2021 Round-up
Site Updates
- All users can play our new spelling games. Help decode an enemy message in Codebreaker. Enter the temple and test your spelling skill in Mayan Temple.
- All users can now personalise their profile by adding an avatar.
- Students can now work their way from a Spelling Newbie to a Spelling Grandmaster by earning points.
- A new on-page prompt will remind students to use the Learn the Words practice activities.
- A new summary page will go over what has been taught in each unit.
- Classes can now compete for the top spot in the new Classes League Table.
Contact us to organise a closed league for an LEA or Academy Trust.
- Teachers can now set multiple activities in one task by choosing an activity then clicking on the + icon to add another.
- Teachers can now monitor how confident students feel about each unit in the Results section.
- Schools with a subscription of 250+ students can now use Wonde Data Sync.
Word Lists
- There are over a million word lists on Spellzone. Every word list can be used in a variety of online and offline activities.
- Each month in 2021, we shared 3 word lists for students to use when practising their spellings: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December.
- This year, we also expanded our collection of Curriculum Word Lists with Tier 2 words, GCSE lists, NAPLAN lists, and Functional Skills in English lists.
Blog
- In our new blog series, we explored American English words and their British English counterparts in various categories: clothes, driving, food, school, and shopping.
- We added to our Commonly Confused Words series. This year we looked at: been vs. gone, board vs. bored, cent vs. scent vs. sent, maybe vs. may be, new vs. knew, and shore vs. sure.
- We continued our 10 Words series by sharing synonyms for big, fast, funny, sad, said, and small. We looked at 10 pet names for Valentine’s Day and we created a list of our 10 Words blog posts from over the years.
- As always, we shared plenty of tips:
- How to adapt any word list for your lesson plan
- How to use a word list in a multiplayer game
- How to find your student's Spellzone Score in 5 minutes
- How to cross-reference your student’s course pathway with the National Curriculum
- How to find out what spellings your students are struggling with
- End of term checklist for teachers
- Writing top tips
- In our Word for Wednesday series, we continued exploring the origin stories of English words. 2021’s themes were: colours, clothes, characters from Shakespeare’s plays, onomatopoeia, coffee, flowers, eponymous words, school, Halloween, fireworks, and festive decorations. Find all our Word for Wednesday posts in the blog archive.
- Finally, as nobody knows what lies ahead in the coming year, we would like to remind you that we are always here to help!
Happy New Year!
31 Dec 2021
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