Levels 10-3 through 10-6 contain 30 high-frequency contractions. The words in level 10-3 are don't, didn't, can't, won't, wasn't, isn't, wouldn't, doesn't, shouldn't, and aren't. Eight of these 10 words simply replace the 'o' in 'not' with an apostrophe. The word 'can't' is an exception, as it also drops an 'n'. The word 'won't' is the real oddball in this set. You might point out to your students how it would seem like this word would be 'willn't' instead!

Happy New Year! For 2018, we think it's time to resolve to make spelling and word work more fun for students. That's why, for a limited time, we're offering free, no-strings-attached classroom accounts here on Rocket Spelling! To claim yours, enter coupon code 'resolution' when you register, and you'll be able to secure a classroom account, giving your students full access to Rocket Spelling for the rest of the 2017-2018 school year, entirely for free.

Once you register, you'll love Rocket Spelling for its 1,200 high-frequency words, live at-a-glance student data, and levels that can be easily differentiated to target the needs of students of all abilities. Your students will love Rocket Spelling because it feels like a game, gives instant (and suspenseful) feedback, has rewards points and badges, and allows them to conquer words at their own pace.

To all principals and school leaders: Rocket Spelling is looking for a number of schools throughout the country to pilot-test this website for the rest of the 2017-2018 school year. If you would be interested in taking advantage of this offer, contact us at support@rocketspelling.com. We will provide free accounts for all of your students and teachers for the rest of the 2017-2018 school year, and our only request is that you provide us with some simple site feedback at the end of the year.

Levels 9-3 and 9-4 deal with verbs ending with -ing and -ed, some of which double their final consonant before the -ing or -ed ending. The words in level 9-3 are swimming, running, winning, throwing, washing, mailing, kicking, listening, hopping, and sitting. The words in level 9-4 are mixed, covered, enjoyed, compared, planned, tapped, dropped, tagged, stopped, and tipped. The general pattern here is that verbs which end with a short vowel + a single consonant will tend to have that final consonant be doubled when an -ing or -ed ending is added to the word.

Planet 9 focuses on verbs. Level 9-1 begins with present tense verbs that are also high-frequency words (touch, leave, represent, describe, pull, laugh, suggest, decide, climb, and finish). Level 9-2 moves to verbs that end with a silent e which drops when an -ing ending is added. The words in this level are dancing, driving, making, loving, caring, hoping, riding, smiling, saving, and serving.

Levels 8-5 through 8-8 focus on homophones.

These levels, ideally, would be a resource for teachers to use alongside some instruction about homophones. Although the fact that we always put words in context with a sentence to support their meaning is especially helpful when it comes to homophones, we still encourage additional vocabulary work on these tricky words. An art project like the one shown below, where each student illustrates one homophone pair, would work beautifully alongside these Rocket Spelling levels!

We are excited to announce that for the entire month of November, we will be offering a coupon code that takes an incredible 50% off of your total annual membership cost! Whereas Rocket Spelling usually costs $3 per student for an annual membership, now you can get Rocket Spelling for an entire year for just $1.50 per student! To take advantage of this great deal, just enter coupon code '50off' at checkout.

As we head into November, we have a brand-new coupon code for new customers joining Rocket Spelling. When you register, use coupon code 'free14' to get a free 14-day trial classroom account on Rocket Spelling. We trust that you'll find Rocket Spelling to be an engaging way to gamify and differentiate your students' spelling practice, all while giving you immediate feedback on how each student is performing.

We're going to keep this post short and sweet: Today is the final day to get a free classroom account on Rocket Spelling! Anyone who registers by midnight Eastern time tonight and uses coupon code 'rocketlaunch' will receive a free classroom account good for the entire 2017-2018 school year. After midnight, this coupon code will expire, and new customers will only be able to get a 14-day free trial instead. With that in mind, sign up today, and spread the word to your colleagues yet today so they can take advantage of our free offer!

We've received word from a few folks that when they tried to add individual students to their account, they had trouble with the "save" button being grayed out after they have added their information. The issue is that you must fill all of the fields and then click out of the final one for the save button to become clickable again. For a 22-second demonstration of this, check out this video.