Spelfabet

Learning the building blocks of words - sounds, their spellings, and word parts

This is the Spelfabet Workbook 1 version 3 teaching sequence, both for the parent/aide (print up to 5 copies) and teacher clinician (print up to 30 copies) editions. Decodable books with the same sequence include the Sounds Write Initial Code books Units 1-10, the Dandelion Launchers and Dandelion Readers Units 1-10, (all for ages 4-7), the Moon Dogs set 1 and 2 books (for ages ~8-14), and the Forward With Phonics resources for older learners. Most Australian suppliers can be found here.

UnitSounds/spellings, word structures and suffixes introducedHigh frequency words
(tricky bits are in bold)
1a as in at, i as in pig, m as in met, s as in set, t as in tota, am, at, I, is, it, my, sat, the
2n as in nan, o as in hop, p as in popan, and, as, has, his, in
of, on, man, not, top
3b as in bob, c as in cat,  g as in got, h as in henbag, big, bit, can, cat, got, him,
hot, pig
4d as in dad, f as in fin, v as in vet, e as in petbad, dad, did, do, dog, for, get, had, into, met, or, pet, ten to, sad, two
5k as in kit, l as in let, r as in run, u as in upare, but, fun, let, lot, mum, ran,
red, run, see, up, us.
6j as in jam, w as in wet, z as in ziptoo, want, was, zoo
7x as in fox, y as in yet, ff as in off, ll as in will, ss as in miss, zz as in buzz, all, ball, be, fell, he, her, go, miss,
no, off, said, she, six, so, we, well,
will, yes, you
8VCC and CVCC wordsbest, come, end, felt, gold, hand,
help, it‘s, just, land, left, lost, milk,
next, old, some, something, told, went
Plural noun or third person verb suffix ‘s’, as in ‘cuts’ (voiceless, column 3)lots
Plural noun or third person verb suffix ‘s, as ‘fans’ (voiced, column 2)dogs, kids
Regular past tense/participle that sounds like /d/, as in ‘fanned’dressed, helped, jumped,
Regular past tense/participle that sounds like /t/ ‘as in backed’killed, lived,
Regular past tense/participle that sounds like /ed/ as in ‘landed’wanted
9CCVC wordsdone, dress, frog, from, none,
one, someone, still, stop, swim
10CCVCC to CCCVCCC wordsdrink, slept, upon