Building Spelling Skills Grade 4

Building Spelling Skills from Evan-Moor is an excellent resource for many spelling applications. Whether you are a homeschooler, a mainstream educator, or a parent helping your child with a spelling bee, this series provides a good base for learning many of the most common English words. This spelling series is perfect for spelling practice but is also comprehensive enough to use as a spelling program. Little teacher prep is required and each spelling list should only take 15-30 minutes to complete. These courses contain 30 week-long units although the number of words per unit varies by grade. There are five to eight words per unit for Grade 1 and 18 words per unit by Grade 6.

• 30 week-long units
• Each Grade Level Teacher Book includes 30 reproducible units, an answer key, sentences for dictation, and a variety of forms, such as blank crossword puzzles and test forms
• Non-reproducible Student Practice Books do not include answers
• 160 pages each with perforated pages
• Available for Grades 1 through 6

• Nearly all of the lessons are phonics-based or word pattern-based
• The units for Grade 1 and 2 focus on words with short and long vowels, blends, digraphs, contractions, and variant vowels. The word lists also include plural nouns and past-tense verbs
• Lessons in Grade 3 and 4 emphasize words with blends, digraphs, variant vowel sounds, silent letters, and contractions. They also provide practice for prefixes and suffixes and homophones
• Students in Grades 5, 6, and beyond have lessons on words with blends, variant vowels, prefixes, suffixes, contractions, and silent letters. In addition, they work on compound words, root words, commonly misspelled words, and irregular plural nouns

Each unit of these courses is divided into five lessons, one for each day of the school week. On Monday, students see the word list for the first time and then read and write out each word. The activities for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday use word study, dictation, and visual memory to improve retention. These might include filling in the blanks, completing the word, and finding rhyming words. Then on Friday, students complete a spelling test.