Level 6-2 continues our work with trickier patterns, this time focusing on three different word endings that can all make a long 'i' sound: y, ie, or igh. The words used in this level are sky, lie, high, sigh, try, pie, fly, dry, tie, and die.

One important minilesson to teach here involves showing the various sounds the letter 'y' can make at the end of a word. When there is a consonant before it, a 'y' ending usually makes a long 'i' sound in a one-syllable word (e.g. shy, sky, fly, why, my) and a long 'e' sound in a multi-syllable word (e.g. happy, snowy, lucky, story -- this is the focus of level 4-9). This is a distinction that students are often not taught, so we recommend making sure that you mention this in conjunction with level 6-2!

With more straightforward vowel pairs and consonant blends now complete, planet 6 focuses on a number of trickier letter combinations that are used numerous times in high-frequency words. Level 6-1 focuses on words ending with either -ch or -tch. The words used in this level are watch, each, scratch, itch, catch, patch, beach, teach, reach, and stretch.

Here is the general principle for when to use -ch or -tch: When following a consonant or a pair of vowels, use -ch. When following a single vowel, use -tch.

Our vision here at Rocket Spelling is this: We believe that spelling is an important skill for students to develop, and we believe that students deserve to be taught spelling in a fun, differentiated way that allows them to grow as quickly as possible.

Students who struggle with spelling often conflate spelling with writing and end up thinking of themselves as poor writers. Many times students' spelling woes are completely unnecessary -- they often come about either as the result of instruction that focuses too little time on phonemic awareness, or they come because students simply never were inspired to learn through the traditional weekly spelling test routine.

Rocket Spelling is meant to change the way spelling is practiced in the classroom.

One of the underutilized features on Rocket Spelling is the ability to mass-upload your entire class of students to our site, creating their accounts in just seconds.

When you first create an account on Rocket Spelling, one of the first things you'll be directed to do is set up your students' accounts. This can also be done later in the manage tab of your account.

We know you’re busy, so we’ve streamlined this process. You can quickly mass-enter students’ information by clicking the Add Multiple Students button and copying and pasting your entire class list from a document or spreadsheet.

Levels 5-7 through 5-12 work on a variety of more challenging vowel pairs. Level 5-7 shows students that the 'ow' combo can make a long 'o' sound (as in words like slow, know, and grow) in addition to the 'ou' sound it made in level 5-6.

Level 5-8 compares 'au' and 'aw', and the same logic that applied to levels 5-4, 5-5, and 5-6 applies here: The general rule of thumb for deciding whether to use au or aw in a word is that in the middle of a syllable, you should generally use au; to close a syllable or end a word, use aw.

When we created RocketSpelling.com, our goal was to help students to become better spellers while having fun along the way. But why do students seem to struggle so much with spelling? Is it just because the English language is full of exceptions where words can't be "sounded out" phonetically? Certainly that's part of the problem. But in 20 years of teaching, I think there's a bigger, systemic issue out there:

Just like with the previous levels on ai vs. ay vowel pairs and oi vs. oy vowel pairs, the general rule of thumb for deciding whether to use ou or ow in a word depends on whether the sound occurs in the middle or end of a syllable or word.

Levels 5-4 and 5-5 focus on the long a sound written as either ai or ay. The general rule of thumb for deciding whether to use ai or ay in a word to make the long a sound is straightforward: in the middle of a syllable, use ai; to close a syllable or end a word, use ay.

Over the past few days, we've broken down all 1,200 Rocket Spelling words by grade level. Here are of those words, by level, in one convenient place.

Which is more exciting -- taking a paper/pencil spelling test each Friday and getting it back on Monday, or getting to crush spelling words at your own pace with instant feedback such as this?