Download Help your child with their spelling

Tips to Learn Spellings
LOOKING at words - This is really important! But, what are you looking
for?
Look at its shape - Does it have ascenders and descenders? Where?
The word, 'teach' begins and ends with ascenders. All of the letters in
the middle are small.
Look at its length? When you write a word, it might look too short or
too long!
Does it have the same pattern as a word that you can already spell?
eg. fright
I had a fright when the light went out.
Are there any words within the word?
eg. together to + get + her
Are there any silent letters?
eg. in 'knock', the first 'k' is silent
Say the word as it looks - k nock
Are there any tricky bits?
eg. in 'dictionary', we don't hear an 'a' sound
but we can remember the 'a' because dictionaries are organised in
alphabetical order and begin with the letter 'a'.
Does it have a word root?
eg. difference and different come from the word 'differ'.
You can't hear the first 'e' sound in difference or different, but you
can hear it in the word, 'differ'.
use mnemonics
eg. would, could, should "Oh U Lucky Duck" for the tricky 'ould'.
eg, never eat chocolate eat sausage sandwiches and raspberry yoghurt helps to spell the word necessary.
Check for syllables. Children often write 'rember' instead of
'remember'!
re mem ber (3 syllables, not 2!)
ACTIVITIES
1. Play 'Pairs Games'
Choose 12 words and make a set of 24 cards so that each word appears
twice. Mix up the cards. Place them face down in a 6 by 4 rectangle.
Take it in turns to reveal two cards. Read the words aloud. If they
'match', then the player needs to spell them correctly to keep the
cards.
IMPORTANT - When you have a matching pair, LOOK carefully at the
spelling. WRITE the word and CHECK it against the card.
If a player chooses two cards that do not match, then these cards must
be turned over again. The winner is the player with the most pairs!
2. Make a wordsearch on
http://www.teachers-direct.co.uk/resources/wordsearches/
Choose 3 words but put each of them into the wordsearch five times.
3. Write sentences to include the tricky words. In this way, you are
applying lots of other writing skills and are not just focusing on the
spelling of a single word.
4. Notice spellings of words in the world around us.
eg walking past a chemist - pointing out the 'ch'
5. Choose 3 letters, eg. eat. Use them in order to spell real words,
ranging from 4 letter words to 8 letter words. Add suffixes (word
endings) to short words.
4
beat
5
eater
6
neatly
7
beating
8
treating
alternatives - elephant (The e, a and t are still in order!)