Natural Speller

I have used this spelling resource for many years and found it to be a good program. The 92-page book provides you with the necessary tools to teach spelling for the grades first through eighth. The spelling lists are grouped by sound and pattern. There are also numerous other lists such as prefixes, suffixes, Latin and Greek root words, spelling rules, homophones, and more. Use the tools supplied in this book to make spelling lessons for your children. There is also a list of things to teach for every grade and of course, all the material that you need is in this book.

Should you use Natural Speller?

If you like making a customized curriculum, then you might like this book.
If you do not like creating a custom plan or if you have very limited time, then you should choose a packaged spelling curriculum.

This is the table of contents for Natural Speller. Plus, in the right column of the page, there are four sample lists, a website linked where you can look at a few pages from the inside of the Natural Speller, and some teaching ideas as well as links to related topics in donnayoung.org.

NATURAL SPELLER

Table of Contents

WHY TEACH SPELLING? ................. 1

TEACHING SPELLING ...................... 1

HOW TO STUDY A WORD...................4

Grades 1 & 2 ............................................5
WORD LISTS ..............................................5
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR SKILLS ..............7
Grade 3..................................................... 9
WORD LISTS .............................................. 9
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR SKILLS .............13
Grade 4................................................... 15
WORD LISTS .............................................15
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR SKILLS .............19
Grade 5....................................................21
WORD LISTS .............................................21
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR SKILLS .............26
Grade 6................................................... 28
WORD LISTS .............................................28
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR SKILLS .............33
Grade 7................................................... 35
WORD LISTS .............................................35
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR SKILLS .............38
Grade 8 .................................................. 40
WORD LISTS .............................................40
SPELLING AND GRAMMAR SKILLS .............42

ACTIVITIES ....................................... 43

General Practice.......................................43
Dictionary Skills ......................................44
Grammar Skills ...................................... 45
Building Vocabulary.................................46
Writing....................................................47

WORDS BY CATEGORY.................. 36

Abbreviations ......................................... 48
Calendar Words ......................................48
Color Words ...........................................48
Contractions ............................................48

Foreign Words
American Indian....................................... 49
Spanish.................................................... 49
French......................................................50
Greek Word Parts ....................................51
Spelling Words with Greek Word Parts ....53
Activities Using Greek Word Parts ........... 55
Latin Roots................................................56
Activities Using Latin Roots .......................60

Homophones, Heteronyms, & Homonyms
Homophones-Grades 1-3 .........................61
Homophones-Grades 4-6 .........................61
Homophones-Grades 7-8 .........................61
Heteronyms & Homographs......................62
Activity ................................................... 62

Irregular Verbs
Grades 3-6 ............................................. 63
Grades 6-8 ............................................. 63
Measurements.......................................... 64
Number Words ....................................... 64
Words to Review. ................................... 65

RULES ................................................ 66

Spelling Rules
Consonant Sounds.................................... 66
Vowel Sounds ..........................................67
Spelling Charts
Reference Chart - Consonant Sounds ...... 69
Reference Chart - Vowel Sounds ............ 70
Spelling Rules
Plurals .......................................................71
Possessives .............................................. 72
Prefixes and Suffixes................................. 72
Syllables................................................... 74
Writing Rules
Capitalization............................................ 75
Punctuation............................................... 76

TEACHING AIDS ........................... 78

Common Affixes and Their Meanings
Prefixes..................................................... 78
Suffixes..................................................... 79
Practice With Rules
Vowels Sounds / Grades 1-3 .................... 81
Adding s, es, ies / Grades 1-6 ................... 81
Suffixes / Grades 1-8 ................................ 83

Letters
Friendly Letter...........................................86
Business Letter
Semi-Block format ................................... 87
Block Format ........................................... 88
Sample Dictionary Page......................... 89

Glossary of Terms ................................. 90

The link below goes to christianbook.com and there, you can see several pages of Natural Speller.

Natural Speller
By Kathryn Stout, B.S.Ed.,M.Ed.

Instead of trying to memorize words letter by letter, your children can become "natural" spellers by learning to recognize sight and sound patterns in vocabulary. This program allows you to customize a curriculum for grades 1 to 8 that teaches commonly misspelled words, Latin and Greek word parts, abbreviations, contractions, homophones, numbers, and more at a pace that's suited to your students. 92 pages, softcover from Design-A-Study.

Below are some sample lists. The lists vary in length, some are long and some are short. The samples below are all short lists. Notice how the words are grouped by sound and pattern.

Sample from grade:	4th grade	5th grade	6th grade	7th grade
pattern & sound group:	ow	oi	ou	sy
words:	borrow shallow narrow yellow follow pillow	anoint voice noise poise choice joint noisy	trousers drought sprout blouse	sympathy syllable system symbol syrup

One way to plan Natural Speller
At donnayoung.org - homeschool help files: Spelling Planner

Creative Uses for Natural Speller:

Informal Spelling Bees

My children were three grades apart and we had fun doing spelling bees on Fridays several times a year. I used the lists from Natural Speller that my children had covered. Since the children were 3 grades apart, the children did not have to spell from the same list, just from their list. To keep track of scoring, when one missed a word, that was counted as a minus one and spelling a word correctly was plus one. The winner was determined by the one who correctly spelled the most words. For other purposes, they stood in the foyer which served as a kind of stage during the entire spelling bee. I didn't make them behave as if they were in a real bee, they could jump around and giggle if they felt like it.

Multi-grade Lessons

As mentioned above, my children were three grade levels apart. Occasionally I would have an impromptu spelling class that involved both of the children. This class was in essence, a word decoding class. Prior to the class, I would select a few words from lists at their grade levels and at the highest grade level. The words would be selected from lists that have the same pattern, such as 'ous.' Usually, I would have a few words that are not on the lists, words that would be considered advanced. I would write the pattern on the board and a couple of words from the list. From there we would have an open discussion on the parts of the words, breaking them down into syllables, analyzing how the parts are pronounced and spelled. After that, I would use the words from the Natural Speller lists and say one of them. The children would try to decode the word and spell it correctly. When the list words were exhausted and if the kids were still interested, I would use the advanced words and have the children try to spell it. These lessons usually lasted 15-20 minutes and were enjoyable to all of us.

Related Links at donnayoung.org:

Spelling Resources: