Sound Waves Word Study (3–6)
Updated Years 3 to 6 program: Sound Waves Word Study!
Ready for use in 2027, the trusted Sound Waves Years 3 to 6 program is relaunching as Sound Waves Word Study.
Overview
Greater emphasis on orthography, morphology and etymology
The new and improved Sound Waves Word Study program puts greater emphasis on spelling patterns (orthography), word parts (morphology) and word origins (etymology). This in-depth approach to spelling and word study instruction equips middle to upper primary students with the skills they need for ongoing literacy success.
The program continues to use systematic synthetic phonics as its base, making it the perfect follow-on from any structured early years literacy program.
Revamped lessons
Accompanied by detailed teaching notes
The new and improved Lesson 1 in each unit kick-starts the week with a deep dive into grapheme choice and spelling patterns. The updates reduce time spent revising basic phoneme–grapheme knowledge that students should already be familiar with (through their early years synthetic phonics instruction), and instead dedicate more time to deepen word study knowledge.
Detailed teaching notes and on-slide prompts now embed key morphology, etymology and vocabulary concepts alongside the essential and explicit teaching of graphemes and spelling patterns.
The updated Lesson 1 in each unit continues to work perfectly alongside the existing Focus Concept lessons that are taught throughout the week. Together these lessons deliver an in-depth approach to building students’ spelling and vocabulary skills.
Don’t take our word for it, see for yourself how Sound Waves Word Study will transform your literacy instruction – start your free trial today!
Powerful phoneme and grapheme tips
Help develop students’ orthographic mapping skills
You asked – and we listened! Our iconic phoneme and grapheme tips are now integrated into the lessons, giving teachers a powerful framework to facilitate their direct instruction of spelling patterns. In addition, they’ll also be collated into a printable booklet – a handy reference tool for students (and teachers) alike!
Revised Getting Started unit
Set students up for the year ahead
Based on customer feedback, we’ve taken a fresh approach to the Getting Started Unit to ensure your middle and upper primary students are set up for a successful year ahead. This unit now revises important segmenting skills, revisits the concepts of morphemes and how they are helpful for spelling and, most importantly, provides a handy refresher on the tricky schwa phoneme.
An effective and powerful way to kick-start each year.
Extension tasks in all units
A helping hand for differentiation
Joining the popular Extension tasks in Years 5 and 6 is a printable Extension task for every unit in Years 3 and 4! These handy tasks are perfect to keep your super spellers engaged while you provide further support to students who need it.
Register your interest
Register your details below and one of our expert Education Consultants will be in touch with important updates, release information and professional learning opportunities as we bring Sound Waves Word Study to schools across Australia.