Sound Waves Word Study (3–6)
Equip your middle and upper primary students with the in-depth spelling and vocabulary skills they need for ongoing literacy success.
Spelling patterns, morphology and etymology for Years 3 to 6
Sound Waves Word Study is a deep dive into phoneme–grapheme relationships and spelling patterns (orthography), word parts (morphology) and word origins (etymology). Lessons are effective, engaging and delivered to the whole class. Instruction is systematic and explicit to build students’ spelling and vocabulary skills.
The program:
- uses an evidence-based approach
- provides a clear and systematic sequence of instruction to deliver strong literacy outcomes
- explicitly teaches phoneme–grapheme relationships, spelling patterns and focus concepts
- incorporates consolidation activities for every lesson
- assesses spelling – with targeted remediation resources
- uses essential reference charts to support correct grapheme choice
- provides a wealth of engaging and meaningful games and activities
- includes free ongoing professional learning and support for schools.
Sound Waves Word Study builds on a systematic synthetic phonics foundation making it the perfect follow-on from Sound Waves Early Literacy or any other structured early literacy program.
Part of a trusted and evidence-informed series
The Sound Waves series has been a trusted and evolving favourite in Australian primary schools for more than 30 years! Our team of linguistic experts and teachers knows what works best – for teachers and students – in today’s classrooms.
Combining research on the most effective methods to teach reading and spelling with decades of real classroom success means all our proven resources deliver on both pedagogy and practicality.
Curriculum covered
Made for Australian classrooms
Sound Waves Word Study meets the requirements of all Australian curricula in Years 3 to 6.
Instruction builds across the years, covering common and unusual phoneme–grapheme relationships and spelling patterns, as well as an increasing focus on morphology, etymology and key vocabulary concepts.
See how your curriculum aligns:
Scope and Sequence 3–6
Australian Curriculum Match v9 3–6
Victorian Curriculum Match v2 3–6
NSW Syllabus Match Stage 2
NSW Syllabus Match Stage 3
Weekly lesson structure
Each year level in Sound Waves Word Study includes a systematic sequence of 36 units of work. Each unit takes one week to complete and includes a series of lessons that follow a gradual release of responsibility framework to build students’ spelling and vocabulary skills.
Lesson 1: Phoneme–grapheme relationships and spelling patterns 
Each week begins with a comprehensive lesson that is organised around a focus phoneme and accompanying set of Focus Words to underpin the explicit teaching.
Use the online lesson to explicitly teach phoneme–grapheme relationships and word study skills. You’ll revise and introduce graphemes, unpack spelling patterns, conduct guided segmented practice and discuss word meanings and origins.
Students then complete the Student Book activities to apply their learning through a range of vocabulary building activities.
The lesson flow differs between Years 3 & 4, and Years 5 & 6 to suit the nature of instruction required for students as they transition from middle to upper primary.
Lesson 2+: Focus concepts – morphology, etymology and more
The rest of the week continues with short Focus Concept lessons.
Use the online lessons to explicitly teach a specific concept covering morphology (prefixes, suffixes, and Greek and Latin roots), etymology or vocabulary (such as homophones or antonyms).
Students then complete the Student Book activities to apply their learning.
Consolidate, assess & remediate
The weekly plan allows for time to conduct further review and consolidation, or assessment and remediation where required.
For consolidation you can draw from the wealth of interactive and printable activities, and group games ideas at Sound Waves Online – a fun and engaging way to end the week.
Powerful phoneme and grapheme tips
Help develop students’ orthographic mapping skills
Successful spellers rely on strong phoneme–grapheme knowledge and an understanding of common spelling patterns. That’s why our iconic phoneme and grapheme tips are embedded as an integral component of the weekly lessons and also available in a printable reference booklet at Sound Waves Online.
The tips cover common spelling patterns such as: ‘We usually use ck for /k/ after short vowel sounds. We only find ck for /k/ in the middle or at the end of words, never at the start.’ … through to tips informed by etymology and even patterns related to suffixes.
These valuable tips are just one of the ways that Sound Waves supports students’ orthographic mapping skills, which contributes to automaticity when reading and writing.
Cohesive resources to conduct your literacy lessons
Explicit teaching followed by independent practice
With Sound Waves Word Study, you’ll deliver explicit teaching lessons and targeted practice that is comprehensive, cohesive and engaging.
Teach with online resources
The online teaching resources provide you with lesson guides and projectable slideshows for every lesson to facilitate your direct instruction. The lesson guides include stepped-out instructions, helpful teaching notes and question and answer prompts – they’re detailed but not scripted, making them flexible, practical and enjoyable to use. The slideshows feature interactive tools and interesting on-slide discussion prompts to ensure student focus and engagement throughout the lesson.
In addition, the online teaching resources are packed with extra resources, games and activities to enrich your literacy lessons.
Start your free trial today.
Consolidate with Student Books activities
Teaching is always followed by targeted practice. Have students apply their understanding of the lesson content by completing the corresponding Student Book activities.
View sample Student Book pages:
* Sample pages coming soon
Use reference charts throughout the week
Teaching Charts and Student Charts are essential reference tools to help with correct grapheme choice and support students’ everyday writing. The charts feature common and unusual graphemes used to represent the 43 phonemes of Australian English, along with word examples.
For Years 3–6 classrooms, the charts are available in Standard and Extended versions.
Regular and meaningful assessments
Monitor students’ progress with ease
Sound Waves Word Study includes includes frequent assessments to inform your teaching and provide timely remediation.
Content Reviews
Use these mid-term and end-of-term tests to assess students’ understanding of phoneme–grapheme relationships and previously taught vocabulary, morphology and etymology concepts. The reviews also include single-word and sentence dictation. There are eight Content Reviews in each year level.
Spelling Diagnostic Test
Use this diagnostic tool in Term 1 and Term 3 to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses with specific spelling concepts. The assessment resources include remediation activities to use where required.
Assessments come with marking guides and tips and handy spreadsheets to capture students’ results.
Read our assessment article for an in-depth breakdown of how assessments work across the Sound Waves series.
Differentiation, games, interactive tools and more
Sound Waves Word Study supports teachers with meaningful tools and a range of resources to reinforce concepts, facilitate differentiation, boost engagement and enhance your weekly lessons!
Extension Tasks, Extension Words and Challenges
A helping hand for differentiation – each unit across Years 3 to 6 includes Extension Tasks, Extension Words and Challenges.
Keep your super spellers engaged with the printable Extension Tasks, or students can use Extension Words in a variety of ways from segmenting practice, to games and sentence writing.
What’s more, the Student Books include handy Challenges in every unit – the perfect follow-on activity for fast finishers while the rest of the class completes their lesson activities.
Interactive tools, printable resources and more
The online teaching resources are jam-packed with extra features to enhance your spelling and word study lessons.
Interactive tools
Interactive tools are embedded into the lesson sequence where needed to enhance the teaching and learning sequence. Additionally, the full suite of Sound Waves tools is available to both teachers and students (via the student site) to use any time for further practice and consolidation.
Printable resources
From segmenting sheets to prefix posters, board games, match-ups, puzzles, templates and more – you’ll find printable resources that fit a multitude of purposes.
Answers, videos and more
You’ll also have access to a variety of resources that relate to each unit, from projectable Student Book answers to check for understanding, through to handy pronunciation videos which can help support students with phoneme articulation.
Small-group and whole-class games
Engaging game ideas for small-group and whole-class settings are available in the online teaching resources to use any time throughout the week.
Your students will love applying their synthetic phonics and word knowledge skills to games such as Crack the Code, Alliteration Sentences and Grapheme Relay.
Plus – there's a handy student site!
Many of the interactive tools and unit resources are also available to students via a dedicated student site. And did we mention that student access is complimentary and included as part of your teacher access?
Students will love hopping online to play interactive Match-Ups, hone their segmenting skills using the Segmenting Tool, watch articulation videos or even use our engaging Focus Sound Searches as an inspiring writing prompt.
Quality professional learning and support
Australia-wide workshops, articles and more
Ongoing professional learning is essential for consistent and successful implementation of instruction. Our team has a wealth of teaching experience and provides tailored professional learning opportunities to support you and your school throughout the year – at no extra cost.
Request a meeting or professional learning workshop for your school, register for one of our virtual workshops, browse our articles, or simply reach out to your local Education Consultant any time of the year with your questions.
What about Foundation to Year 2?
Check out our companion series Sound Waves Early Literacy, which teaches essential spelling and reading skills from Foundation to Year 2, and includes Decodable Readers.