Monday: Review phonogram cards during circle time. The big kids do the blend ones (/sh/ and /th/ and so on), the little ones do the single letters (ABCs.) Also do any preliminary activities listed for the week in the WISE Guide book. (Usually just to review certain sounds and add them to the reference pages in the back of their composition book. Sometimes it will refer you to a lesson in the SWR teacher’s guide that needs to be done so check this BEFORE the morning you plan to teach.) The phonogram review can be just a flash card drill or play phonogram bingo, Memory with phonogram cards, hide and seek with cards, etc. As creative or as simple as you want.
Tuesday: Dictate new spelling words, each lesson has 20 new words but it’s divide into sections of 10 each so you can do whatever is appropriate for your child. Do half today and half tomorrow, all today, etc. You dictate then write out the word as they spell it for you and then they write it in their book with help to make sure spelling is correct – you want them to write it perfectly. Then with red pencil we mark any phonograms in the word (/ie/ or silent e, etc.)
Wednesday: Rest of new spelling words OR game to review words/enrichment activity listed in WISE Guide.
Thursday: Enrichment activity from the WISE Guide. May include grammar lesson, reading a story, spelling words in ASL, drawing a picture to explain our words, etc. There are a LOT of suggested enrichment activities but as you go back year by year to review spelling words you can try them out. Don’t do them all at once. 🙂 We also do some online spelling games where I can type in their spelling list. Here are some more enrichment ideas from my seminar that can be used with any spelling program.
Friday: Spelling test. We write our new spelling words on Tues/Wed in our composition book and our spelling tests are done on loose leaf paper in a 3 ring binder.
Every few months we stop and go back to review old words. Put a star by any words in the WISE Guide that your child struggles with so you can remember which ones to focus on.
Right now I’m not picky about cursive vs. print but we’ll be spending some time this summer focusing on cursive and use it more in the fall.
So – summary:
Monday – preliminary activities & phonogram review
Tuesday – new spelling words
Wednesday – second half new spelling words OR review new words
Thursday – enrichment activity
Friday – spelling test
We do our grammar program on Monday & Wednesday and we do speech therapy on Tuesday & Thursday. Friday is our “Teaching the Classics” day when we read aloud and do story charts and such.
This is all my idealized view. My day to day execution is far, far from idea. These are my goals but don’t let that make you think I’m actually following through consistently. 🙂