One of the first things teachers in the primary grades can do to begin the school year is label the room. Use your computer to generate labels for common classroom items, such as chalkboard, pencil sharpener, books, centers, art supplies, crayons, glue, etc. When you label the items, you may also want to highlight the configuration of the letters. Some children learn to read words on site with the help of the letter configuration. This is when the teacher either draws around the letters or cuts around the letters to highlight tall letters and letters that go into the basement (or below the line).
Why should you do this....because for your youngest children, then begin to learn that those squiggly marks have meaning and eventually they will read those words. For your readers, these words become are an added resource as they explore writing.
I always had a rule in my classroom that if the word was on our word wall or on one of the charts we are reading in class, then they must spell the word correctly when they wrote in their journals. There would be many days that children would get up out of their seats and find the word they needed to spell, so you need to be open to an active classroom.
Some teachers may say that it will stop their flow of creativity. I found that they only needed to get up a few times and they usually could recall how to spell it or they would look back in their journals to find the spelling. The children were proud of their work and learned to spell high frequency words without too much trouble.
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