Background - Magic 100 Words

Background - Magic 100 Words

Magic 100 Words

Magic 100 Words are the most common words in English and make up half  (50%) of all the words used in learning to read and write.

​Magic 100 Words are the most important words in reading and writing.

These best-selling Magic 100 Words Playing Cards and Learning Boards are ideal for playing at home and school to learn the most essential words in English.

Magic 100 Words (1-100 words) make up 50% of the words in reading and writing.

Magic 200 Words (101-200 words) make up 65% of the words in reading and writing..

Magic 300 Words (201-300 words) make up 70% of the words used in reading and writing..

Learning the Magic 100 Words rapidly improves reading, increases fluency and develops comprehension.

History - Magic 100 Words 

M100W - Magic 100 Words was first released in 2000.

Magic Words has been continuously used in homes and schools around the world for past two decades improving children's literacy outcomes.

Magic Words began on the kitchen table when Marcella Reiter was playing games to teach her three young children how to read.

​Marcella researched and found the most important words in learning to read.

Using an old set of QANTAS (Australia's National Airline) Playing Cards with the words stuck on the face, she began inventing fun and exciting ways to engage her children in playing card games with these 100 most important words. The aim was to play for short periods of time, often, so that the children would be able to remember the words automatically. They began calling these words the "Magic Words" because they were in every book, magazine and newspaper and just "magically" appeared in everything they read!

Little did Marcella realise at the time, how rapidly her children would master these 100 most important words in reading and what dramatic acceleration it would have on their ability to read at school. 

Difference between Magic 100 Words Lists

Beware of fake and bogus lists pretending to imitate Magic Words.
In recent years Magic Words has undertaken further studies and a meta-analysis of research into high-frequency words to determine the most current set of words. The latest research (2017), based upon the most current data, was distilled, calibrated and analysed. This resulted in the new and updated 2018 M100W - Magic 100 Words word list.

This research has resulted in a change to the frequency of some of the words, and the order and colour grouping in which they appear.

Some schools may still have original copies of the M100W - Magic 100 Words resources. This would explain why you may have seen a difference in the words that are sent home from school (having been sourced and copied from earlier editions of the Magic 100 Words Literacy Resource Manuals and materials).

You will be able to ascertain the year of publication from the copyright symbol and date displayed on the bottom of every M100W – Magic 100 Words sheet sent home.

Be assured that resources purchased through Magic Words, or an affiliated distributor will always be correct.

It is important that every child is given every opportunity to learn to read and write with the highest quality, best value literacy activities, strategies and resources available.

Therefore it may be necessary for some schools to update their M100W - Magic Words Literacy Resources in keeping with the latest research.

Schools have the option to send back their original literacy resource manual and receive a new edition for half price. 

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