read it without difficulty?

Some sheep are wild. Bighorn sheep live on mountains and high hills. Male sheep are called rams. They use horns to fight other rams. Flocks of sheep eat grass in the meadows. They climb steep hills to find more food.

Now dictate the passage to your student. Then answer the following questions:

• Was my student able to complete the dictation with relative ease?
• Was my student able to complete the dictation in 10 minutes or less?
• When writing the passage from dictation, did my student correctly spell at least eight of the words from this list?
  • sheep, called, horns, they, fight, eat, grass, hills, find, food

If you answered "Yes" to all these questions, your child is ready to begin Wild Tales.

Wild Tales will provide opportunities for students to study words in the context of factual passages about animals. Students will mark various letter patterns, copy passages, and produce their own compositions or drawings. They will also practice writing the stories from dictation with assistance.