Spelling Lists

Squeebles Spelling Connect gives you access to over 160 spelling tests that we've created, in conjunction with teachers and education experts. These are based around the UK curriculum. There are also well over 8500 pre-recorded words available within the app, with more due to be added over time. And you can add your own words and spelling lists if you want as well.

The Spelling Lists Overview Page

Tap the "Words & Lists" button in the main parent / teacher zone menu to access the spelling lists overview page (below, left). There are 2 sorts of spelling list the app can contain:

KeyStageFun (KSF) Lists: these are lists we created for you, in line with the UK curriculum. They contain audio for each word and are "ready to go" for your children to use when they log in. A summary of all the lists we have already created, including the words they contain, can be found here.
Custom Spelling Lists (My Lists): these are lists you have created yourself, using either words that already exist because they have been added by us, or words / short phrases you have added to the system yourself, that didn't already exist.

Our KeyStageFun Spelling Lists

When you first go into the spelling lists overview page, you see a list of all the spelling lists we've created (marked as KSF Lists). You can scroll through the pages of lists or choose a specific level from the dropdown list in the top right. There are 4 levels of spelling list, level 1 being the words children start off spelling and level 4 being the most challenging words, aimed at more confident spellers. The search option in the upper right of the screen also allows filtering by list title or a specific word.

Your Custom Spelling Lists (My Lists)

The second tab, "My Lists" take you to the page shown above, right. This contains any custom spelling lists you've created yourself and gives you the option to create a new custom spelling list. Custom spelling lists can contain words we have already included within the app, as well as words or phrases you've added yourself (or both).

Creating a Custom Spelling List

This is a 2-step process:

Step 1: create the list itself, which includes giving it a name, choosing which children to assign it to etc. To create a new list, tap the "Add +" button in the top right of the "My Lists" overview screen (see the screenshot above, right).
Step 2: add words to the list. Once you've created your list, you will be given the choice of adding words (see below for how to do this).

You can also add or remove words later, by tapping the "Add Words" or "Edit Words" button next to the spelling list on the My Lists overview screen. Adding or editing which words your spelling list contains is easy...

The "Add / Edit Words" Screen

Custom spelling lists can have words added or removed via this screen. You can access it via the blue "Add Words" or "Edit Words" button shown on the My Lists overview screen, next to the custom spelling list you want to edit words for (see above, right). You will then be taken to the screen shown on the left, below. This shows you all the words that are currently in the spelling list, and allows you to add new words to the custom list via the "Add a Word +" button in the top right of the screen.

Adding a Word to a Custom List

Adding a word to a custom spelling list is easy. Once you have tapped the "Add a Word +" button, you will be taken to the screen shown above, right. Simply enter the word you want to add. If it is already in our library of pre-recorded words, it will be shown in the list of grey words displayed above the input box (see above for example).

Either tap one of these words if you see the word you want to add, or keep typing until you are satisfied you have entered your word. Then press "Add" (or "Go" on the keyboard) and the word will be added to your spelling list.

You cannot add words to our KeyStageFun spelling lists, but you can copy a KeyStageFun list to use as a basis for your own spelling list, if you want to make a very similar list to one of ours. The copied version will be created in the "My Lists" section and can then be managed exactly like any other custom spelling list.

If you want to include accented characters in words, to support learning languages other than English, hold down the "root" letter for about half a second and the accented options for that letter (if it has any) will appear. See this page for more information on that.

Assigning Lists To Children

KeyStageFun Lists:

You do not have to "assign" KeyStageFun lists to your children. They are already available to every child when they log into the app.

You can hide whole levels if you want to, so as to avoid your children having access to lists that are too easy or too difficult for them. This is done via each child's settings, accessed from the "Children" (or "Pupils" for school accounts) section.

Your Custom Lists:

Your own custom lists do have to be assigned to children on a per-child basis. This is so that different children can be presented with the appropriate spelling lists for them.

Assigning custom lists to a child can be done in one of 3 different ways:

When creating the list in the first place, you can select which children to assign it to.
On the Spelling Lists Overview page, tap the "Edit" button next to the spelling list you want to assign. You can then edit who that list is assigned to as part of the editing process.
Also on the Spelling Lists Overview page, use the tick boxes on the left of each spelling list to select the lists you want to assign and then use the bulk edit menu at the foot of the page to either assign or de-assign the selected lists. You will then be presented with a list of children to select.

Setting a List as Homework

Any spelling list can used as the basis for a piece of homework.

Important: make sure if it's a custom spelling list created by you, that the list is assigned to the child(ren) you are wanting to set the homework for.

On the spelling lists overview page, you can then use the "Set as Homework" button next to the spelling list you want to use as the basis for the homework. Full instructions can be found in the Assignments / Homework section of this online manual.

Editing / Recording Audio For Words

Each word needs to have an audio clip associated with it for your child to hear when they're being asked to spell the word.

We've already created audio clips for over 8500 words, including context sentences if a word has multiple meanings.

You can record your own audio too, either to replace ours, or because the word you're adding doesn't currently have an associated audio clip. This is particularly relevant with less common words, phrases, or words in languages other than English.

To add or remove custom audio for a word, tap the "Manage Audio" button next to the word in the spelling list you're editing.

Tapping the "Manage Audio" button will open the screen shown below, left.

The screen is pretty simple. You are shown the word itself, a track containing the KeyStageFun recording (if one exists) and a track that allows you to record your own audio clip below. If the word already has a custom recording made by you, the play button will be active so that you can listen to it.

To record your own audio:

Step 1: tap the red "Record" button (the red circle) and speak clearly into your device's microphone.
Step 2: press the same button again to stop recording (see above right how the record button changes to a stop button whilst recording is happening) when you're finished. Do not just press "Save and Close >" without stopping recording first.
Step 3: listen back to the clip if you want to and then either re-record it, delete it, or...
Step 4: press "Save & Close >" if you're happy with it. to upload it to your account.

What do your children hear?

If you have recorded your own audio, that is what will be heard by children whenever they are asked to spell that particular word, instead of our recording.
If you have not recorded your own audio and a recording exists that we made (a KeyStageFun recording) then that will be what children hear when spelling that word.
If neither recording exist, the child will not hear anything at all, which makes spelling words impossible, unless you've set the app to display the word to them prior to being asked to spell it. That can be set via each child's settings, accessible from the Children / Pupils page.

Notes on recording audio:

editing the audio for a word will edit it for ALL instances of that word in your account, so if you have 5 spelling lists that all contain the same word, all of those instances of the word will have the new audio if you change it.
keep any recorded audio short. This is to keep loading times low and to stop your child having to listen to a very long piece of audio during a spelling test. 5 or 6 seconds is generally the absolute maximum you should aim for, ideally much shorter.
audio cannot currently be recorded on the web version of the app, due to the multitude of different microphone / browser / hardware options on PCs leading to inconsistencies. For now, you will need to use an iOS or Android device to record your audio. We're working on it though and hopefully we'll have a solution soon. Audio recording on iOS or Android will play back on the web version without any issues, assuming you have speakers attached to your computer.

Case Sensitivity

Any word can be made case sensitive in the context of a custom spelling list. This only affects that instance of the word, so will only apply within that specific spelling list. Just tap the Aa button next to the word you want to make case sensitive to toggle between on (green) and off (grey).

If a word is set as case sensitive, it MUST be spelled exactly as it has been entered, so if December was set as case sensitive and you had entered the word with a capital "D", then your child must use a capital D when spelling it. If you toggle case sensitivity off, then they could spell it with or without the capitalisation and it would still be marked as correct. Case sensitivity is off by default.

That should just about cover everything on spelling lists and words, but if you have any questions, let us know by e-mailing info@keystagefun.co.uk